On December 28 2010 06:57 jaj22 wrote:
Approximate maximum power consumption and connector requirement of various current cards:
HD5670: 65W, no additional connectors
HD5750: 85W, 6-pin PCI-E connector
HD5770: 108W, 6-pin PCI-E connector
New 9800GT: <75W, no additional connectors
Old 9800GT: >75W, 6-pin PCI-E connector
GT 240: 69W, no additional connectors
GT 430: 49W, no additional connectors
GTS 450: 106W, 6-pin PCI-E connector
Any of those cards will easily run SC2 on medium detail, but you'd be limited by the CPU in high-supply games. Check that the CPU's heatsink is clear too, because those tend to block very quickly.
The older Pentium D 820s could use upwards of 130W despite a TDP of 95W, although your PC may have a newer 65nm version. Given the rest of the components, a 300W PSU can't really be trusted with any of these cards, but it's relatively safe to stick with the sub-75W cards.
Many graphics cards come with a 6-pin to 2x4-pin molex adapter, but your PSU may not even have spare molex connectors.
This is very good info. If you really want to be safe, you would replace the power supply with something with a 400, 500W rating... but then you might as well just buy a new computer.
My 9800GT EE runs SCII at Ultra without any problems except once past a 100ish food army. Very good stuff