Do all Radeon 9_00 cards connect to a PS's power supply?

[SnapperOne 0]

I'm looking to upgrade my video card, if possible frugally at <$150 USD. While my research has had me looking at the 9000 series Radeon cards, I stumbled across that the 9500 must connect directly to my PC's power supply, and that the power supply must be at least 300W. In short, do all Radeon 9000 series cards require a direct-connect to the power supply?

 

I'm not a bigtime gamer, but I would like to play games such as Rise of Nations, Star Trek: Elite Force II, etc.........so I'm not certain my second (budget) choice for a card, a GeForce4 128K MX 440, will do the job.

[sapiens74 0]

Most do, at least the high end cards, just to ensure power to it

[Avalanche 0]

Actually only the 9500, 9700 and 9800 (both Pro and non-Pro) have a power connection.

 

The 9000, 9100, 9200 and the 9600 series card do not require an external power connection.

[lorddraxar 0]

I've tried buth card and for the price, I'd say you're better off with a Radeon 9000... This card is cheap, is DirectX 8 compliant, yes the pixel shaders work with the new Catalyst drivers...

 

The GeForce 4MX seems to be slower, most of the time you can't tell the difference. However the Geforce4 is DIrectX7 so you'll lose quite a bunch of very nice effects!

 

And no, you don't need to plug it to the supply and it doesn't seem to be power hungry. I even ran it with a 250W PSU...

BUT you might check the Magic FX... of the GeForce FX5200. It performs much better and it's not much more costy.

[SnapperOne 0]

sapiens74, Avalanche, and lorddraxar.......

 

Thanks for the input.

 

Truthfully, I consider video cards to be a big pain in the _ss. I am simply amazed, when I read posts from NT Compatible contributors who seem to change from one $500+ video card to the next at the blink of an eye. No matter how much research you do, you know out front that some of your software (most likely a game) won't work.

 

Anyway, thanks for the input.

 

SnapperOne

[mervincm 0]

Why would you be hesitant to plug a second power connector into your v card? It is only to ensure that the card gets enough current to do what it needs to do and your motherboard simply cannot provide it safely.

 

another choice is the older 8500. it was a high end card in its day and it often now discounted into the range of the 9000 yet performs much better.

[SnapperOne 0]

mervincm

 

Thanks for the thought. As a soon-to-be senior citizen (God that's a scarey thought), I've just gotten gun-shy when it comes to poking around "under-the-hood" of my PCs. It has taken so long to get them up & running smoothly, I procrastinate messing around with anything. In short, I'm turning into an old chichen-sh_t!

 

Thanks again for your kind thoughts.

 

Steven (whoops, SnapperOne)