Power Supply vs Graphics Card

NeciFiX

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OK, so I run a Dell Dimension 4600i and felt like upgrading this thing, it does have an AGP 8x slot, and I do like to game a bit, so why not?

I use the original 250 watt power supply the 4600 comes with (yay! we all know what it's infamous for), and it has been running great for years (scary huh?). Here is my PC:

Compaq FS740 17" (13" viewable) CRT Monitor
Pentium 4 2.8 GHz Processor w/ Hyperthreading
2 GB of RAM
450 GB of SATA Hard Drive space
Integrated Sound
Integrated (currently) video

Would my PSU be able to handle a Powercolor ATI Radeon 9550 256 MB 128 bit Graphics card, or would I have to use a Gigabyte ATI Radeon 9250 for the time being until I upgraded to a 480W PSU? By the way, about the drivers, I've never really installed a GPU before, so, do I have to download the most recent drivers before, during (how'd I do that? Lol), or after the installation of the GPU? And what the heck is with this "Powercolor" and "Gigabyte" and "Sapphire" stuff, before the ATI Radeon and such, are these just brands that manufacture the same GPU's, and since they manufactured them they stamp their name in the title or what?

Thanks!

~NeciFiX
 
I think the PSU should be fine,the 9250 isn't a power hungry card anyway. Don't count on it though, I don't know too much about older hardware.

Uninstall old video drivers (if any), install new video card, then install drivers.
 
I believe the 9550 would work too. My friend had a P4 3GHZ HT, Geforce 6200, 80GB HDD, 1GB RAM, alll this, under a 250W HIPRO.
 
you'll be fine with the 9550 in there.

as the sapphire, powercolor, etc. ATI makes the chips and they put the board together and setup the cooling ect. Its kind of like say XFX 7950gt vs EVGA 7950gt. Just a different brand.
 
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