I am wondering, would the Radeon HD 3650 work on my AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core processor 4000 + 2.1GHz?
The computer - SR5123WM - came with an integrated Geforce 6150 SE graphics card, a 250w PSU and 3 PCI-E slots including a x16 slot. The model I would like to buy is the Diamond 3650PE1GOC and is listed on Newegg, NCIX and Amazon as only requiring a 250w PSU. However, other models of the HD 3650 require a 300w PSU.

I have two questions:
If the graphics card indeed requires a 300w PSU, would it fry my system?
Will I need to replace the integrated card and/or uninstall its drivers?

Here are some links:
Computer Information - http://www.walmart.com/catalog/pro [...] id=5982772
Info about the graphics card - http://www.ncix.com/products/index [...] re=Diamond
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814103058

I wouldn't try to run any dedicated card on that PSU. It's unlikely to fry your system, however I would bet on instability. If your considering upgrading, you should first replace the PSU. Quality PSU replacements that can run either the 3650 or a 3850 (20 dollars more, and over twice the performance) will run you about 40$.

The 3650 you have chosen is also running GDDR2 , which will gimp it compared to a GDDR3 3650

Thanks for the reply. I have another question, I read somewhere that the 3650 requires 96 watts of power when its idle and 163 watts of power under load while playing World of Conflict on medium settings. Do the power supply requirements for the graphics card state what is safe for the system, or what is the absolute minimum to run the card?

Well, your cpu draws 65 watts max
GPU 163 watts max
already at 228 watts, and im not including mobo, hd's, roms, fans, other pci/pcie cards, depending on how many times you upgrade a year, id get a 500~550 watt psu at the very least if I were you

Oh and...forget about overclocking

There's absolutely no way the 3650 draws 163 watts by itself. It doesn't have a power connector, meaning it gets all the power from the PCI-E slot. That means the most it can draw is 75 watts. Even the 3850, with one 6 pin power connector, can draw at most 150 watts by itself (75 watts from the 6 pin, and 75 from the slot).

Thanks for all the info. I guess I'm better off investing on a PSU rather than a graphics card. Newegg isn't available for us Canadians, but hey, at least there's boxing day .

Or www.ncix.com, its in vancouver, has decent shipping costs all the way to where i am, Montreal

oh and your right cjl, i dont know how i didnt even realize that lol