I want to buy a video card for my PC and i was told that my power supply needs to be 450W. Mine is 400W so i was told its still ok... But i was told that my power supply must also have many Amps or something to do with the Amps... Is there a chance i get a graphic card and these Amps cause a problem?
2007-05-12 04:07:10 · 5 answers · asked by obiecy 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
Amps are equivalent to power.
The power is the voltage multiplied by the amps. Since the voltages in a power supply are at fixed values there is really no difference between saying you need la lot of amps or saying you need a lot of power.
Somewhere in the requirements of the video card it will give the recommended power supply rating.
Since the power supply gives power to everything else in the computer this can only be a general guide. If you have a lot of fast hard disks, plus a power hungry CPU, plus fast optical drives, lots of additional cards, etc. then you need to worry about your power supply rating.
If you have a relatively low energy consumption system right now then the power supply has lots of spare capacity for a higher power video card.
2007-05-12 04:31:27 · answer #1 · answered by Simon T 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A lot depends on what video card you want to buy. As a general rule I use no less than 450W if I'm going to have a higher end video card in my system. I'm not sure what or where you heard about amps being a factor, but wattage definitley is. If you were looking at the latest series of cards from nVidia (8800 series and up), I would consider at least a 500W supply to ensure you have enough power to run it.
Good luck!
2007-05-12 04:20:50 · answer #2 · answered by rogueryche 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What kind of video card? It also depends on what else you have in your system. That determines the load on your supply.
No video card is going to require 400 watts all on its own. Not yet at least. The 400watt should be enough if you don't have extra drives installed in your machine. The other thing to watch for is some video cards require a connection directly from the power supply. If your supply dosen't have a connector for that you would have to replace it anyway. Unless you know enough to add one on to the supply.
The amperage or current is a part of what determines the wattage. Don't worry about that for now.
2007-05-12 04:20:50 · answer #3 · answered by pappy 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
nicely, first you're able to desire to nicely known if your equipment has a AGP/ PCI slot.. in case you will locate that out placed a pictures Card there. And confident, then you definately obtainable RAM would be 512 MB. Corel X might nonetheless deploy at 480 MB, because of the fact your equipment has 512 MB put in, an application's standards are continually what they choose as put in on equipment, not what they require or obtainable RAM.. once you install a AGP/ PCI card and alter the Video enter to that Card's output.. the computing gadget might immediately examine the pictures Card first, on condition that the cardboard stops working it would choose the 32 MB returned..
2016-12-11 07:24:21 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am not sure which video card you are buying or for what purpose it would serve.
I run a 400W supply on a 256 MB card. I have no problems.
The only thing I can seriously recommend is to make sure you have sufficient cooling in the system.
If you have more questions you can reach me thru my site.
Good Luck!
Big G
2007-05-12 04:18:09 · answer #5 · answered by Big G's Computer Service 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋