Video Cards and the Symptoms of a weak power supply?

Question

Aside from your typical over heat or reboot issues. I've been reading a lot of the importance of buying a good power supply. What are some of the typical things a weak power supply can cause while running games?

Basically I want to know if it impacts the video card and how it performs and what are some things one would look for that could be power supply related while playing games.

Ok guys.. the question is besides freezing and restarts what kind of performance issues in games might you see if your power supply is weak. This means the game does run without crashing...how would it effect perfomance.. thanks...

Answer 1

A weak power supply would result to voltage instability. This typically causes random restarts.

Look for ATX V2.01 or ATX V2.2 power supply. They have dual +12V rails. And do not rely on minimum power supply requirement. Bigger is better and cooler.

Answer 2

Although PCI express video cards are becoming slightly more efficient, video cards are still pretty demanding in terms of power consumption.

I guess things it could effect would be the obvious, it could not have enough power to support your system. Other posibilities would be "locking up." Say youre just about to take a head shot on some noob, and ur PC freezes for no aparent reason, yah good job buying that $10 psu off craigslist.

Or, the fans in the PSU might be more prone to failing if the PSU is maxed out and running hot. And of course you might just hear a loud pop one day and then its time to invest in something more reliable.

Answer 3

If you have an inferior Power Supply, things could slow down a bit. Basically, with insufficient power, your new Video Card will not be powered and your computer will switch to the onboard video card.

Answer 4

random shut downs for no apparent reason. lock up(freezing). game will shut down and kick you back to desktop(crashing).