psu vs graphics card?

Question

if you have a graphic card like the geforce 7600gt that requires a power supply,and use a psu thats just on the borderline(400watt),will this throw up errors?
i say this as i have this card and psu,and a few programs throw up errors(only minor ones)
however ive seen a 550watt psu which im going to purchase,will these errors stop
and will i see a increase in performance,with the added power
ive just ran 3dmark 05 and got 6654 points,which proves the card can handle 3d games ect
what p.s.u would you recommend for a 7600gt(agp),as i said im currently using a 400watt p.s.u
cheers

Answer 1

Well PSU depends on how many extra components u have in ur computer. Video card is one of them. Well cd drives are also to be considered along with hard drives. Also ur CPU power consumption is also to be considered. If u have 1 hard disk, 1 cd/dvd drive, 1 sound card,good CPU then i think 550 watt will do but if u consider to add extra hard drive or cd/dvd drive then u need more like 600-900 watts.For any querries mail me at [e-mail]

Answer 2

The only errors you should get from having an 'under' power PSU is that the machine will stop booting up. A few years ago I was sorting someones machine and kept losing the VGA output, thought I had killed the graphics card - but turned out that machine kept turning itself off due to lack of available power.

Size of PSU depends on the rest of the spec of the machine.

A larger PSU should not increase the performance that you would notice, but will stop any future problems with lack of available power (a 550 should do even if you have a lot of USB items attached.)

Note bigger is not always better.

Answer 3

That is actually a midrange card that will peak out at about 40W. To give you an accurate answer, I would have to know what else is hooked up to your power supply to know if that is the problem, if you have a ton of stuff hooked up to it then maybe, but otherwise I would be looking elsewhere. People are tending to get a little power supply crazy here on answers. While it is certainly important to get an good wattage power supply, some of the recommendations I have been seeing on here are getting a little out of hand, an average user with a midrange card such as that does not need a 600W power supply. If you want further help, email me a let me know all the parts hooked up so I can give a more specific answer for your situation.

Answer 4

yes that will happen, you need to be looking at the amps on the 12v rail not the total power in watts of the suply, the card alone probly only uses around 100 watts. Its the amperage that is pulling too much and if it does not have enough amps to push the GPU then yes you will get some crazy errors whenever the card gets under load. make sure you check to make sure your psu has atleast a combined total of 30 amps or so to power newer video cards. Id also recomend a total power of 600 watts so that if you have other high end stuff like a dual core cpu, you wont run out of power. also try to go with a dual 12v rail power suply. that way your cpu and video card do not share the same line of power. that will help lead to better stability and cut back on those errors. Just remember no matter how many Watts you havce, if there is not enough amperage on the 12 volt rails you will still be screwed. as far as what psu would i recomend? Antech and Thermaltake make the best PSU yout there for gamming. But if your on a budget, both aspire and raidmax have good budget power suplies that look nice but do not hurt the wallet.


will not boot is NOT the only problem you can get from your power suply under powering YOUR VIDEO CARD. your video card naturaly idles at a low clock rate to keep from heat building up in the card. it uses less power in this state. so you will not notice many problems when in windows unless you have seriouse power issues, then you wont boot. but if you boot and all is good untill you run a 3d aplication, movie / video etc.... thats when your video card is under load and it is pulling the most power. and yes the total power of the suply will effect performance, if there is not enough power to fully power the card it will not have enough juice to reach its max clock rates much less over clock

please ignorant uneducated people stop trying to throw incorrect answers out there to get points. this isnt a game, its people looking for real help and answers.
I have over 10 years of building 3D gamming computers under my belt and i build on average 4-10 new gamming rigs all custom configured a week. trust the pros

good luck

Answer 5

Having a borderline power supply can cause artifacts, and "random restarts" if you are running more power than it can handle. Video cards draw a LOT of power. Upgrading a power supply will help the computer run smoother, also you may notice smoother framerates in games that are demanding.

Having a power supply that is borderline also puts more stress on the computer, the PSU has to work harder, and the components will not be able to draw as much power and can cause malfunctions, and hardware failure. I upgraded my power supply and I noticed much less artifacts in some of my games.

Answer 6

be attentive to warning: AMD videocards furnish abysmal overall performance in older video games. My HD 4890 seems to be slower than my 8800GTX in TES IV: Oblivion. This grew to become into an utter sadness because of fact i grew to become into watching for approximately double the overall performance over my previous video card. a similar handed off some years in the past as quickly as I upgraded my GeForce 4 Ti 4200 to a Radeon X800Pro. Morrowind might run slower on my new hardware while it grew to become into meant to grant, on widespread, 6 cases the overall performance of my Ti 4200. even regardless of the undeniable fact that for the period of greater contemporary video games AMD videocards carry out in basic terms superb. yet once you do play older video games, you may get something nVidia.