Bought A New Video Card But..

[Spock]

So i just purchased a brand new GeForce 7600 GS to replace my dying 5500FX. Its a great card, I can finally play EP2 with lots of fancy HDR effects, and my Source guns look oh so reflective and Have that new gun shine; Its great to get a constant 30-40fps for once in a game without having to set all my graphics opts to low.

The only problem i have is the card requires at least a 300w power supply. I have a 130w supply. Now at first i thought $&%* I'm going to have to go buy a new power supply (sure i could get a 400w one for about 17$ or so, but i live about 14 miles from work, and i had already been there once today.), But I still proceeded to install the card, connect a free molex connector to the card, and hit power on my comp.

Now of course the card worked both XP and Vista run smoothly with it, (osx86 is another story though...), Source played damn fine, and well ya, the card works.

But i want to know What would i gain from going out and getting a new Psu? would the card run faster? the card manual say "connecting the Psu to the card will give optimal performance". Ok so? am I damaging the card by running it like this? Or what?

 

[donbenni]

To be honest i'm surprised it's running at all! Never heard of anyone running a 130W gaming PC successfully, so kudos to you 👍

I can't really comment on precisely what negative effects you'll achieve by not having the rated PSU (power supply unit), however i can't imagine anything majorly bad happening.

What i do know is that the power requirement specified by the graphics card manufacturer is more than what the card itself requires. They take into account all the other power-hungry bits of hardware potentially running in your computer and state a general "catch all" power requirement that will cover everyone's needs. So 300W will be enough for someone with a powerful CPU and multiple HDDs etc. and also someone with a more modest PC setup (such as yourself).

Also PSUs are renowned for having misleading power ratings. Some cheap PSUs are very inefficient and end up providing less than their quoted power figure. Vise versa other PSUs are very good at providing their exact figures.

So, it is possible that your PSU is very efficient and your computer isn't very power-hungry so the addition of the new graphics card hasn't effected things greatly.

What i'd advise is: You get another couple of opinions on whether you could be damaging your computer; You test the computer by running games heavily for a while and look out for instability like crashing etc.. If something seems to be a problem then get the new power supply, as you say they aren't very expensive anyway

 

[Eric.]

The card sort of has to be connected to power...You need the new PSU though. You'll likely overwork and destroy the current one if you keep at it.

 

[djblackmon]

I too just bought a 7600gs, and I had a 300w power supply. My 7600gs box said I needed a 400w power supply, so I bought a 650w power supply before putting in my card. Now that I have both in, playing counter-strike source, I get 150fps pretty much constantly with details on max settings, and 4x AA. Also I bought the card to play Test Drive Unlimited, and it plays perfectly. Also, I only have 512mb of RAM.

Here is the link for the power supply, but first make sure it works with you're computer. Plus for a 650w power supply, it is VERY VERY quiet.
http://3btech.net/chdufan650wa.html

If it does not work with you're computer here are other power supplies from that store. They sell really cheap, that is why I am showing you their products.
http://3btech.net/powersupplies.html

 

[Spock]

To be honest i'm surprised it's running at all! Never heard of anyone running a 130W gaming PC successfully, so kudos to you 👍

Really Wow, i too was a bit suprised when my computer booted up and the card bios said

PNY Verto 7600 GS
512mb Ram

What i do know is that the power requirement specified by the graphics card manufacturer is more than what the card itself requires. They take into account all the other power-hungry bits of hardware potentially running in your computer and state a general "catch all" power requirement that will cover everyone's needs. So 300W will be enough for someone with a powerful CPU and multiple HDDs etc. and also someone with a more modest PC setup (such as yourself).

So, it is possible that your PSU is very efficient and your computer isn't very power-hungry so the addition of the new graphics card hasn't effected things greatly.

Yeah, well the only thing i have in the setup is 2x250gb (XP and Storage) Hdds on the master channel, and 1 80gb (Vista) and 1 60gb (OSX86) Hdds on the Second,. next to the card of course. and my cpu is an older P4 running at 2ghz ( no HT, no SSE3, nothing dual cores, its an original p4.)

What i'd advise is: You get another couple of opinions on whether you could be damaging your computer; You test the computer by running games heavily for a while and look out for instability like crashing etc.. If something seems to be a problem then get the new power supply, as you say they aren't very expensive anyway

Well like i said it runs source smoothly 20-40fps on high settings 2xaa & 4xaf, meanwhile i just loaded up Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, and it defaulted to high with SM3.0 and everything on it enabled, and it runs way better than on my 5500, (i dont know the frames but it seams to be at least 60+)

I too just bought a 7600gs, and I had a 300w power supply. My 7600gs box said I needed a 400w power supply, so I bought a 650w power supply before putting in my card. Now that I have both in, playing counter-strike source, I get 150fps pretty much constantly with details on max settings, and 4x AA. Also I bought the card to play Test Drive Unlimited, and it plays perfectly. Also, I only have 512mb of RAM.

Really 150fps? i dont think my card can get that much in source since my mobos way old and supports only 4x agp not 8x. I also have 768mb but its running at pc2100 speeds, since i have an old 256mb in there and a newer pc3200 512mb stick, but running at pc2100 speeds, so i know thats a small bottleneck in my system.

 

[Burnout]

Yeah, well the only thing i have in the setup is 2x250gb (XP and Storage) Hdds on the master channel, and 1 80gb (Vista) and 1 60gb (OSX86) Hdds on the Second,. next to the card of course. and my cpu is an older P4 running at 2ghz ( no HT, no SSE3, nothing dual cores, its an original p4.)

Are you sure it's only a 130 watt psu? Running four hard drives, an older P4 (not exactly power effecient), the video card.. I find it hard to believe.

 

[Azuremen]

Running a P4 on a 130 Watt PSU, with anything else, is impossible... The P4 architecture needs 130 watts just for itself, let alone anything else in the case. Well, that is at the peak of the P4.

You are reading the wrong number somewhere, I think. And plugging the card into the PSU will make it run better, as it will get the power it needs for its GPU and such.

Seriously, get 400-500 Watt PSU before something fails. Soon.

 

[Spock]

I Get my friends camera and take pics of it, but the PSU clearly says 130watts.