Upgrade to larger PS or less power hungry Graphics card?

A

a104375

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 8, 2008
Messages
165
So I built a computer this summer out of a used mismash of parts. Netted a C2Q system with a ATI Radeon HD 4850 x2 a friend gave me and a 650W power supply.

Anyone who is familiar with this card knows it uses 250W on full draw.

The card does well on low settings for the games I play any higher though the computer shuts down due to exceeding what the power supply can provide.

So should I replace the card with something newer that has lower power requirement or increase the power supply to better handle the load?
 
What 650W PSU do you have? Any good quality 650W PSU should be able to handle that setup with ZERO issue. Hell a good quality 550W PSU will be able to handle that. If the PSU is having that kind of issue with that kind of setup, replace it.
 
a104375 said:
Its the Antec EA-650 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015

The friend I got the graphics card from said the card did the same on his 650W PSU.

My motherboard takes the extra molex and I have 3 sata hdd's, 5 case fans plus a cpu fan.
Click to expand...

Then either the video card or PSU is defective. Look at the HardOCP review of the HD 4850X2:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/04/20/sapphire_radeon_hd_4850_x2_2gb/11#.UrkaabTxRCw

A fully overclocked QX9770 with the HD 4850x2 drew 460W. Everything else you've described would have only push the PSU to around 500W.
 
I concur what Dangman says although it could be the motherboard's PCI-e slot giving you trouble in addition to the other problems Dangman mentioned.
 
So would it make more sense to get a new graphics card (was thinking the GeForce GTX 560 Ti) at 170W but the same or better graphics level. Then see if when maxed out it shuts down, or get a new PSU first?
 
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