Help with power requirements for GTX260

[mike890]

I also have a question regarding the power requirements for the GTX 260

I currently have a phenom II 945 cpu [125w] with 4gb of ram and a geforce 6600
I'm planning on getting a gtx 260 but my power supply is only an enermax liberty ELT400AWT [400w]

Would anyone know if i'm able to run the GTX 260 with my setup.

The power supply has dual-rail +12v and are rated at 20A each with the combined rating of 30A


Thanks in advance.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

No that power supply wont do. Get at least a 600w with 2 6 pin power connectors for 260

 

[brblx]

yeah you need 600w to run a 260. :roll:

you should be fine, you've got 360w of 12v power.

 

[mike890]

the power supply is a modular type and does include 2 6pin PCI-E connectors, but i'm just worried since my cpu does take a bit of power [125w]

 

[brblx]

your cpu's not using that much power all the time. 125w is a TDP number, and at best they're rough estimates as to the maximum power consumption of a chip. technically your video card and processor could draw up to about 300w, but in reality it's unlikely you'll see sustained loads of more than 300w for your entire PC.

 

[yh125d]

You have there a good quality, underrated 400w PSU (with 380w on 12v alone a lot of companies would rate it as a 450 or 500w) so you should be fine for awhile. You might consider an upgrade before too long though



oilfieldtrash, "at least 600w for 260" is bunk

 

[MagickMan]

Originally posted by: OILFIELDTRASH
No that power supply wont do. Get at least a 600w with 2 6 pin power connectors for 260

Bull$@#$.

OP, your PS should be fine. As others have said, however, I would consider getting something more powerful in ~6-12 months. It's likely you wouldn't see any problems after that, but you never know.

 

[TC91]

It's better to be safe than sorry. mike890, if you have the money then look towards a new psu. I don't know how old that enermax you have is, but I would rather not try it if it was a few years old. A Corsair HX520 or VX550 should do the trick, perhaps higher models if you plan on adding more stuff down the road.

 

[Denithor]

You'll be fine.

Taking a look there - that's an overclocked i7 system with a GTX 260 sucking up 320-330W at load/peak conditions. i7 eats more power than your X4 does. So you should have no problems adding a GTX 260 to your current system.

 

[imported_Scoop]

You're fine with that PSU.

The GTX 260 draws around ~145W max in other words ~12A, you still have 8A (96W) left for stuff like hard drives and fans and whatever. The CPU uses the other 12V rail and draws maybe 90W but this is something you already have and a new GPU won't load the same rail. Combined you won't come close to the 30A mark either.

 

[ArchAngel777]

You will be fine. People overstate requirements for all types of hardware. I have ran a GTX 260 off of a Dell 350 Generic PSU, also off of a Antec 380 Earth Watts... Don't get me wrong, I don't recomend a cheap PSU and aging caps can influence this... But yah, people overstate it for the most part. You should be fine.

 

[mike890]

thanks for all the advice, I brought the card and hopefully everything will work out.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

If you've been using the power supply for a while, say over 3 years, then it would be wise to upgrade it whenever you can. Make sure you clean the dust out of it and that it runs cool when you game. It's a good power supply and it should handle your setup with no problems, especially if it's a new power supply, but power supplies function best when new and running cool. PSUs can become unstable if they are running too hot and under high loads - loads which a new, clean, and cool unit would normally be able to handle.

And your processor doesn't really use that much power. And when you game, it isn't going to be under full load as most games won't be utilizing all four cores.

 

[netxzero64]

correct with that...

you'll just need a new PSU probably about 600w... or go for more wattage if you have a bigger budget...