New PSU

[ajackson269]

Hi folks i've changed my psu from a 250 watt to a 600 watt which i was hoping would help the performance of my pc and to give my gaphics card enough power but i havent really noticed any difference do i have to change any settings in bios if so how would i go about this thanks ...

[Guest Wolfeymole]

What is the Graphics card, what is the amount of memory and what size is the CPU jackson?

[ajackson269]

hi here is my pc info :

 

 

2.80GB pentium d

2gb 667mhz ram

7900gs nvidia graphics card

 

thanks

[Seth]

FYI- PSU's wattage is overrated. Just like most Internet security software and all else in the computer industry.

 

A full running PC with a high end graphics takes less than 200 watts at the highest extreme.

 

What's the problem?

[ajackson269]

well i upgaded the graphics card i while ago and didnt notice it had a minimum wattage requirement of 350watts as i only had a 250 watt psu i thought it wouldnt run properly and after looking through the nvidia web site i found that if a card was'nt getting the correct power it would then run at a lower clock speed to prevent the pc from crashing. The reason i changed the psu was to power the graphics card properly and in turn get better perfomance from the card while playing games as my frames per second in some games i play i felt a bit poor compared to my friends pc's........

[Dalo Harkin]

If you have a load of fans and HDD's you need to take it all into consideration when buying a PSU - 600 WATT is by far the most you would ever need unless you have 2 VERY high end cards.

My 2900XT for example draws 300 watt at full load.

A 7900GS would never draw above 200 even at full load regardless what nvidea say -

Even the older 7900GTX (used to have one, were not as hungry as what you have listed for the GS)

So if you have a mid range CPU, GPU, RAM a few HDD's and a few DVD-RW you are looking 400 watt max.

Higher end - Quad core, GTX or XT model GPU 3+ HDD 2+ DVD-RW you are then getting into the 500-600 range.

[ajackson269]

cool well im thinking of changing my 7900gs card to a nvidia 8600 gt with 1 gb mem do you think i would notice much diference

[Dalo Harkin]

An 8600GT you will notice a massive change

[ajackson269]

cool thanks for the info again folks ill order one right now

[ajackson269]

hi again i havent bought a card yet i was wondering if you could advise me on which one to buy. I was thinking of a 8600 gt but there are a few different kinds and i dont want to get it wrong .....

[Dalo Harkin]

If you can afford the 8800GT then just get the reference Nvidia one think it's £120 ish and is an extremely good card - dont get one thats been pre overclocked as you pay a premium for it and wont notice the difference :D

[AdvancedSetup]

If concerned check on the Warranty as well. Every once in a while the video card can go bad early so a free replacement is better than dishing out the money again.

[ajackson269]

i have had a look at the 8800gt and its affordable but i dont want to buy one if my pc wont run properly because of it says its has pci express 2.0 and im not sure if my board will support it here are my pc details:: MSI MS - 7301 Motherboard

2.80 Pentium D Processor & Zalman fan

2 GB 667 RAM

3D INNO Geforce 7900 gs Video Card

600 Watt ATX PSU

thats about it i think ..

[Dalo Harkin]

If you have the latest BIOS there should be no reason as to why it wont work in PCIE 1.1 mode - it just means that it wont run as fast as it should (you wouldnt notice the differerence anyway)

I think that the PCIE 2.0 just means that if you run 2 cards they both run at PCIE 16 speed rather than one at 16 and one at 8 as older boards do - check the Nvidea website and just double check that its backward compatible - I would be astonished if it wasn't :eek: