Power supply wattage for GPU usage.

[Madmonarch]

Problem:

Is a 550w power supply able to support an AMD Athlon II X4 w/ an HD 6850 GPU?

Solution:

?

[Mr.Squirle]

should be fine. though the make is more important

[Pandamonium]

make isn't that important. the amp on the 12 volt rail is for the gpu.

post the make a model number of PSU so i can see the specs of the PSU. also when buying a PSU you have to take account for all peripherals with the computer (harddrive, ram, cpu, cd/dvd or blueray burner, case fans, motherboard, and cpu). all of these things pull watts from the psu.

power in watts = voltage in volts x current in amps

[litho]

oh man don't do it you'll fry your card!! >.>

jkin you should be fine here's a link that demonstrates your 6850's power consumption etc.. | http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/gra...-6850-review/9

You'll probably want a decent power supply since those generic ones tend to be on the cheap side.

[Pandamonium]

to be more specific like i say you need to worry about the amp on the 12 volt rail of the pci-e connector.

this link will show you need a 400 watt min power supply but the 12 volt rail of the pci-e connector needs to be 25 amps

http://forums.pureoverclock.com/showthread.php?t=11999

[Pandamonium]

but if it was me i would get something around 650 watts with 32 amps on the 12 volt 6 pin pci-e connector.

[Hound]

Wow weird coincidence im in the exact same situation haha. but i found my solution. Im also looking to upgrade to the ati 6850 HD and was looking for a good quality lower priced power supply and found just that. This is the one im getting:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...Sku=ULT-LSP750

Its 750w and only 74.99$ and its the top quality power supply (rated #1 on tigerdirect)

and this is the graphics card im getting:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150515

Great product! Double fans so itll stay cool and silent. plus a free game :P

[Cujo]

i recommend avoiding ultra like the plague. tigerdirect reviews are mostly useless when it comes to things like power supplies. stick with reputable website reviews. in a quick search i didn't find any proper reviews for that model but again ultra has always been a cheap budget brand.

stick with corsair, enermax, ocz. it's gonna be a little pricier but they'll last and not break your system. buy a good power supply now and it can last through major system upgrades. my last power supply lasted 3 years and i sold it. i expect my current one to go even longer. 600w from a brand i mentioned should do just fine especially if you're not heavily overclocking.

[Pylon]

Power supply calculator: http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/

[Madmonarch]

Problem: computer will shutdown and reboot at random intervals. I assumed lack of power but I guessed wrong. We upgraded to a 750w psu and this hasn't solved the problem. I also thought over heating but temps are stable between 40-50. My last guess is bad ram? No BSOD appears, just an immediate restart.
To answer a previous question
Video card: http://www.canadacomputers.com/produ...item_id=034447

Power supply:http://www.canadacomputers.com/produ...item_id=028287

Computer that was purchased from Canada Computers:
http://canadacomputers.com/product_i...item_id=035521

Unknown ram at this time. Computer is running a ram test.

::Update::
Ram test came back with 0 errors.

Computer running "OK" when resolution is not set to max.....Not sure if this indicates the GPU is causing the shutdown or not... I don't think it would, or has that happened to anyone else?