300w card running on 250w supply question?

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Skylash

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Yesterday I got invited to participate in the SC2 beta. Having been running intergrated graphics on this PC since day one i went to bestbuy to buy a graphics card. The one that I purchased was a PNY Verto geforce 9400 gt. It says that it requires a minium of 300w to run. I have a 250w power supply in my pc right now. So far the card is working like a champ. I have had no crashes or any indications that there is anything going wrong. Is there a chance of something going wrong if i don't upgrade power supplies right away. I am planning on upgrading within the next two weeks just did not have that much money to spend right away. My friend is giving me a hard time as he wanted me to wait and get it all at once so i can't turn to him for advice on anything right now. Hopefully you have good news for me haha.

Peace for now,
Skylash.
 
those are estimated wattages and usually your situation will work. the problem is that if you have an OEM computer, the PSU is almost definitely of very low quality to begin with, and the ability to put out the rated wattage deteriorates with time and usage. the second problem is that you are running under watted so it may be pushing your PSU at near 100% to meet the demand. That will kill it faster as well. thirdly, if you do kill your PSU, it can take the rest of the system with it because when it lets loose it wont regulate the amount of power to the components. in most cases people are okay for a few weeks as you say, but replace it ASAP.
 
Computer is only 6 months old.

This one is a hp6110y.

Not sure if that information adds anything to the puzzle.

I also had a vid card in another machiene that i ran underpowered for three years and the card went before the psu.
 
well all of the above applies still. you might be able to run it for three years like that, just remember that if it goes out, it can take the whole machine with it MB,CPU, VGA, etc. good luck with it :)
 
Are you able to see looking at my pc if i would be pushing the psu to run it fully.. i have had no freezeups or anything since installing the card.
 
well by definition your pushing it. you were using on board graphics and now you have a VGA thats drawing up to 75watts that wasn't before. and 250W is not alot to start with. and you have a substandard PSU (probably a Bestech,or the like) my guess is you are using 230W of the rated 250W.(if thats accurate) that puts the PSU at 90% load, and that's to high on a low grade PSU given that the efficiency rating of yours is probably around 65%. all of that is just an estimate, but illustrates the scenario im speaking of.
 
Alright well i will be buying a new PSU within two weeks so i should be fine untill then right?
 
I ran a cpuid - hardware monitor perhaps this will help:

LPCIO Vendor Fintek
LPCIO Model F8000
LPCIO Vendor ID 0x1934
LPCIO Chip ID 0x581
Config Mode I/O address 0x2E
Config Mode LDN 0x4
Config Mode registers
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
00 FF FF 00 FF FF FF FF 04 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
10 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
20 05 81 29 19 34 00 00 00 FF FF 47 30 FF 0F FF FF
30 01 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
40 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
50 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
60 0A 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
70 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
Register space LPC, base address = 0x0A00


Hardware Monitors
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hardware monitor Fintek F8000
Voltage 0 1.67 Volts [0xD1] (VIN0)
Voltage 1 1.68 Volts [0xD2] (VIN1)
Voltage 2 1.62 Volts [0xCA] (VIN2)
Temperature 0 40°C (104°F) [0x28] (TMPIN0)
Temperature 1 22°C (71°F) [0x16] (TMPIN1)
Temperature 2 21°C (69°F) [0x15] (TMPIN2)
Fan 0 1581 RPM [0x3B5] (FANIN0)
Fan 1 971 RPM [0x609] (FANIN1)
Register space LPC, base address = 0x0A00

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
00 FF 03 40 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF C1 00 57 4C 00 FF
10 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
20 D1 D2 CA FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
30 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
40 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
50 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 05 08 10 19 34 FF
60 00 20 00 FF FF FF 00 02 76 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00
70 27 FF 16 FF 16 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
80 46 3C 64 55 64 55 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 2A FF
90 00 04 04 00 2A FF 15 FF 88 04 FF 2A 55 05 FF 0A
A0 03 B3 00 56 03 B1 45 45 50 32 FF FF FF FF 56 1D
B0 06 0B 00 56 03 FF 45 45 50 32 FF FF FF FF 56 1D
C0 0F FF 00 A6 03 FF 3C 32 28 1E FF D9 A6 80 66 0C
D0 0F FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF 00
E0 FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 39 39 03 4B FF 00 FF FF FF FF

Hardware monitor Intel Pentium E5300
Temperature 0 35°C (95°F) [0x41] (Core #0)
Temperature 1 33°C (91°F) [0x43] (Core #1)

Hardware monitor NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT
Temperature 0 64°C (147°F) (GPU Core)

Hardware monitor WDC WD64 00AAKS-65A7B
Temperature 0 34°C (93°F) [0x22] (Assembly)


Processors
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of processors 1
Number of threads 2

APICs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processor 0
-- Core 0
-- Thread 0 0
-- Core 1
-- Thread 0 1

Processors Information
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processor 1 ID = 0
Number of cores 2 (max 2)
Number of threads 2 (max 2)
Name Intel Pentium E5300
Codename Wolfdale
Specification Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5300 @ 2.60GHz
Package (platform ID) Socket 775 LGA (0x0)
CPUID 6.7.A
Extended CPUID 6.17
Core Stepping R0
Technology 45 nm
Core Speed 1200.0 MHz
Multiplier x FSB 6.0 x 200.0 MHz
Rated Bus speed 800.0 MHz
Stock frequency 2600 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T
L1 Data cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 2048 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes
FID range 6.0x - 13.0x
Max VID 1.288 V
 
If you are looking for any guarantees or accurate predictions, no one can really say. There is a risk and you will have to accept it or mitigate it.
 
If you are looking for any guarantees or accurate predictions, no one can really say. There is a risk and you will have to accept it or mitigate it.

after 5 post's trying to say the same thing Mail....i could not have said it better :)
 
after 5 post's trying to say the same thing Mail....i could not have said it better :)

Well i was playing wow this morning and it started to stutter a little bit not sure if it was client or hardeware related. I have an incoming power supply should be here in two to three days. Also i can return the vid card up to 30 days of purchase.. Should i take it back and return it for a new one.
 
i have to agree with red. the power supply that comes with your system is most probably low-rated and it will not last long, even without your graphic card.

so just stay back and wait for the new PSU to come and replace it. dont worry about longevity because if its time to go the components will die no matter how good any of it.
 
I have had use video cards on 90watts, now that i use pcie, my dual core has 300 and my quad core has 400, i still use whatever cards. Power supply requirements are always inaccurate. If you use a card that reads 300 or 400 and have a 250 psu, you're safe.
 
I have had use video cards on 90watts, now that i use pcie, my dual core has 300 and my quad core has 400, i still use whatever cards. Power supply requirements are always inaccurate. If you use a card that reads 300 or 400 and have a 250 psu, you're safe.

bad advice general. you should replace "safe" with 'you may be able to get away with it' running underpowered and pushing your psu is the fastest way to fry the whole system.
 
bad advice general. you should replace "safe" with 'you may be able to get away with it' running underpowered and pushing your psu is the fastest way to fry the whole system.

Thats not bad advice , the 9400gt only draws 40w. I have use PCI cards ( even tho completely different in some way from pcie ) with my old gateway computer from 2000 that only has 90watts( which still works just fine btw ) and i have use cards from radeon 7000, 9250, 2400hd, 8400gs, fx5500, 6200oc, 8500gt for years on that old computer and the cards never had any trouble. Just like now, with the secondary rig i have now, i have use a 4670, 9500gt, and a 9800gt on it, no trouble.
Trust me, power supply requirements are inaccurate. If you don't have alot of junk in your rig you are good to go.
 
Thats not bad advice , the 9400gt only draws 40w. I have use PCI cards ( even tho completely different in some way from pcie ) with my old gateway computer from 2000 that only has 90watts( which still works just fine btw ) and i have use cards from radeon 7000, 9250, 2400hd, 8400gs, fx5500, 6200oc, 8500gt for years on that old computer and the cards never had any trouble. Just like now, with the secondary rig i have now, i have use a 4670, 9500gt, and a 9800gt on it, no trouble.
Trust me, power supply requirements are inaccurate. If you don't have alot of junk in your rig you are good to go.

yes bad advice, and completely anecdotal. overtaxing a psu is never good advice. I don't care that you have this 'alleged' 90w OEM psu that is a decade old and still runs your PCI cards. recommending that someone run @ 250W when 300 or better is called for is dumb. Im not sure but it may even void they're warranty. not to mention what should really bieng looked at is the Amperage on the 12v rail (s). telling this person without knowing any of that information and the make or capacity of their machine or PSU is is just plain irresponsible.

Hmm, a decade old OEM 90w PSU that still runs at over 100% capacity?? you should get a hold of the Livermore fire dept...Im sure they would love to hear about it. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/lightbulbs.html
 
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