Power supply for x1950 agp 512mb?

[gubar]

Hi all,

thinking of upgrading my 6800 agp to the card named above.

Thing is, I've read conflicting reports about the power it requires, and I'm not too clued up on power supplies. Mine is manufactures by Mercury, and has various figures on the side, the main ones of which are:

Combined outputs: (220w, 204w) 380w.

I've read some posts that say it requires at least 480w, some at least 300.

Anyone tell me if I'd be able to handle this card on my supply?

thanks

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Your Mercury PSU is inadequate for the X1950PRO. A 450W minimum PSU is needed. Not only is the PSU inadequate, it is not of good quality. You'd need a good-quality PSU like this one to run the card properly.

 

[raybay]

I would get a 400 Watt, or higher, unit... Antec, Cooler Master, Sparkle, FSP (Fortron Source),ThermalTake, Enermax, Raidmax, Xion, CoolMax, Seasonic, OCZ, or Corsair. There isn't much performance difference between a 400 and a 450... so if you want more than a 400 go to 500... more watts is usually better, but the quality of the build is much more important. Many of the brands are made by in the same plant in China (OCZ, Corsair, and Xion, for instance). So you can price shop... www.newegg.com, www.zipzoomfly.com (free shipping), www.directron.com (often the best prices), www.techdepot.com, www.outpost.com, and the like.

 

[gubar]

Thanks...

Thanks for the reply guys, I'll look at all those options.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Raidmax, Coolmax and Xion are not good brands at all. I personally would avoid them like the plague. The rest are great though, in addition to CoolerMaster and PC Power & Cooling.

 

[gubar]

What about Sumvision - how do you rate them as a brand? Reasonably priced (in the UK at least) and from what I can gather a fair brand.

Any comments?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Nah that's a generic crappy one too. Avoid it. How much are you getting it for? I found this to be the best-priced PSU. It's a tad noisy, but price-wise it can't be beat. It's also very efficient, so you might even be saving some dosh on power.

 

[LNCPapa]

The problem is you'll need a good PS with 2 seperate 12 volt rails with a minimum spec for each rail. I have one of those cards and at first I thought it was DoA until I realized I hooked it up wrong.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Yeah I know he'd need something like that which is why I recommended that PSU. It has 17A on each 12V rail making for 34A total which would be enough for the card and the rest of his system methinks.

 

[Tedster]

Most modern systems with beefy cards require at least 450W. I would add an additional 30% for cushion. PSUs degrade over time due to capacitor aging.

 

[raybay]

Gosh, I must have missed these points while working on my EE masters.
But yet, I don't see how they could degrade enough to show a significant difference that would impact on the usefulness of the power supply in driving a graphics card. Perhaps you can fill us in.

 

[CMH]

I have personal beef towards cheap PSUs. Besides, cheap PSUs are not properly rated. My understanding is that some PSUs are rated by how much power they can supply before they burn out: ie, you can't run it for the rated power at all.

Some others are rated by the total power each individual rail can supply before burning out, which is worse than above. ie: no power is being used at any other rail, burn the PSU, read highest amps, repeat for other rails, add them and sell at that rated Watts.

The good ones are properly rated, and usually have a peak rate as well. The best ones even have peak on each rail, and an overall power rate.


At least, that is my understanding of this. I didn't study EE, so I won't pretend to be a professional in this.

 

[Didou]

Have you tried the Power Supply Calculator ?

 

[raybay]

Just as long as the buyer is not "branding" without knowledge. Many of the "good ones" are not much good, such as "Ultra", "OCZ", "Corsair", and many others.
All you need to do is disassemble a dozen power supplies to see that many of them are exactly identical inside.
A GREAT DEAL of power supply info is fluff, for marketing is the name of the game. There has been no greater bull promoted than that for power supplies. Their profit margins are now huge.
There are 86 brands of power supplies that we have identified. Only one (PC Power and Cooling) is made in the US. Many are junk. Many others are identical as to components and assembly structure inside. Some of those with the biggest names are no better, perhaps not as good, as the ones which come with a Dell, Gateway, or IBM. You can take a look at those sold by NewEgg, Outpost, TechDepot, and others to verify this for yourself.
There are simply too many ways to report the specs of a power supply, and absolutely no regulation... power supplies are what the seller wants them to be... a terrific high profit item.

 

[CMH]

Hmm...

Looks like what I read about weighing your power supply might just be true....

Just put your power supply on the scales, and buy the heavier one