Upgrading video card - need new PSU?

[K Taylor]

Newcomer to the board. Not a hard core compu-dude or gamer, but know my way around hardware a little, being an engineer and all and liking to tinker with stuff. I want to upgrade the Radeon 9000 64 MB video card (won't run Far Cry) on my <ahem - it's not a custom built machine> Compaq P4 2.66 Ghz, 512 MB DDR SDRAM. Am looking at ATI 9700 Pro or 9800 Pro.. Both recommend 300W PSU. The stock one installed is 250W. What's the real risk of not upgrading the PSU? Let's face it, we design to peak loading (i.e. all devices running at the same time), but 99.9 % of the time we're not at peak. Easy enough to replace it I guess if I can find one that fits in the box on the PSU footprint. Has anyone upgraded video cards similarly and actually had a problem with the PSU? Thanks for any advice/opinions!

 

[Blackheart726]

Get the Radeon 9800 Pro and a new PSU

I recently built a custom PC.

The original card was a PNY GeForce FX 5200 Ultra, AGP, 128 MB.

My screen kept freezing up when I tried to play a game.

I purchased an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro as recommended by many of the gaming forums I went to.

I'm very happy with the performance.

About 15 minutes into Doom III and some heavy action, my UPS kicked-out.

It was rated at 10A / 170W. I now have a 12A / 450W UPS just for my system and the other is for phone, printer, video camera ... etc. I probably had too many items plugged into the UPS.

The ATI Radeon 9800 Pro uses power directly from the PSU. The 2 most common things I read in the gaming forums are ...

1) Good PSU +400W and 15-18A on the 12V rail
2) Good cooling especially for the +3GHz CPUs.

I have (2) 80mm intake fans and (1) 120mm exhaust fan on my system.

Good luck.

 

[eggsrbad]

i had to deal with the same problem, i had a 250 watt but now i have a 480 watt sam card. well if your computer is fairly new go to ebay and look under atx power supplys and buy one most are brand new and under $30