Is it okay to have less amps on the 12v rail?

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MyKeyblader

MyKeyblader

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My new GeForce GT 620 requires 18a on the 12v rail, and my power supply only gives out 17a, is this dangerous? My PC is a desktop PC and not really for gaming so there isnt anything besides the motherboard, hard drive and GPU drawing from the power supply, does that affect anything? Also a brief explanation of what amperage in a power supply even works would be great haha
 
Solution
geofelt
You are correct, in that the +12v amps is what counts on a psu, not the wattage.
Most of today's power draw comes from the 12v. power.
A GT620 is powered only by the pcie x16 slot.
That is a max of 75w or 6.25a.
That still leaves plenty of power for the cpu and some peripherals.
You should be entirely ok with a GT620.

But... if this is for gaming, a GT620 is not much better than modern integrated graphics.
You could use a GT730 which would be minimum, on up to a GTX750ti.
The thing you want to check is that the card does not need an aux 6 pin power lead.
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Math Geek

Math Geek

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if you don't have enough power to run it, then it won't work plain and simply. amps is a combination of the volts and watts the card uses. 18 amps x 12 v = 216 watts needed.

i am only seeing a 50 watt usage in reviews which is 50 watt/12 v = 4.2 amps. where did you get 18 amps from? can you post a link to your card? your psu should be plenty enough.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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You are correct, in that the +12v amps is what counts on a psu, not the wattage.
Most of today's power draw comes from the 12v. power.
A GT620 is powered only by the pcie x16 slot.
That is a max of 75w or 6.25a.
That still leaves plenty of power for the cpu and some peripherals.
You should be entirely ok with a GT620.

But... if this is for gaming, a GT620 is not much better than modern integrated graphics.
You could use a GT730 which would be minimum, on up to a GTX750ti.
The thing you want to check is that the card does not need an aux 6 pin power lead.
 
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Solution
Math Geek

Math Geek

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ok so i see what your looking at. they recommend a total of 18 amps on the 12 volt rail for the entire system and not just the video card. we generally look at the card by itself since the rest of the system does not use very much in a normal build. under the 18 amps it says 49 watts total power for the card which is what we thought. so the card is only 4 ish amps of the 18 it says the system needs.

takes some time but you'll get better at all the numbers. took me forever to realize the relationship between watts, volts and amps since i've never been into electricity topics.
 
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Math Geek

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exactly. i usually shoot for the psu working at 75%-80% capacity total load but with a good sale all bets are off :D no reason to only get 500 watts if 700 watts is the same price and their both good quality.
 
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