power considerations for GeForce 7600 GT

[cough]

Hi everyone

Recently bought a 7600 GT KO (PCI-e), and was looking at the power requirements, the manufacturer's (eVGA) website says the card requires a "Minimum of a 400 Watt power supply. (Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 18 Amp Amps.)"

The retailer (tigerdirect.ca) says a 350 Watt power supply is enough.

The online calculator at eXtreme says 305 Watt is enough.

currently I have a 300W power supply installed able to supply 20 A on the 12 V lead. I also have a 450W or so power supply giving 26A on the 12V lead.

My question(s) is/are: will the 300 W power supply be able to provide a little extra power for the graphics card, if I try it and it does not will it damage the card/ other components, and should I switch in the 450 W one just in case?

I really don't wanna have to disconnect and reconnect all the power connections...

Thanks to everyone in advance.

 

[badge]

Hi everyone

Recently bought a 7600 GT KO (PCI-e), and was looking at the power requirements, the manufacturer's (eVGA) website says the card requires a "Minimum of a 400 Watt power supply. (Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 18 Amp Amps.)"

The retailer (tigerdirect.ca) says a 350 Watt power supply is enough.

The online calculator at eXtreme says 305 Watt is enough.

currently I have a 300W power supply installed able to supply 20 A on the 12 V lead. I also have a 450W or so power supply giving 26A on the 12V lead.

My question(s) is/are: will the 300 W power supply be able to provide a little extra power for the graphics card, if I try it and it does not will it damage the card/ other components, and should I switch in the 450 W one just in case?

I really don't wanna have to disconnect and reconnect all the power connections...

Thanks to everyone in advance.

I have run two Evga 7600Gt's in SLi on a 465w Enermax PSU with no problem. I installed an XFX 7600 GT Pro Series onto a 350 watt generic PSU and the card ran fine with not a single problem. The Evga 7600GT does not require an auxillary 12v connector from the psu, it draws power from the PCIE MB slot.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

The GF7600GT is a very efficient card, and draws on minor amounts of energy.

Sure it depends alot on what else you have on the rig and how weak the power supply is at actually supplying the rated amperage at operating temperature (remember the warmer it gets the less efficient the
PSU is).

Heres a power comparison from Xbit to show how little the GF7600GT consumes, even less than a GF6600GT;

 

[kobe08]

I have a Gateway GT4010 with a 300W PSU and installed a 7600GT successfully. Still using it with no problems for over a year now. It should also work on your PSU. :lol:

 

[cough]

so do you guys think it will be safe (not damage anything) if I put the card in and try it out? As I mentioned before, the power calculated from eXtreme shows I need 277- 305 Watts depending on the level of capacitor aging, which I don't think matters that much. (I've had the computer for 1.5 years now, and I run it usually 8 hours a day)

Edit:
Ok, thanks alot Koby8, I'm going to try it out now.

 

[badge]

so do you guys think it will be safe (not damage anything) if I put the card in and try it out? As I mentioned before, the power calculated from eXtreme shows I need 277- 305 Watts depending on the level of capacitor aging, which I don't think matters that much. (I've had the computer for 1.5 years now, and I run it usually 8 hours a day)

Edit:
Ok, thanks alot Koby8, I'm going to try it out now.

I say go for it. You have the required 18amps. I moved the XFX 7600GT to a FREE 400w (el cheapo) PSU for the guy recently. Tonight I'm putting a 3800 X2 dual core on top of it. No fear.

 

[badge]

The wiring on my FREE El cheapo 400 watter (I gave it to the kid) is thinner than Nicole Richey's waist after she barfed up a sushi luncheon special.

 

[jaguarskx]

How about providing your system specs and the exact make and model of your power supply.

Different CPUs requires different amount of power. The greater the number drives you have, the greater the power draw.

 

[cough]

The wiring on my FREE El cheapo 400 watter (I gave it to the kid) is thinner than Nicole Richey's waist after she barfed up a sushi luncheon special.

lol :lol:

How about providing your system specs and the exact make and model of your power supply.

sure

stock power supply inside a HP Pavilion a1129n- some crappy no name brand... model # HP-D3057F3R I think

4 sticks of SDRAM PC3200 I think
1 DVD-ROM drive
1 LightScrible DVD+RW drive
1 SATA 7200 rmp HDD
1 Athlon XP 3400+ 2.2 GHz
1 memory card reader
and 1 56k modem PCI card which I never use
mouse + keyboard too.


Those were the stats I put into the eXtreme calculator, and with a 10% capacitor aging, I got a requirement of 305 W (with the 56k modem card counted (which I never use)) without the modem card is exactly 297 W.

Anyways, I put the 7600 GT in, and it seems to work without problems(yet), so I guess I'm pretty happy right now.

Thanks again to everyone.

 

[Onus]

I'd check the temps exhausting out the back of your PSU for a while. It may very well be enough, but you're closer to its limit, so make sure it isn't overheating. As I'm sure you know, PSUs hate to die alone.
You're probably fine though; my .sig rig draws <200 watts.

If you never use it, you could always take the modem out and save a few watts.

 

[anarchy7]

i currently have a 400w linkworld psu with the +12V rails rated @ 16A. would that be enough to power a 7600Gt, along with my computer?



AMD Athalon 64 3200+
1 gig A-Data DDR2 RAM
WD 80 gig SATA HDD
LITE-ON DVD-RW/CD-RW
Linkworld 400w PSU

 

[sirheck]

Thegreatgrapeape Wrote

The GF7600GT is a very efficient card, and draws on minor amounts of energy.

I have to agree with bode miller here.