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will a more powerful power supply mean more fps?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - will a more powerful power supply mean more fps?

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Ive read a lot of posts from people advising power supplies that are rated much higher than the manufacturer minimum.

I have a 4850 that runs reliably with the psu I have which is a 450 generic (came with computer case)

Does more power mean the card is able to produce more fps?

If the card was under powered would this mean a deficiency in fps or is it a binary thing whereby the card either works or does not work?

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Short answer - no.

Some people find that PSUs that are "just enough" for a card make a card perform sub-par. Upgrading their PSUs results in better performance. PSUs that aren't strong enough to run certain cards reboot randomly or won't POST at all.

I don't believe that's true, I don't think that the cards throttle based on power availability.

However, if your PSU already supplies enough power, it won't make any difference.

Reply to frozenlead

Yeah I doubt it too, most of the time the system just shots off from my experiences.

Although there was 1 time when I updated my Laptop Video drivers and the lappy wouldn't run any game over 9 fps unless it was plugged.

So I dunno

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Reply to L1qu1d

Nah, the quality of the PSU will affect stability, not performance. We generally recommend higher-than-necessary wattage PSUs because PSUs are most efficient (produce less heat, quieter) at around half of their maximum rated output.

Reply to homerdog

Ive seen where an underpowered psu will hinder a gpus performance, BUT, thats more of a freak thing then whats already been mentioned, such as stability etc. Eventually, if its just on the edge of booting up, and effecting the gpu, it wont be long before you start seeing stability issues etc, as the psu is overworking/heating, and will soon weaken

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Reply to jaydeejohn

it just means you can power more things like multiple graphic cards, more fans, more hard drives.

Reply to alvine

I have personally seen a weak/poor PSU result in weird performance with my system. A few years back I had dual 7800 GTs and when I ran the CS:S video stress test, I got like 90-something fps with 1 card. When I turned on SLI I got 70s, and it looked very jittery/awkward. I swapped my PSU from a 550 to a 750 and my frames jumped to 150.

As JDJ said, that's a freak occurrence so don't expect to really see that too much, but it is definitely within the realm of possibility.

Reply to efeat

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