4870 and my PSU, a good match?

[vinceinthegame]

Hi there,

I am going to buy a graphics card soon. Ultimately I want a 4850 but I found a website giving a 4870 away at a really good price (same price as a 4850!!) and so I would rather go with the 4870. Just one thing, Ati recommends a 500w PSU with two 6 pin PCI-Express connector.

I already have a 6 pin connector on my PSU and I expect there to be connectors in the box of the card (Hopefully). Anyway I have a 480w PSU, which is only 20w short of whats recommended. It also contains 38a combined on the 12v rail, which I think is not bad.

So I want to know if I'll be able to run this card no probs.

Thanks

 

[mindless728]

who makes the PSU (this might determine if you need a new PSU)

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

If its a decent brand, 38 amps on the 12v rails are plenty

 

[vinceinthegame]

who makes the PSU (this might determine if you need a new PSU)

It's either an Arctic Power PSU or a no name (But I do remember paying a decent price, not dirt cheap)

 

[Guest]

what are the other components of your pc, need to work out the full power draw of your system, 38amps on the twelve volt rail is sufficient but it does depend on total load as well, popping a psu can spell real trouble.

 

[vinceinthegame]

what are the other components of your pc, need to work out the full power draw of your system, 38amps on the twelve volt rail is sufficient but it does depend on total load as well, popping a psu can spell real trouble.

Well it's 4gb DDR2 800 Cl4 ram (Crucial), with an AMD Phenom ll X3 720 BE, 500gb hard drive and 2 cd drives.

 

[vinceinthegame]

The reason I ask is obcourse to be safe and all but I saw this vid on youtube of a guy showing his machine off playing GTA4.

His specs were as follows:

AMD Phenom ll X4 940 BE @ 3.2
4gb OCZ DDR2 800 Ram
Ati Radeon 4870 1gb

and all this running on a 460w PSU. Which I think is just pushing it, especially with the x4 which has a high power consumption.

Here is the link if your interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVXr0oid5_w

Anyway thanks for the help, I think I shall get a 700w PSU that I saw for a good deal (Artic power) or just get a 4850 which has suffucient amount of processing power! Then again, I think I shall think smart.......Wait for the 5xxx series from AMD (Ati).