Radeon 4870 "xxx" With 400w psu

funkyslayer

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Jun 9, 2009
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18,510
Hey i just baught my 4870"xxx" card and i have a 400w psu with 6pin connector for connecting the the pci-e card, and my card has 2 6pin ports, my qtion is i have a 4 pin to 6 pin converter would it work to use that as a second pci connector then?

i know it might not be enought power but i have limited the rest of my power usage by having water cooled cpu wich the pump is connected to the wall socet not to the psu or comp in anyway and i have no DVD/CD-rom drive i only have 1 Sata hardrive and 1 fant to the cooling unit for my water cooling.. so power is lowered alot..

my computer set up otherwise is:
Cpu: 7750+ dualcore black editon
Memory: 2gb
Motherboard : Asus M2N68-AM

so my question is would it work using that 4 to 6 pin converter to get the second power on to it or do i only need 1 6 pin connector or is 2 a must?
do i really have to get new psu?

Please get back to me asap! :D ty for all anwsers!! :D
 

funkyslayer

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Jun 9, 2009
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what kind of risks am i looking at?
and on the converter cable the 4 pin only split into 5 of the 6 holes.. should that be a problem?
i dont think it should be since it came with in the package..
 
Basically if the GPU is not getting enough amps (power) your PC will freeze during gaming.

In the worse case scenario, the GPU will cause the PSU to overload 'cause it is drawing too much power. An overloaded PSU will die and in the absolute worse scenario the PSU will spike sending too much power to all your components, thus damaging each and every component beyond repair. In other words, time to buy a new PC.
 

jennyh

Splendid
I think with such a low powered system it's really not a risk. If you ran that setup through asus's 'how many watts do i need' prog it would probably score closer to 300w than 400w under 100% load on all components.

If the cable you got with the card splits 4-5 then it will be fine.

I ran a 4870 with an overclocked 6000+ on a no-brand 400w psu for a few months and it was totally fine, i see no reason why this wouldn't be too.
 

jennyh

Splendid
It's fine really. When I had my 4870 on the 400w psu (just checked the brand - jeantech) I was playing The Witcher most of the time. That's quite a graphically demanding game.

I really had no issues with it, and the only reason I upgraded it was because my best friend bought a 1000w for her new pc and i got her old 550w corsair.

Edit - just to point out the details, a 6000+ x2 is a 125w TDP chip, and mine was overclocked to 3.375ghz over the stock 3ghz so it was quite a hungry cpu/gpu setup.
 

funkyslayer

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Jun 9, 2009
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well i have no overclocks or anything so. is there a site where i can calculate what kind of power consuptio my comp would have with all my stuff including my new graphic card?
 

funkyslayer

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Jun 9, 2009
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should i fill in additional pci card info on the 16x slot? when i filled in slot for singel video card?
on addittional u devices should i exclude my mouse and keyboard?
 

jennyh

Splendid
Only count the video card once, it says that on the form i think.

If you are getting close to 400w then it's probably best that you buy a new psu. I don't see you getting close to 400w however, probably 320w or so max.

Add 2 usb devices for keyboard and mouse.
 

funkyslayer

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Yes Yes true! anything else i should be aware of or think about? i will not be playing very highend games. i play some WoW and some Need for speed and some other like fear 2 and so on not VERY powerconsuming games i guess? i ostly play wow but im upgrading from a HiS hd 4650 512mb card wich laggs alot and just dont like it... so hopefully this work fine..