Graphic cards and PSU

[andymitch]

Hello,

So I have bought an inno3d geforce gtx 260.

Alas I never realised the amount of power one of these babies used. There was no indicaion on the box either! My current PSU is only 450 watts, I presume this is not enough to run the card. I have it installed, all fans active, but no picture on my monitor, am I required to buy a new psu? if so what wattage is best?

Also should they not clearly mark on the box all specs required to run these cards?

Many thanks in advance

ADM

 

[gracefully]

Did you connect the PCI-e power connectors? The GTX 260 needs more power than the PCI-e port can give, so it requires an additional power cable. If you don't connect that, your graphics card might not work. 450 watts should be able to run the GTX 260, although that might be pushing it. A C2D/C2Q system with one of those cards shouldn't need more than 300W.

However, your PSU might not have the 6-pin PCI-e power connector. You can get a Molex to 6-pin PEG converter. If you decide to get a new PSU, go for 500-600W. They have the 6-pin PCI-e power connector.

 

[andymitch]

Hi many thanks for coming back to me.

I am a mere novice so unsure exactly what you mean, but I used the cable provided with the card, which were the two six pins that go into the card itself and connect to the psu with the white plgs with the four holes in (so sorry) I am presuming that these are PCI e connectors.

I have it all plugged in and all fans (2) are running.

I am using a AMD Dual Core 2.8GHz CPU

Cheers

Andymitch

 

[builderbobftw]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009&Tpk=tx-850

Great PSU. Also, I'm going to use now as an opertunity to point out that you should have bought a 5770, wich is faster, supports DX11, and uses less power. Oh, and it's cheaper.

 

[gracefully]

OK, it seems that you connected the PCI-e power connectors properly. The "white plugs with the four holes" is called a Molex connector. How many Molex connectors does the cable provided with the card have? If they have more than one, you should connect all to the PSU.

 

[andymitch]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009&Tpk=tx-850

Great PSU. Also, I'm going to use now as an opertunity to point out that you should have bought a 5770, wich is faster, supports DX11, and uses less power. Oh, and it's cheaper.

Cheers

 

[andymitch]

OK, it seems that you connected the PCI-e power connectors properly. The "white plugs with the four holes" is called a Molex connector. How many Molex connectors does the cable provided with the card have? If they have more than one, you should connect all to the PSU.

Right, there could be where the issues lie. The leads they supplied has one 6 pin plug for the card, and two molex's and the other has one 6 pin for the card and one molex. The 2nd molex on the first cable is not plugged in.

 

[andymitch]

Ladies and Gentleman of the Tom's Hardware Forums, many thanks for your help.

I did, in the end, just unplug everything and start from scratch! All is now working superbly, I am chuffed to bits as the graphics are so good. I am in Napoleon Total War heaven.

Many thanks for all our help, as I have actually learnt some very usfull bits through the process! Cheers gracefull, you were right, no new PSU required and all is running fine, I owe you a beer !!!

My one gripe, is to the manufacturers, in this instance inno3d. For whilst their card is of great quality, their installation instructions could have saved me 48 hours. All they said was to insert card and run disk, nothing about connecting to PSU's etc. Maybe that's my fault for getting in above my depth, but hey, you have to start somewhere!!! An a5 piece of paper covering such issues could save so much time, but hey ho, I got there in the end.

Anyway off to conquer Europe! Again many thanks to all

andymitch