New Power Supply Needed?

[noncom]

I just upgraded from a Leadtek 5900LS video card to a Sapphire X800GTO. My 3DMark 05 score went from a 950 to a 3400 (no overclocking). Strangely, the CPU score dropped drastically from around 2400 to around 740. Looking at the 3DMark comparison site, systems almost identical to mine show CPU scores near my former level. None of the clock settings, etc., seem to have changed.

I checked my PSU, and it's a 300W Antec. It's hard to know for sure, but this seems a bit weak. I guess a new PSU won't cost much, but swapping it out looks like a pain, and I hate to blow money if I don't have to.

The system seems very stable, which I would not expect from an insufficient power situation, and the test scores keep coming out within a few points of the same. Can anybody help me confirm the PSU is the problem before I start swapping out parts?


System:
2.5GHz P4 CPU
1 Gig 333DDR RAM
300W Antec PSU
X800GTO

 

[cleeve]

Insuffieint PSU causes crashing, not bad 3dMark scores.

You could probably use a better PSU, but it ain't the PSU that's causing your low score.

________________
<b>Geforce <font color=red>6800 Ultra</b></font color=red>
<b>AthlonXP <font color=red>~3300+</b></font color=red> <i>(Barton 2500+ o/c 412 FSB @ 2266 Mhz)</i>
<b>3dMark05: <font color=red>5,275</b>

 

[addiarmadar]

Have you dumped your rig after upgrading the VGA card?

<i><font color=red>Only an overclocker can make a computer into a convectional oven.</i></font color=red>

 

[marneus]

a 300w PSU is the absolute minimum u could get away with as long as u dont have much in the way of HDDs, optical drives etc...

If u want a new PSU, a mag in the uk called customPC did a massive testing on PSUs (25% of them died in the process), check their website for their recommendation...
<A HREF="http://www.custompc.co.uk " target="_new">http://www.custompc.co.uk </A>

Trust me I know what I'm doing... ooops, grab the cat...

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

get at least a 430w power supply - Enermax is a good name brand for those.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>