How much power is needed for a 512MB 32-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 card?

[lingjia]

My power supply unit has only 180watts, I have i5- 3350p, 8gm memory, 1 hard drive. do you think it can support a video card like this?

 

[Deemo13]

It depends on the video card, but probably not.

 

[jaguarskx]

Maybe... maybe it can support a Radeon HD 5450 since it only consumes 13w. But all other graphic card is a definite no. The next low power consumption graphics card that I know if is the Radeon HD 6450, but it consumes about 28w - 30w.

 

[lingjia]

Thanks a lot for your answer. I ordered this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150600
It is a Radeon HD 5450. I think my psu should be able to supply 13w. My i5 3350p consumes 69w, hard drive about 10w.
I wish the video card manufacturer publish their card power rate instead of just saying something like 300w recommended which is actually not very meaningful because the configurations deffer a lot from system to system.

Maybe... maybe it can support a Radeon HD 5450 since it only consumes 13w. But all other graphic card is a definite no. The next low power consumption graphics card that I know if is the Radeon HD 6450, but it consumes about 28w - 30w.

 

[jaguarskx]

I wish the video card manufacturer publish their card power rate instead of just saying something like 300w recommended which is actually not very meaningful because the configurations deffer a lot from system to system.

From a legal liability standpoint they will never do that. The generic recommendation is there because of the fact there are so many different systems out there. Stating that a 300w PSU is recommended prevents people from suing AMD (or nVidia) should the graphics card not work or causes an electrical surge in your PC that damages the PC.

Lawsuit have been known to put businesses out of business. If AMD and nVidia are no longer in the picture, then everyone must use Intel's integrated GPU.

 

[lingjia]

Interesting!
Years ago many mobo manufacturers also stated that their board required a minimum of 300w or 400w PSU. I have always used these mobos in 180w PSU systems because I added up the power consumption of all components and determined 180w was very safe. Nowadays the power requirement seems disappear in mobo specs. CPU and some of the hard drive manufacturers publish the actual power rates. That is helpful. But I just cannot dig out the power rate info for the video cards.

From a legal liability standpoint they will never do that. The generic recommendation is there because of the fact there are so many different systems out there. Stating that a 300w PSU is recommended prevents people from suing AMD (or nVidia) should the graphics card not work or causes an electrical surge in your PC that damages the PC.

Lawsuit have been known to put businesses out of business. If AMD and nVidia are no longer in the picture, then everyone must use Intel's integrated GPU.

 

[lingjia]

I successfully installed my system with a 180w psu. It works fine. The psu seems working fine, only got 27c, cpu 50c.
Thanks a lot for your advice!