Power and GPU relationship

johnc24

A quick question folks

I bought an ATI HD4670. However my PSU is max 300W. The card requires 400W. From reading around generally the understanding was that it would work, however it has been giving me some problems lately, I can only boot from the motherboards on board graphics. If I try to boot from the DVI on the graphics card, it wont boot, is this due to the lack of power with the PSU?

Thanks

barry181091

I would say most likely yes. Also manufacturers usually understate the minimum power req's for GPU's, it may say 400 but really you should be 600.

Remember, it depends what other items you have connected to the PSU. If you have multiple hdds, pci cards etc or you are over clocking, that all takes extra power. The manufacturer does not know what else you have taking power, so its just an average minimum. On board gfx take very little power, also they are crap :P

If the card has worked before and now suddenly the PC wont boot with it, it could be a different issue.

Overheal

I cant disqualify barry. We swapped a 300 for I believe it was an Antec 550W to run specifically a 4850/70 (i cant recall which) on a now-3 year old desktop. runs a peach. But we had to use plastic tie downs to make it work: Dell's PSU form factor was different to the Antec. Something I should have known about beforehand but it works out. Kinda

barry181091

Overheal wrote: »

I cant disqualify barry. We swapped a 300 for I believe it was an Antec 550W to run specifically a 4850/70 (i cant recall which) on a now-3 year old desktop. runs a peach. But we had to use plastic tie downs to make it work: Dell's PSU form factor was different to the Antec. Something I should have known about beforehand but it works out. Kinda

Haha I remember that Too bad I eventually had to upgrade to a 600w Thermaltake Funny thing, Yesterday I opened it to clean it, It's not funny the amount of caked dust that is in a PSU :eek:Anyway, that's OT but good evidence

AlmightyCushion

barry181091 wrote: »

I would say most likely yes. Also manufacturers usually understate the minimum power req's for GPU's, it may say 400 but really you should be 600.

It's usually the opposite. They usually over state them. And no way does he need a 600w psu for a 4670. I have a q6600, 2 HDDs and a 4870 running off a 550w and I'd say it has plenty of juice left in it.

Overheal

Question OP: Is the Card powered?

Most mid-range cards can run off the PCI-e bus alone. Gamer cards do require you to plug a line in. Just a silly question to make sure you did.

TerrorFirmer

4670 doesn't need extra power, its entirely from the lane. A good 300w PSU would be fine, though a dodgy one would most likely fall a bit flat. Also, you say 'max 300w', some PSU's could be rated at 250w with a non-sustainable peak of 300w. Impossible to say whether its your power supply without knowing more about it - wattage, brand, model number...

Overheal

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

4670 doesn't need extra power, its entirely from the lane.

That doesnt help explain the 8-pin jacked into mine

TerrorFirmer

HD4670 doesn't require any extra power, and has no extra input. Especially not 8-pin which would only come on very power hungry cards...something the 4670 is not. Besides, most cards use 2x6-pin, or plain 6-pin...4770 is 6-pin, 4850 6-pin, 4870 2x6-pin...if you just google image search 4670 you'll see every picture of the card shows the same thing, a board powered entirely from the lane.

johnc24

Hi folks,

apoligies for lack of replies to any questions.

Was very busy the last week.

but yeah the card does not need additional power, however since my original query, my HP threw a wobbler and I had had enough with it so I did my FIRST time build and at times it was a hair frustrating but easy enough actually.

Thanks all

Rgds
John

Deano12345

johnc24 wrote: »

Hi folks,

apoligies for lack of replies to any questions.

Was very busy the last week.

but yeah the card does not need additional power, however since my original query, my HP threw a wobbler and I had had enough with it so I did my FIRST time build and at times it was a hair frustrating but easy enough actually.

Thanks all

Rgds
John

Glad you got on well dude