# Power supply question



## PigChild (Dec 21, 2004)

I was hoping some one out there may be able to give me some advice about the power supply I have in my case.

I just reciently upgraded my video card from an ATI 9600pro to the new Nvidia XFX 6600GT AGP card.

Much to my dissapointment the 6600gt card is not performing well, In fact it's so bad that I have to play Half Life 2 on very low resolutions and details with NO ansio and No antializing. :upset: 
Because of this HL2 looks like the graphcs on an old Atari 2600 console.

I have tried everything from updated drivers to installing the new Direct x 9.0c and nothing improves.

My question is: I am currently using a generic 250 watt power supply in my case. Could this power supply be to weak for my new vidio card? It worked fine with my Radion 9600pro

I hate to go spend $80.00 bucks on a new 400W PS if thats not what the problem is. What are some of the common symptoms of a PS that's two weak?

I have a Pentium 4, 2.53 Ghz with 533Mhz fsb. 512 DDR Ram.

Any tips would sure be appreciated.


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## Valtelino (Sep 4, 2004)

Does this VGA have a power connector on the card?
Most common symptoms of overloaded PSU:
Lockup/freezing.
Random reboots. (Most common symptom I've come across)
A CD drive that sometimes doesn't power up?
USB devices getting intermittent power?
Dead system (after sparks coming from PSU fan, LOL).


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## Guest (Dec 26, 2004)

Hi,

I do not have an exact answer as most on here probably won't either. The issue as I see it is that I wonder how this unit could run an ATI 9600 Pro with a P4 533 with a 250 watt generic power supply. For the P4 you have, that is really too small to do the job, so any replacement would be sorely needed. 

Is there a chance that this issue is causing your problem? Yep, a good chance, but I doubt if you will know for sure unless you change it. 

Want some other things to think about? You can buy a new case with a much larger power supply for about the same you will pay for a big power supply alone and you get the added bonus of a new case. In my opinion if you are delving into the P4 area, you need to look at a power supply (please not a generic, but a brand name) that is at least 425 to 480 watts.


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## PigChild (Dec 21, 2004)

Thanks for the tips guys.

Yes, this new Nvidia 6600GT VPU card does require direct power using a molex conector from my power supply. They do make a PCI Express version of this card that gets all the power it needs from the PCI E slot but unfortunatly my motherboard doesn't have PCI Express, Just AGP. Like I said I had no problem with the Radion 9600pro. I think I will take your advice and go buy a nice Antec 450W power supply.

I really hope thats the problem. If not then I just spent $300.00 bucks on crappy video card. All the benchmarks and test show this new card as 3 times more capable than the 9600pro I was using.

Nothing is worse than spending cash to upgrade your system with poor results. :dead:


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## MD_Willington (Jan 11, 2005)

http://www.3dvelocity.com/reviews/tagan/tg480.htm

Tagan 480...it will work quite nicely for you...

MD


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