7900gs and my psu

Warmonger41

Warmonger41

Big Geek
Hey, I ordered my 7900gs from bestbuy (they were out of stock) and was wondering, if my current psu can handle it. I can't tell you much about it, all I know is that its a 360 watt works power psu.

If I can play games on it then does that mean my psu is good enough?? Or could it not be getting enough power and be damaging it??

I won't have enough money to get a new psu for a while and I want to use my new video card. What should I do?
 
Oh, you jumped on that PNY deal too?

The minimum PSU requirement is 350W with 20A on the 12V rail. If you don't have enough power, then you'll get crashes, possible freezing and just general instability or oddities you can't quite track down.

Wattage isn't the best way to determine the power supply, but if it's not a quality PSU, you're not likely to be able to enjoy your new video card's performance.

What to do? Cancel the order if your PSU isn't up to spec, and go with a slower card and spend some money for a better PSU. If you can't don't use it until you can get a PSU that will do the job.
 
I know that reading the wattage doesnt mean much but honeslty I dont know what anything about it is. So what I should have asked is: Assuming that my psu is a quality 360W unit could it hurt the video card?? Or can I play with it but I will just have unconsistint gameplay?
 
If it has strong enough amperages, then it will be fine. The key is the 20A minimum on the 12V rail. If you don't have that, then you're in trouble.
 
In the long-term, it might. In the short-term, crashing, instability, etc are the more realistic things that will happen under load.
 
So in your opinion will I be ok using the video card for about a month without upgrading to a better psu? I realize i'm asking difficult questions that have many variables, but I don't know much of anything about psu's.
 
If your PSU isn't up to snuff, meaning the 20A on the 12V, if you don't want bad shit to happen, then you're not going to want to run the card at all. Those are the minimum requirements, which means the lowest specs that they will support you running your hardware on. I'm not 100%, but some companies will not support you unless you're running the specified minimum at the very least.

At the very least, you will almost assuredly have stability issues. Underpowering may not damage the hardware immediately, but you have to factor in what it does to the software. If the electrical requirements aren't being met, it will affect stability because the hardware is unable to work at stock settings.

You may get away with less than the minimum if you're not doing something intense, but again, there's the minimum requirements. If you don't follow them, then you risk instability. Depending on the severity, yes, you could risk failure. An overworked PSU, especially if it's low-quality will keel over. If it's a POS unit, they have a nasty habit of taking other parts with them when they die.
 
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