can a 350w psu power a nvidia 6600gt

[elliotn]

I am desperately in a mission to get rid of this SIS Mirage gfx that my mobo has, now I have a nvidia 6600gt 128mb agp card that I want to use in my machine. I currently have a 250w psu if I put in that card the pc doesnt power on. now can a 350w ISONIC PSU help power up the card? any surgestion welcome

[bowens44]

Here's a link to a power supply calculator......

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

[Harken7]

I have AN NVIDIA GeForce 7300 gt on my desktop.When i upgraded from a RIVA TNT 128 to my old MONSTER card i burned up my power supply,and my mother board.When i upgraded the last time i made sure to OVERPOWER my motherboard.Its better to err on the side of caution,cause today things cost too much to take chances.My GeForce Required that i upgrade to about 500 watts.Thats including my surround sound and 3 hard drives.:idea:

[BuffaloX]

Unless you have something else that craves a lot of power, you should be good.

[BuffaloX]

Here's a link to a power supply calculator......

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Cool,

It calculated my system to 217 Watt.
Which sounds very reasonable.

I have the very energy efficient Radeon 4770.

[elliotn]

ok i will try it out

[gn2]

It depends on the PSU.
The number quoted as wattage for PSUs usually isn't the amount it can deliver over a sustained period, it is normally the claimed peak.
Some cheapy 350w PSUs will give up the ghost at much lower wattages.
If buying a PSU, I would recommend either Seasonic or Corsair.

[The Jinx]

It all depends on what else you are running, if it is your sig rig then I'm pretty sure that a 350watt psu will suffice

[mivo]

I am not convinced of this calculator. Including my GTS 250, it recommends a 330W PSU. However, the minimum wattage for the video card is 450W, and that is pushing it. It would never work with a 330W PSU, at least not very long. So, take this calculator's recommendations with a grain of salt.

A 350W PSU should do for the card (I'd play it safe and go with 400W), though Watt isn't everything. It also depends on the amperage of the PSU. Some 350W PSUs are better than some 500W ones.

I'd recommend a "be quiet!" PSU.

[BuffaloX]

(Bold by me)

I am not convinced of this calculator. Including my GTS 250, it recommends a 330W PSU. However, the minimum wattage for the video card is 450W, and that is pushing it. It would never work with a 330W PSU, at least not very long. So, take this calculator's recommendations with a grain of salt.

A 350W PSU should do for the card (I'd play it safe and go with 400W), though Watt isn't everything. It also depends on the amperage of the PSU. Some 350W PSUs are better than some 500W ones.

I'd recommend a "be quiet!" PSU.

The quote I marked with bold is dead wrong, The GTS 250 eats about 150 Watt, if the rest of your system isn't too demanding It is quite plausible that your system only require 330 Watt, and that it can easily run even on a cheap 400 Watt PSU.
Of course you should always go for some margin of safety.
AFAIK 330 Watt isn't a recommendation, but the actual requirement.
The real problem is that not all PSU are balanced equally, some specify peak performance while others specify sustained performance.
Some have more amperage for lower voltages while others have more for 12 volt.

So of course Mivo has a point that you should always go for a slightly more powerful PSU than the absolute minimum.

[Exodist]

I am desperately in a mission to get rid of this SIS Mirage gfx that my mobo has, now I have a nvidia 6600gt 128mb agp card that I want to use in my machine. I currently have a 250w psu if I put in that card the pc doesnt power on. now can a 350w ISONIC PSU help power up the card? any surgestion welcome
350w, hmm NO..

You may get ti to run but it will get extremely hot or/and cause random system lockups under load.

Best best is 475w MINIMUM , a good 600w would allow you run for additions later own and keep your hardware running cooler.

[realzippy]

I used to run a 7800 GS with a 350W (quality) PSU for years...

[mivo]

The quote I marked with bold is dead wrong, The GTS 250 eats about 150 Watt, if the rest of your system isn't too demanding

Both Nvidia and Gainward name a 450W PSU as minimum requirement for the GTS 250. I see no reason to question the manufacturer's recommendation. Actually, there was a discussion on, I think, the bit-tech forum where someone had this card and had all sorts of problems with a 350W PSU. The card would crash after a little while.

[realzippy]

Both Nvidia and Gainward name a 450W PSU as minimum requirement for the GTS 250. I see no reason to question the manufacturer's recommendation. Actually, there was a discussion on, I think, the bit-tech forum where someone had this card and had all sorts of problems with a 350W PSU. The card would crash after a little while.

??
Isn't OP talking about a nvidia 6600gt ??

BTW,
remember using 2 PSUs,one only connected to AGP card.
Just connect grey cable from mainboard main plug to each other to make second PSU start... ;-)

[mivo]

?? Isn't OP talking about a nvidia 6600gt ??

Yes, but BuffaloX and I got sidetracked talked about the GTS 250. ;)

[spoons]

Lots of confusion about power supplies here. Essentially, if your PSU is under £40 it's probably rubbish. VERY cheap PSUs are garbage and don't even have proper transient filtering stages, meaning lots of lovely AC ripple goes into your components. Also, they use low quality capacitors that can go pop, and, since they lack the protection circuitry, especially on the 5VSB, voltages can go nuts. My dad's ad a lot of Bestecs do this: The capacitor on the 5VSB fails, causing the voltage to soar to 11v and the board dies horribly. Wattage means very little in real terms. Also, very cheap PSUs are inefficient and will eventually take back the money you saved with it in electricity bills, over a few years.

Antec do a relatively cheap 380w EarthWatts PSU. It's Active PFC (over 80% efficiency), uses dual 12v rails at 17a each, and uses a decent filtering stage to keep the components safe. Of course, there's lots of other PSUs in the lower price bracket, such as Corsair's 450w PSU and OCZ's 500w PSUs.

The power supply is a critical part of your computer - skimp on it you could be paying for a new computer.

[samjh]

I used to use a 7600GT with a 350W PSU for years without problems.

BTW, using that calculator, my system's power usage is 257W. It seems wee bit low. My current 9800GT's minimum power supply recommendation was higher than that.

[markp1989]

Here's a link to a power supply calculator......

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp


i have used that before they seem to over estimate power usage by alot.


my server/htpc uses 80w when running prime and watching a 720p video, and according to that calculator it needs 150w

[Zoot7]

For a 6600GT I would say definitely. I had a 8800GTS on a 350 watter before.

[BuffaloX]

The 6600 GT PCIE version doesn't even have a molex connector, which puts the requirements of this card below the 75 Watt specified for PCIE bus.
The AGP version has MOLEX since AGP is only specified for 40 Watt.
This means you could run a 6600 GT card easily on a semi decent 300 Watt PSU.

350 WATT is more than enough for a 6600 GT unless you have some other stuff that is REALLY power hungry.

( MOLEX is the extra power connector. )


Both Nvidia and Gainward name a 450W PSU as minimum requirement for the GTS 250. I see no reason to question the manufacturer's recommendation. Actually, there was a discussion on, I think, the bit-tech forum where someone had this card and had all sorts of problems with a 350W PSU. The card would crash after a little while.

Like the graphics card is the only thing to consider?
The GTS 250 only draw 150 Watt at full load, so with 450 you have 300 watt left, which is enough to power even the most power hungry CPU available, plus 4 hardrives and 2 DVD/RW and 16 GB RAM and a sound card.


??
Isn't OP talking about a nvidia 6600gt ??

BTW,
remember using 2 PSUs,one only connected to AGP card.
Just connect grey cable from mainboard main plug to each other to make second PSU start... ;-)

Do NOT use 2 PSUs, it's a waste of resources plus it doubles your risk of failure.
If the PSU for your graphics card goes, the 6600 GT may try to draw to much power from your AGP bus, and may very likely fry both the graphics card and motherboard.