Will a 375Watt PSU be enough for a 8800GT/S Graphics Card?

Question

I have a Dimension 9200 from dell that came with a 375W PSU. Im thinking about upgrading my video card to something better like 8800GT/S or something higher that takes less watts. Would it be sufficient since the manufacture requirement for the 8800GTS is 400W.

What other higher end video cards are there that i could consider w/ a 375W PSU?

Answer 1

Possibly, if its a really good power supply, but the recommended minimum for that card is 400 watts.

A new psu will cost you about $40. There are no cards that will match an 8800gt that will run on less. Even a 3870 needs 400 watts and thats a lesser card than the 8800gt.

The 8800gt's retailling for about $120 at the moment. You can get an 8800gs for well under $100. This would allow you to get a reasonable card and upgrade the psu at the same time.

Unfortunately, the more powerful the card, the more power you need to run it.

Oh, and the guy above is wrong. You can underpower a gpu with no risk to the hardware. All it will do is cause erratic behavior on the machine. No permanent damage.  

Answer 2

Forget about the manufacturer requirement for any GPU and get a custom wattage based on your component selection from a reputable psu calculator like http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psuca... and plug-n-chug to get your absolute max theoretical wattage which is near impossible to obtain in real-world use.  There are compensations for age that will increase the wattage accordingly.

I assumed an E6300 / 2 x ddr2 / 1 x sata hdd / 1 x dvdrw 3/ x fans / 8800gts 640 (576/1700) / (all other defaults) and I got a mere 258w

So if you are a watt-only guy that is good enough.

If you are even more curious put that wattage on your +12v rails only so 258w / 12v = 21.5A so if you label states the combined max value within 80% of it (or at least 17.2A) you should be good to go.  I do this since modern pc's focus their cpu & gpu power on the +12v, the actual use will be less even at max.

I searched a bit and found this 375w unit is the same as their XPS410 unit which has a dual-rail +12v of 18A each, so I think this unit can handle a GTS no problem and found many users run an 8800GTX without any issue on both the dimension 9200 and XPS410 models.

cheers

Answer 3

overtime a power supply slowly drops in wattage, so if the computer is left on constantly and the PSU is a couple of years old you may want to get a new one.

Have you thought about a 9600GT 512MB? i have one running on a 350w PSU with 26a on the 12+ rail and ive never had any problems. Do you know how many amps there are on you PSU's 12+ volt rail?  

Answer 4

No it is not enough if you want to enjoy the full benefits of this best selling video card the GeForce 8800 GT

Please get at least a 500W power supply(check the +12V amps output rating with the card's specs) from www.tigerdirect.com .

It will run cool and take care of all future loads and upgrades.

Answer 5

Yes, it will be enough, when your 8800GTS is not under load. Once it goes under load, all h**l is raised. You can risk frying your card if your wattage is too low.

Answer 6

In my opinion, 375 seems a little low but i think you can get by.

If you want a rough estimate on how much you need try this power supply calculator:

http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucal...

Also if you are waiting for Diablo 3 and you don't plan on playing any other games you should wait and buy a video card when the game comes out.  Chances are you can get a better deal and there might a new video card better than the 8800gt that uses less power