Is 360w enough?

[Shane hunt]

Hi
I just ordered this card. Sapphire X800XT Platinum 256MB DDR3 VIVO but now
someone has told me my 360w psu is not powerful enough to run the card.
Anyone got any idea if this is the case as I'm totally clueless

 

[Clas Mehus]

I just ordered this card. Sapphire X800XT Platinum 256MB DDR3 VIVO but now
someone has told me my 360w psu is not powerful enough to run the card.
Anyone got any idea if this is the case as I'm totally clueless

What other stuff do you have in your PC? It also depends on the
quality and "how real" these 360W is (continues power, peak, how many
amps on 12V....).

Personally I have been running X800 XT togheter with P4 Prescott 3,2
GHz on a 350W without trouble (Fortron-Source PSU -- also used
GF6800Ultra in the same config). I had a Chieftec 360W in a another
system, and that didn't want to run 3 GHz Prescott + X600 XT.... (If I
remember correctly, the Chieftec PSU was made by HighPower or
something like that, and had 17A@12V).

For many PSUs, the number dosn't mean anything. I've seen PSUs
promoted as 400W not being any better than a good 250W. For many PSUs,
the numer is the peak-power -- which it can substain for for just a
short time.

 

[Paul Murphy]

Hi
I just ordered this card. Sapphire X800XT Platinum 256MB DDR3 VIVO but now
someone has told me my 360w psu is not powerful enough to run the card.
Anyone got any idea if this is the case as I'm totally clueless

It depends what other bits are in the system and the quality of the 360 Watt
PSU - not all 360 Watt PSUs perform the same. You may get away with it if
its a good PSU and the rest of the system (CPU, motherboard, memory, drives
etc) aren't placing a high load on it. The ATI getting started guide for the
PCI-E version of the X800 series (here
http://www.ati.com/support/manualpdf/Getting_Startedx800.pdf ) recommends a
minimum of a 350 Watt PSU. You can always give it a try and see if its OK.
If however you've yet to order the PSU (or its just recently arrived for a
new build and you're still able to return it), I'd go with something more
powerful - perhaps 450 Watts, entirely depending on your other system bits.

Paul

 

[Conor]

Hi
I just ordered this card. Sapphire X800XT Platinum 256MB DDR3 VIVO but now
someone has told me my 360w psu is not powerful enough to run the card.
Anyone got any idea if this is the case as I'm totally clueless
[/QUOTE]
P4 2.8GHz, 1GB DDR and a Radeon 9800 Pro running fine on a 300W here.

 

[First of One]

When the X800XT arrives, install it. If it runs fine on your current power
supply, then all is well. If you get random crashes or visual artifacts,
upgrade the power supply. Simple.

 

[Fluxcore]

Just a word of caution Do not buy a Antec Power supply
I am stuck with 2 of them that run at 11 volts and i am haveing a hell of a
time returning them.

 

[Conor]

Just a word of caution Do not buy a Antec Power supply
I am stuck with 2 of them that run at 11 volts and i am haveing a hell of a
time returning them.
[/QUOTE]
How do you know its 11v? Are you measuring it with a multimeter or
making the mistake that everyone does of assuming the motherboard is
reporting correctly?

 

[First of One]

Eh? Mine is outputing 12 V just fine.