Would a PSU cause poor performance?

pedro ferio-vti

Silly question probably, but I have a BFG 8800 GTS OC (320mb) running on a Dell GX620 Tower that I managed to squeeze in with some modifications.

Afaik they recommend you run one of these on a 400w PSU. I'm running mine on the factory one which is a 305w max PSU but I am not happy with the performance from it really.

My question is would running this on the above PSU cause performance related issues or if it was not up to the job would the machine just not run at all?

If it was affecting it, I might look at upgrading the PSU but since it's a Dell i'm not too sure if an ATX PSU will fit in.

Some might say just bin the Dell but I got it for free so i'd like to try and stick with it if at all possible. Hoping to try and run Age of Conan on it soon lol.

TerrorFirmer

It depends on what sort of issues you're seeing? Yes, it could, and you might experience stuttering, lock ups and freezes if game if the card isn't getting enough power, or equally, you might experience BSOD. A GTS is fairly ambitious for that psu, typical output would probably be 16-18a, ideally the card would require 22-26 to guarantee stability.

zilog_jones

I think the max power ratings on Dell PSUs are quite pessimistic - I assume it's max continuous and not max peak? The instruction manual may be more specific regarding that stuff.

Surely insufficient power would just cause unusable instability (BSODs and freezing and stuff) or no POST? I can't see stuttering or anything allowing it to continue work happening, though I've never seen a PC in this position myself.

Chosen

zilog_jones wrote: »

I think the max power ratings on Dell PSUs are quite pessimistic - I assume it's max continuous and not max peak? The instruction manual may be more specific regarding that stuff.

Surely insufficient power would just cause unusable instability (BSODs and freezing and stuff) or no POST? I can't see stuttering or anything allowing it to continue work happening, though I've never seen a PC in this position myself.

Agree 100% on all. The 305W (yeap, that's 305, not 350) psu on the SC440 can easily handle cards like GeForce 8600, 7800 & Radeon 1800.
And yes, insufficient power can cause instability, freezes, and no POST, but not low performance. Today's graphics cards don't have any sort of logic to drop performance if they get less power than what they need, they just don't work, either at 3D or at all.

TerrorFirmer

I thought that fluctuation/insufficient power on weak supplies can cause stuttering in games before it reaches the threshold for an outright lock up/crash?

Or are you referring to low performance in terms of a poor frame rate rather then stuttering? I agree that it wouldn't lead to under-par performance in terms of not achieving the frame rate you should be, but I am quite sure I've seen many issues of games stuttering and choking before eventually crashing/BSOD on crap psu's with close to -+8-10% drop etc...

pedro ferio-vti

Thanks for the replies.

I managed to get ahold of a Tower GX620 today. I suppose for the card it is I was expecting better frame rates tbh. The performance isn't poor by any standard, but I have a Gainward 8600GTX of the Aircooled variety that doesn't require any direct power from the PSU and the difference in performance isn't *that* noticeable which has probably spawned this thread.

I might download a 3dmark application and run the 2 cards against each other just so i can make sure that it's not a game installation or addons issue with the game (WoW). PS No complete lockups or BSODs but sometimes the game does hang on occasion for a period of time. Could be other issues however like server or network lag perhaps.

pedro ferio-vti

Ok I think I may have sorted this out, there was an Addon ingame that was causing the FPS drop.

I think I might be taking the plunge and buying a new machine. Will post a new thread about it.