# which GFX card for 400W PSU



## parimal (Sep 25, 2008)

I want to upgrade my GFX card to 9600GT. I have 400Watts PSU in my c2d machine. Is 400watts sufficient for this card. if no, which other card I can buy??


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## amrawtanshx (Sep 25, 2008)

Yes it is.
My friend use to run his 8800GT on 400W PSU.

But to be on the safer side ... Get atleast a 500W one.


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## nakulvit (Sep 25, 2008)

It depends on which 400W power supply (the manufacturer i mean) you've got. Check the Graphics card box for how much current is required on the "12V Rail". Then check your Power Supply(you may have to open your case) rating and see how much current it supplies on the 12V rail. Generally a 9600GT needs at least 26A. But make sure that you've got atleast 30A.

As regarding your other question, i'd suggest you to go for an ATI HD4850 card. They perform much better than a 9600GT, but then again, you may be surprised like me.

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?p=950511#post950511


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## Power_user_EX (Sep 26, 2008)

Do u know the efficiency of ur PSU. Only use if the efficiency > 90%. Only Branded PSUs frm Corsair, Tagan , CM have such efficiencies else get a new 500 or 600W PSU with at least 70% efficiency.


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## amrawtanshx (Sep 26, 2008)

^^
What will u say if someone runs his 8800GT smoothly on 400W non branded PSU ??? (I mean excluding Corsair, Tagan , CM)


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## ionicsachin (Sep 26, 2008)

^^He ll be running it under a risk, non branded PSUs are the biggest risk to the PC. 
And the WATTS is not the primary thing, one shud check 12V rail and Ampere things(i donno much abt that)
I am using EVGA 9600GT KnockOut Edition(Overclocked), with a Corsair 450VX and till date i didnt have any problem.


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## parimal (Sep 26, 2008)

I have PowerSafe 400Watts PSU.


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## furious_gamer (Sep 26, 2008)

parimal said:


> I have PowerSafe 400Watts PSU.


You need atleast 500W since the efficiency of PowerSafe one was just <70%. So get a PowerSafe 500W Silver one for 1.7k...
Or a Corsair VX450W for 3.2k....
Dont underestimate this VX450W,his efficiency is above 90% and so it will able to handle ur rig..


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## imgame2 (Sep 26, 2008)

rajkumar_pb said:


> You need atleast 500W since the efficiency of PowerSafe one was just <70%. So get a PowerSafe 500W Silver one for 1.7k...
> Or a Corsair VX450W for 3.2k....
> Dont underestimate this VX450W,his efficiency is above 90% and so it will able to handle ur rig..



ok guys now thats the bit stretched ....corsair Vx450 gives efficiency from 83% to 86% and which varies with the load ...

  *www.corsair.com/_images/charts/vx450w_efficiency.jpg

i m saying this cos ...after 85% efficiency increasing the efficiency is no joke ...for every percent of increase ..u will have to put costly circuits ..which will increase the over all cost ...

engineering is always done for optimization of economical and physical constraints!


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## Psychosocial (Sep 26, 2008)

I ran my XFX 8800GT 512MB on a VIP 400W PSU for 2 months before getting CM 500W

BTW, 9600GT will run


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## amrawtanshx (Sep 26, 2008)

^^
And it would have worked fine with it ??

Though XFX has specified a 500W PSU as a requirement ... But it works fine on 400W too.


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## Psychosocial (Sep 26, 2008)

amrawtanshx said:


> ^^
> And it would have worked fine with it ??
> 
> Though XFX has specified a 500W PSU as a requirement ... But it works fine on 400W too.



I even OC'd it .


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## NoasArcAngel (Sep 27, 2008)

hey guys i was wondering would i be able to run a evga 8800gts on the bundled psu alongwith my zebronics lava?????? it has a power efficiecny of 80%


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## imgame2 (Sep 27, 2008)

NoasArcAngel said:


> hey guys i was wondering would i be able to run a evga 8800gts on the bundled psu alongwith my zebronics lava?????? it has a power efficiecny of 80%



who said that ?? that zebronics has efficiency of 80 % ??? 

and no it will not be able to run ur 8800gts ...


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## NoasArcAngel (Sep 27, 2008)

well it says so on the psu and then plz tell me which cheapest posu should i buy for a 8800gts


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## imgame2 (Sep 27, 2008)

NoasArcAngel said:


> well it says so on the psu and then plz tell me which cheapest posu should i buy for a 8800gts



any PSU with or above 80 % efficiency gets a certification from 80 plus program...which certifies PSU all over the world if they can give 80% efficiency or not ...

*www.80plus.org/

get atleast Coolermaster 500W for 2.7 k ...or Coolermaster 460W for 2.2k ...

or if u can buy ..get a corsair vx450 W for 3.2k

out of them only corsair Vx 450W gives efficiency from 83% to 86%..



Power_user_EX said:


> Do u know the efficiency of ur PSU. Only use if the efficiency > 90%. Only Branded PSUs frm Corsair, Tagan , CM have such efficiencies else get a new 500 or 600W PSU with at least 70% efficiency.



there are no PSU which provides efficiency greater than 90 % 

*www.80plus.org/manu/psu/psu_detail.aspx?id=0&type=2

which has only 3 PSU (all with wattage around 255W ) provides efficiency greater than 90% but less than 91% (called 80 plus gold )...

rest are simply below 90% and above 80%  ..this is a world wide standard for all PSU makers ...


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## comp@ddict (Sep 27, 2008)

Jus get the 500W CM to be on the safe side okay, and wich 9600GT are u gonna buy BTW?


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## Psychosocial (Sep 27, 2008)

NoasArcAngel said:


> well it says so on the psu and then plz tell me which cheapest posu should i buy for a 8800gts



Get a CM460W


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## acewin (Sep 28, 2008)

interesting info @KPower, if the power %ages are correct then CM 500W is as good as corsair 450VX,infact better than corsair having more than 80% efficiency


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## imgame2 (Sep 28, 2008)

acewin said:


> interesting info @KPower, if the power %ages are correct then CM 500W is as good as corsair 450VX,infact better than corsair having more than 80% efficiency



how can u say that ...?? CM500 is supposed to give rated power of 500W but can only give u power output of 500x70%(efficiency)= about 350W to 400W ..depending upon the efficiency ...

but corsair vx450 even though is rated at 450 W can deliver a power of upto 570 W ..its underrated ...where coolermaster's extreme model tells u the maximum power they can supply ..corsair always name their PSU on the average power it can supply in all conditions ...and thats why corsiar vx450 makes better option cos it will supply minimum of constant average power of 450W in every condition ...while even a coolermaster 600W could only supply a power of 600x70% = about 420 W~440W ...or maximum about that ...

thats what makes corsair vx450 best choice in the price range ..u can be rest assured that u will get minimum of 450W at all times ..and hence Vx450 can be used even for a HD4870/gtx260/gtx280  .....and even for HD4870x2 (with a core2duo..not with C2Q)..if u are not overclocking ..but with such high powered card its always a risk if u overclock ..hence atleast HX520W or Vx550 is recommended ....but surely vx450 can manage almost all the card in market today ..as long as u don't overclock both ur GPU and CPU ...


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## Psychosocial (Sep 28, 2008)

imgame2 said:


> how can u say that ...?? CM500 is supposed to give rated power of 500W but can only give u power output of 500x70%(efficiency)= about 350W to 400W ..depending upon the efficiency ...
> 
> but corsair vx450 even though is rated at 450 W can deliver a power of upto 570 W ..its underrated ...where coolermaster's extreme model tells u the maximum power they can supply ..corsair always name their PSU on the average power it can supply in all conditions ...and thats why corsiar vx450 makes better option cos it will supply minimum of constant average power of 450W in every condition ...while even a coolermaster 600W could only supply a power of 600x70% = about 420 W~440W ...or maximum about that ...
> 
> thats what makes corsair vx450 best choice in the price range ..u can be rest assured that u will get minimum of 450W at all times ..and hence Vx450 can be used even for a HD4870/gtx260/gtx280  .....and even for HD4870x2 (with a core2duo..not with C2Q)..if u are not overclocking ..but with such high powered card its always a risk if u overclock ..hence atleast HX520W or Vx550 is recommended ....but surely vx450 can manage almost all the card in market today ..as long as u don't overclock both ur GPU and CPU ...



I know this but the reason why I recommand CM500W is the Sine Wave UPS compatibility issues with the VX450W but otherwise, it just roxx.


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## comp@ddict (Sep 28, 2008)

in the 500W and 450W segment, get Corsair VX 450, but wid the ups compatibility issue.........

But a CM 600W and VX 450W are similarly priced, and both give same performance(600W is a tad better).


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## imgame2 (Sep 28, 2008)

KPower Mania said:


> I know this but the reason why I recommand CM500W is the Sine Wave UPS compatibility issues with the VX450W but otherwise, it just roxx.




i know someone brought it up ..but really i was not able to find any issue with UPS over the internet ..being a sinewave or not ...cos neither it is mentioned anywhere on the website/manual  of  corsair or anywhere that it needs a sinewave input ...even a stepped sine wave approximation would do good ...cos all the computer hardware needs is an alternating waveform ...so as long its alternating ...with constant amplitude components will work fine ...need not be sine wave ..it can be distorted sine wave ...

since we are using a switching mode power supply (SMPS) ..which actually first rectifies the input waveform using a bridge full wave rectifier (i hope u have read this yet )..and this rectified waveform goes into switching circuit consisting of MOSFET/Thyristors ..which converts rectified wavefrom into squarewave form which is then the input of transformer ..which gets amplified by transformer and is fed through filtering circuits and then to output of PSU ...

which in theory can really be done for stepped sinewave ..and with quality components and smartly desiged highly efficient circuitry ..in vx450 ..i wouldn't see why it will not work otherwise ......

i m not able to prove this pure sinewave theory ..cos even at our homes we never get pure sine waves ..thats a luxory ..for only industry which required clean and pure sine wave ...infact what we get what is hardly a pure sine wave ...as indian power supply grid infrastructure is hardly an efficient one.We don't even get a constant 50 Hz frequency in india it always various from 48 to 52 Hz(but its never on higher side and its always on lower side) which is unacceptale from european standards(49.5Hz to 50.5Hz) ..but its fine in india ...

and sine as i mentioned since it ultimately gets converted to squarewaveform ..it would hardly matter...

i don't know who came up with the theory of pure sine wave input to vx450 V ..



comp@ddict said:


> in the 500W and 450W segment, get Corsair VX 450, but wid the ups compatibility issue.........
> 
> But a CM 600W and VX 450W are similarly priced, and both give same performance(600W is a tad better).



did u not read what i just said above  CM600W doesn't deliver even 450 W cosntantly while corsair vx450W can ...now which is better  ...?


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## Psychosocial (Sep 28, 2008)

wow.....thanks for the input.


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## comp@ddict (Sep 28, 2008)

Sorry but many ppl have said they found 600W to be very good, and what you said cannot be applied to all the PSUs, some may have a li'l different efficiency....so it varies


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## imgame2 (Sep 28, 2008)

comp@ddict said:


> Sorry but many ppl have said they found 600W to be very good, and what you said cannot be applied to all the PSUs, some may have a li'l different efficiency....so it varies



no need to be sorry here ...

but yes they can find 600W good cos most of the time the power a PC needs is around 400W ..so doesn't make any issue ...but i have heard newer CM600 going kaput and there is problem of current locking with them ..so i suggest its better to go for Vx450 ..

and what i know idealy a PSU should be named according to the power it supplies but its not always so with low-end priced PSU  ...why do u think that coolermaster extreme 600W (*RP-600-PCAR) *PSU costs about 3.3k while another coolermaster 600W PSU called i green PSU* (RS-600-ASAA) costs about 7.1k ?? 

**what do u think is the difference between the two **???

*


> Power supplies are labeled according to the maximum power they can deliver – at least in theory. The problem is that a lot of power supplies can’t deliver their labeled power, usually because the manufacturer:
> 
> (1)Labeled the power supply with peak wattage, which can only be achieved during some seconds and, in some cases, in less than one second.
> 
> ...


coolermaster extreme series belong to the first category ...

while corsiar vx450 being of the safer side just rates its PSU on the minimum costant power it can supply ...it earns them credibility..thats why its one of the best entry level PSU all over the world..


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## acewin (Sep 28, 2008)

@ingame you are right VX450 is really constant 450W PSU,
I meant that if we check the 80 Plus ratings CM 500W is also 80%+ performace PSU which would give more than 400W average, which would be good choice as it is lesser costlier by atleast 700-800 bucks than 450VX and when reqs are high it is good


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## imgame2 (Sep 28, 2008)

acewin said:


> @ingame you are right VX450 is really constant 450W PSU,
> I meant that if we check the 80 Plus ratings CM 500W is also 80%+ performace PSU which would give more than 400W average, which would be good choice as it is lesser costlier by atleast 700-800 bucks than 450VX and when reqs are high it is good




no actually the coolermaster model here we are talking about is from extremepower series .... extremepower series only have efficiency of something greater than 70%

coolermaster also have a series called igreen,real power and slient pro ..in these three categories we get 500W and 600W PSU ..and its only there we have this 80% efficiency ...

coolermaster real power and igreen power  also comes with 500W PSU  ..with 80% and which in india costs about 5k ...@itwares and these will actually give 500W of constant power or very close to it ...and these are ones mentioned in the list 

look for the model numbers and u will know 

RS-500-ASAA -igreen power 500w (80+ efficiency certified )- link 

RS-500-AMBA-D3 -silent Pro 500W(80+ efficiency certified )- link

RP-500-PCAR extremepower 500W (only efficicency greater than 70% ) - link 

we are talking about the third one here which is available @ 2.8k approx ...2nd one costs about 5k ..and 1st one may be more costly than 5k ...

so extremepowere series is just a affordable series and doesn't belong to 80plus class ..and 500W and 600W extremepower models we talk about thus only work at efficieny ..of something like 70~75% may be ...


i hope this makes things clearer ...


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