New Video Card and power usage

[Tyche]

I'm looking to get a new videocard so I can play FFXIV. My PSU is only 250 watts. While looking around, I found that I could get a Radeon HD5570, and it rates only 43 watts under load. Is there any way I can check to see my power consumption to see if I can squeeze that card in without needing a new power supply? If I buy the card and hook it up, what happens if I don't have enough power? Does it simply shut down, or does it fuck up the whole PC?

Here's specs of current PC right now
Geforce 6150SE onboard video.
AMD athlon X2 processor (235e) 2.7GHz processor.
6144MB DDR2 dual-channel (2 × 1024MB + 2 × 2048MB)
It has one PCI-E 2.0 x16 and 2 PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots
250watt PSU.

[Odesseiron]

It shouldn't fuck up the whole PC, the PC just won't turn on. A lot of times, you'll also get an "alarm" or high pitch beeping noise letting you know that your PSU can't handle everything that is hooked up to it.

Looking at info, you need at least a 400 w PSU to hook up this card. 250 is definitely not going to be able to run it.

On an off note, how old is your rig that it has a 250w PSU? I know everyone doesn't have a top of the line rig, but even my PC from a few years ago had a 600.

[Tyche]

Less than a year.

http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=ET1331G-03w

I was reading on newegg that someone had that card hooked up to a lower rated PSU than I have...so that's why I was asking.

[Odesseiron]

Hmm.. well I've had experience in hooking up a graphics card with a PSU that couldn't handle it. My machine wouldn't go on at all, and I got said alarm.

I'm not sure it would short out or anything, but to be safe I would buy a new PSU. They're not too hard to change out, and one that is only 400-450 watts should be pretty cheap. My 850 was something like $160. I'm sure you could get one half of that, if not more.

[Tyche]

Don't PSUs come in different physical sizes (atx, etc)?

[Odesseiron]

Don't PSUs come in different physical sizes (atx, etc)?

Yeah. Here's a link to all 400-450w PSUs http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...NG&PageSize=20

I'm not sure the size that your PC can fit. Each PSU should have sizes listed in the specs though. I'm not an expert, but I recently did build my whole PC from scratch. I'm sure someone else will know what to do as well. Those e-machines are sometimes tough to replace parts with

[Tyche]

I just opened the case up, and even though the specs I found said 250 watt PSU, it has this 300 watt in it.

http://www.80plus.com/manu/psu/psu_r...00W_Report.pdf

[sruon]

There's a difference between what a PSU is branded for and what it truly outputs between heat loss and shitty brands.

As for the original question, it just won't turn on or black screen, shouldn't fuck anything.

You could get away with 400-450W but 700+ are pretty cheap nowadays and decently future proof should you upgrade your rig.

ATI aren't really hungry cards so it could work but I fail to see the point.

[Tyche]

I don't know if this has any effect on the original question, but the videocard doesn't use a separate PCIe power cable...it draws it's power from the motherboard.

I may just buy the card and see what happens. I'm not looking to spend a great deal, just something to tide me over until the PS3 version comes out. The only thing I really use my PC for is photoshop and browsing, which current specs work fine for.

[sruon]

I didn't know, and after checking it indeed doesn't use extra cables.

PCI-E port provides 75W according to their official specifications. Either way worth a try.

[Jurgen]

If its being powered by the PCI-e slot, then an ATI 5670 is probably your best bet as it is the strongest GPU supported by PCI-e slot only.

[Bockage]

You can use something like http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp to give you a general idea of the load on your PSU.

[Tyche]

Well, I just bought this guy's 500w PSU for $25, so now I guess I'll just look for whatever card I want that's reasonable.

http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97147