another ati 1950pro thread im afraid

[spook2575]

Hi everyone

i know this question had been answered a billion times but as far as i read, no alternative was suggested.

Im interested in purchasing an ati 1950pro 256mb for gaming mainly, however am in doubt whether my psu can handle it.

system specs are as follows

hp workstation xw4400
c2d e6600
2gig ram
1 hdd
1 lightscribe dvd rw
460watts psu (seems to say 12v 15a on it)
pci x16 slot (currently with nvidia quadro fx540 128mb)

if my psu cant handle it, then what is the next best option.
All help appreciated.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Welcome to the forums.

15a is way to low for an x1950pro, id suggest this , excellent PSU's those, not reaaly sure what card you could get as an alternative to the pro if you don't want to upgrade your PSU as i doubt 15a would be able to power much.

 

[Tom|Nbk]

Cor blimey these GPU's are popular aint they!

Do you know what brand PSU it is?

System Requirements
PCI Express™ based PC is required with one x16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard.
Connection to the system power supply is required:
450-Watt power supply or greater, 30 Amps on 12 volt rail recommended (assumes fully loaded system)
For CrossFire™: 550 watt power supply or greater, 38 Amps on 12 volt rail
512MB of system memory
Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
DVD playback requires DVD drive and decoder software (not included)
Please see ati.amd.com/crossfire for a list of recommended ATI CrossFire™ certified components
To complete the CrossFire™ platform, a second PCI Express® Radeon® X1950 PRO graphics card, a CrossFire™ Ready motherboard and two CrossFire bridge interconnect cables are required

You would really need a PSU upgrade for one of these

 

[spook2575]

i guess the jury's spoken, i gotta upgrade my psu. Thanks for the quick yet informative replies loadsa money and tom nbk. Now changing the topic completely, upgrading my psu isnt a problem financially. It is however when changing it, as i have no clue. any tips?

 

[Tom|Nbk]

You could always buy the card and psu and then take it to a local pc shop and see how much it would be for them to fit it, they normally massively over charge though . It's not a hard job but since im guessing youve never done somthing like this before It might be best to let someone with a bit of experience do it?.

 

[Relentless]

I got a cheapo 350W psu and it runs my box with a 1950pro just fine.

 

[Scougar]

Sounds like you were lucky then. My QTEC 500W can't cope with a single 1950xt. Complete waste of time. I will never buy a crap PSU again.

Matthew

 

[Scougar]

I just had to fork out £72 for a decent PSU (Corsair HX 520W) which is guaranteed for 2 gfx cards let alone one lol. I have a x1950xt and I would recommend getting that if your gonna buy a new PSU anyway.

I quote tomshardware,when the price was £140 for the x1950xt in June. I got it in June for £105 brand new so look around, better value than the pro, it just needs 30A on the 12+ rail, which isn't that much worse than the PRO anyway.

The X1950 XT is a powerful videocard. Its core runs a mere 25 MHz slower than that of the X1950 XTX, and its memory runs a full 250 MHz (effective) faster than the X1900 XTX. In English, it is on par with the previous X1900 XTX champ, and fast enough to run at high resolutions with nice eye candy. It will handily beat a 7950 GT, and even best a 7900 GTO or 7900 GTX at most things.

The X1950 XT is an incredible deal for the price.

Get the xt, much better card you won't regret it if you are buying a new PSU anyway.

Matthew

 

[kvfb97]

Ive a 450w power supply (cheapo one) with 20a 12v rails and it runs with no problems.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

15a is low but if you want to keep your current psu get a 8600gt. they got low wattage consumption so should be ok in your system.