can i run this card

[davew]

i was going to spend no more than about £70/£80 on a graphics card but then i saw this
OcUK ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
but i'm worried that my psu won't be able to handle it, it's a antec truepower 380watt ,my system is a C2D E6400, 4gb ram, only one sata HD, is it worth me taking the risk or should i look at another card that uses less power, i really can't afford to buy another psu atm

 

[yantorsen]

I'd imagin it would be ok, but it'd depend on the rail specs.

 

[silversurfer]

I would guess so if your cpu is on stock volts. Some reviews check the power consumpation at idle, etc

Check out a psu calc, google it

If you want to overclock etc then maybe not

 

[davew]

i'm running everything at stock, i tried a online psu calc and it looks like it should just about cope with it, what will happen if my psu doesn't give it enough power am i likely to damage anything ?

 

[yantorsen]

i'm running everything at stock, i tried a online psu calc and it looks like it should just about cope with it, what will happen if my psu doesn't give it enough power am i likely to damage anything ?

not usually, it just won't boot.

 

[silversurfer]

Just about does not sound good to me even though those calcs try to overcompensate it should be within 50w near if you want a stable system.

I have run a 8600GTS OC with a 300w psu before. This psu was a free one that came with a 40 quid case and about 5 years old, ie. its crap

It ran ok if I underclocked it, occasionally it would switch the power off in the middle of a game ie. hard reset
Nothing bad apart from that.

Some people think low fps can be related to a psu unable to cope. Is that true of any graphics card, I dont think any of them actively adapt to power like that while doing 3D