How do you know if your PSU is underpowered?

Rambo2683

Rambo2683

Rambo2683

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Joined
1 Oct 2006
Posts
234
Hi, I'm trying to figure out what is wrong with my PC, i have recently upgraded to a 4870x2, however it runs no better, and sometimes worse than my old 8800GT.
This is on a fresh install of Windows XP.
For some reason Vista64 crashes when I try to do a fresh install of it since I have installed the new card.
I have also noticed a lot more hard drive activity since I installed the card, with massive crunching going on continuously. There is also a small delay on the DVD ROM, it used to ask me if I wanted to boot from CD a little sooner than it does now.

I have an X-Power 700W which I got from PC world or ******, not sure which. But I know this card is quite a beast and requires a lot of juice.

The reason I ask is because I don't have any other problems other than pretty crap performance from a card which is generations ahead of my old card. I don't have any glitching, crashes or failure to start the machine like I have had in the past when my PSU was dying.

My PC is as follows:
e2180@3ghz
Gigabyte P31 DS3L
4GB DDR800 RAM
Sapphire 4870X2
WD Raptor 37gb
Windows XP 32bit

I have tried without overclocking the CPU but that didn't help. I'm also soon to get a q9550, but surely the CPU isn't at fault here? I get 9000 3D mark 2006 points, which is WAY below what this card is capable of.

How do I test the PSU, is there a way?
Any help appreciated :confused:
 
to be honest id think about changing the psu anyway ,if you get a high quality one it should last you though many rebuilds so is good back for buck in the long run ,btw i think it could well be a psu problem
 
It's running worse than your old card because you CPU is a massive bottleneck. You will certainly have to upgrade that to get the best out of your 4870x2. I wouldn't say the PSU is the problem at all.
 
Really? I would love to save myself 70 quid if that is the case! :)
The rest of the upgrade is costing enough as it is :p

The q9550 is due any day now.
 
To get the best out of a X2 you really need a quad. Your poor little E2180 with it's 1mb cache will be badly bottlenecking that card. On a side note, you psu is a load of cack too. You can get much better for £70. There is no way that thing will be able to deliver 700w.
 
I just loaded my PC and the screen was all garbled when it updated itself to my 120hz refresh rate profile. I had to swap the refresh rate back n forth to effectively clear it and now it's fine.
Is that a driver problem or?
 
pastymuncher said:
To get the best out of a X2 you really need a quad. Your poor little E2180 with it's 1mb cache will be badly bottlenecking that card. On a side note, you psu is a load of cack too. You can get much better for £70. There is no way that thing will be able to deliver 700w.
Click to expand...

That did make me chuckle. Yeah, I have decided to get the corsair PSU with it's 52a single 12v rail :eek:
If not to cure my problems, but just to be safe as it's not exactly a budget PC anymore, I've got an Intel SSD on the way as well, so I don't want to have it all die at the hands of that POS power supply :)
 
Rambo2683 said:
That did make me chuckle. Yeah, I have decided to get the corsair PSU with it's 52a single 12v rail :eek:
If not to cure my problems, but just to be safe as it's not exactly a budget PC anymore, I've got an Intel SSD on the way as well, so I don't want to have it all die at the hands of that POS power supply :)
Click to expand...

its a good move mate ,make it a lot easer to clock the nuts of that new chip :D
 
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