Getting a 6950....do i need a better Power Supply?

[daveybrat]

I'm currently running an Asus Geforce GTX 460 768MB card in my gaming rig. I'm getting a great deal on a XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB card that will replace the GTX 460.

I'm using an Antec TruePower Trio 550Watt power supply currently that has 3 18A 12V+ Rails. It runs my 460 card just fine, but is it enough for the HD 6950?

I'm assuming that you combine the 3 12V rails for 54A total right?

 

[Termie]

They use almost the exact same amount of power at load, so no, you don't need a new power supply: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=315

But to answer your other question, no you can't just add the three 12v rails to get your total capacity. Yours actually has 504w combined on the 12v rail: http://www.silentpcreview.com/article712-page1.html. Since watts = amps x volts, you know that it has 42a on the 12v rail.

 

[notty22]

The side of that psu actually shows 42A max for the 12vrails.
Thats 500 watts. It has 2-6 pin pci-e connectors, so that should be fine for the 6950.
In fact the only video card that might mess with that psu , would be the gtx 480. It requires a 6+8 pin, and could possibly over-pull on one of the 12v rails on smaller psu's.

edit: repeat, info, I tried

 

[daveybrat]

Thanks a lot guys, i really didn't want to have to buy a new power supply as well. Good to know that it's similar in power to my 460 card.

Can't wait for the new 6950. Battlefield 2 at high settings is already taxing my 460 card, but maybe that's due to the 768MB of ram on it.