Power Supply for a GTX 460?

[jgbishop]

My setup:

• GIGABYTE GA-EP45T-USB3P LGA 775 Intel P45 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (Wolfdale) 3.0 GHz, with a Zalman CNPS7000C-Cu Cooler
• G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
• BFG Tech GeForce 8800 GTS (G92) 512 MB (ForceWare 258.96) (Died a sudden death)
• Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA
• Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W Power Supply
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

My 8800GTS died on me, and I was thinking about getting a GTX 460 to replace it. However, the specs at NewEgg for an EVGA model says they recommend a power supply with a +12 Volt current rating of 24 Amps. Again, according to NewEgg, my power supply yields only 18 Amps on the +12 volt rails. So I have 3 quick questions:

1. Any chance this card would run on my current power supply, not overclocked?

2. If the answer to #1 is no, are there any GTX 460 cards that would run without any problem?

3. If the answer to #2 is no, what cards are recommended below the 460 that would work with my existing power supply? I'd like to keep the cost to a minimum if possible; I've already changed several components in my machine to try and get this thing working!

Thanks in advance for any advice!



Moved to PSU forum.

Super Moderator BFG10K.

 

[Lonyo]

1. Yes

Your PSU has more than one 12v rail, so total 12v amps is higher than 18. 18 is just one rail.

+12V1@18A,+12V2@18A,+12V3@18A
3 rails at max of 18A each.
Total output will be something like 50A on the 12v rails. (Usually it's lower than all three added together).
Your card will use different rails, so the recommended total output from a PSU (the 24A) can be split across the different rails.
Your PSU is more than powerful enough by a large margin.

 

[d4a2n0k]

IIRC, the HX620 is actually a single rail PS that is rated at 50amps even though its labeled as 18a x 3.

Either way, your PS is plenty for a GTX 460. Any brand you want and at any overclock. Your system listed above will only pull just over 200w at full load. The GTX 460 is only going to need another ~30w.

 

[jgbishop]

Awesome! I didn't realize the rails were combined like that.

You learn something new every day. Thanks!

 

[bryanW1995]

hold on, I have my hx 620 box right here...yep, exactly 50 amps. a couple of years ago people thought that 3 x 12v rails with 18a or 20a or whatever sounded better than one honkin' 50a 12v rail. since some components that actually need a lot of amps, most of the high end psus have a single rail though many are marketed as if they had 2,3,4 etc.

 

[Idontcare]

You are getting good advice in here already, but you may want to try the Power Supplies forum as well for PSU advice.

There is a much larger audience of posters there who can draw from a deeper background of info regarding PSU pitfalls and value.

(not that there is anything wrong with posting your GPU-PSU related question here in this forum, just sayen...)

 

[Henry Chinaski]

The GTX460 will run on the Corsair HX620 even with extreme overclocking. A quality 500W PSU which presents two PCIe connectors is enough. Don't worry.

By the way, the HX620 has a single-rail design and its max load on the +12V output is 50A/600W. The information provided by Corsair about the power distribution is wrong.