Power Supply Requirement with Nvidia 8600 or 9600GT Card

[lsaveski]

Hi everyone. I'm a little confused with all these power ratings for Nvidias and ATI's power requirements... Some say a Nvidia 8600GT requires 120w others 80watts or 160watts under fully load.

My system at the moment is a
Intel Dual Core 3.0ghz E8400
4gigs of DDR Ram 4 sticks
3x SATA 7200 1Terrabyte drives
2 Case Fans
and a Nvidia 8600 GT which i just put think i might get a 9600GT now

I also have a Seasonic S12 430watt power supply?

Is this system stable with all the components or should i get a Seasonic SII-500 or Energy Max 82+ 525watt power supply.?

Also adding a 9600GT would this effect my system..?

Using PSU Calculator my system shows to be fine with 400watts
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

HELP anyone..

 

[mpilchfamily]

Your PSU is fine. Now if the 9600 is an addition not a replacment then you'll need a bit more power.

 

[Foxery]

I'm not sure where you're seeing 400 watts - using the specs you provided, that calculator tells me 271, which is about what I'd expect. Overclocking gets you to 300.

Even if you're running both video cards at once, 430 watts is plenty for this setup. Your only reason to buy higher is if there's a chance this system may be upgraded to a quad-core CPU or a top-end video card.

 

[lsaveski]

Well i have added USB, firewire cards and fans and i get about 400watts.. But if you look at this article it shows from 120-197watts

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/...T,review-30353-16.html

So whos right now? Nvidia, Tom or ???

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: lsaveski
So whos right now? Nvidia, Tom or ???

Both. A $19 400 or 450 watt PSU has the ability to provide about 200 watts of continous output power. That's why nVidia recommends "larger" PSU's, not because that much power will actually be used.

 

[DSF]

As myocardia suggested, there's a large dose of "cover my ass" in Nvidia's power requirements. PSU calculators are generally unreliable except as a very general estimate. You'll be fine with a 430W Seasonic.

 

[Noya]

No, the PSU is fine for all but the most power hungry high-end cards.

But, spend the extra $10-20 and buy the 8800GT over the 9600GT.