Quick question: How much does the PSU affect OC?

shimsham

Lifer
May 9, 2002
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you sure youre checking the 3d clocks?

edit: doh, just noticed you had an ati. not sure the have different clocks for 2d and 3d its been so long since i had my 9800. do they?
 

Matt2

Diamond Member
Jul 28, 2001
4,762
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Just to answer your question, your PSU affects all types of overclocking. The higher your clocks, the more power the component draws, whether it be a GPU or CPU.

If you have a borderline PSU that is struggling to begin with, overclocking components could send your system over the edge and into instability.
 

Avalon

Diamond Member
Jul 16, 2001
7,571
178
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If you have the CM 430W unit, you may be limited by the PSU.
It has 19A on the 12V rail, which was similar to my old 420W Enlight with 18A on the 12V rail. I had to upgrade PSU's when I added a Geforce 6800 to my Sempron 2800+ OC'd + DFI NF3 rig. Reason being is that my CPU OC decreased by 100mhz when I added that video card...my 12V rail was sagging below 11.7V when it used to be at 11.9 with a Radeon 9500.

Tossed in a 460w Enermax with 33A on the 12V rail, and all was well...my OC went back up stabily. Your system looks like it'd draw a bit more power than my old one did...so I think you may want to pick up a PSU with a more solid 12V rail.
 

HeavenZKnight

Member
Mar 24, 2006
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Thanks the for the replies guys. I'm gonna go w/ Avalon and Matt and try a more powerful PSU and see if it helps anything.
 

Avalon

Diamond Member
Jul 16, 2001
7,571
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Before you do decide on a PSU, what were your BIOS settings for your max highest overclock, by chance?
 

akugami

Diamond Member
Feb 14, 2005
6,210
2,551
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What Matt2 and Avalon said. I've actually voided the warranty on my OCZ PSU and turned up the POTS because the voltage on the 12v rail was dipping to 11.4v. Now it's at 11.9v with an X1900XT and an overclocked CPU.

 

HeavenZKnight

Member
Mar 24, 2006
39
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hm...updated profile with a more complete description of what i have. here are the specs for the current PSU. Dunno if it changes anything.
Output Voltage:
+3.3V: 28A
+5V: 30A
+12V1: 14A
+12V2: 15A
-12V: 0.8A
+5Vsb: 2.0A
Output Power:
+3.3V and +5V: 140W
+12V1 and +12V2: 384W
-12V: 9.6W
+5Vsb: 10W
Total: 430W