Hi there!
I've noticed things acting funny for a while on my computer. I've made threads about it here before as well. The issue being:
- Strange graphical artifacts (ie millisecond-brief screen-tears, sometimes the entire screen shuts off for a few seconds)
- Graphics clitches in certain games, but only when GPU reaches certain temperatures - rarely happens.
At first I came to the conclusion it could be the wall-socket extension cord thingy. Maybe it was faulty. I exchange it, and seemingly it works OK for a while.
But the glitches showed up again, a few weeks ago. I decide to unplug my GPU completely for a few days and see if anything changes. And what do you know - no graphical glitches anywhere.
I plug it back in, everything seems fine for a while and then it comes back again. And it's been doing this for a few weeks now.
Now, I did some reading up and while in most cases a computer won't even start when the PSU is underpowered, it's still possible - but when doing so a variety of things can happen:
- Overheating
- GPU not working correctly
Now if my card had been, say, a year old the overheating wouldn't bother me as much and I'd just figure it was broken. I have a guarantee for 2 years so getting a new one isn't a problem. But the catch is that I bought this rig in June - I'd expect things to still be fine. That's why the overheating and my GPU not working right made me look up if the GPU could be it.
Because as of now, these are my specs:
[B]PSU[/B]: Corsair CX500 [B](outputting 500W at 40C)[/B]
[B]GPU[/B]: XFX Radeon HD 7950
[B]CPU[/B]: Intel® Core™ i7-3770
[B]RAM[/B]: Kingston DDR3 HyperX 1600MHz 16GB
[B][I]6 fans
1 Fan control bay
1 CD/DVD-tray[/I]
And two hard drives:[/B]
- Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB
- Seagate Barracuda® 1TB SATA
Now admittedly I'm not much of a tech person. I know how to exchange parts in a computer, but not so much about the parts themselves. And like I said I did a lot of looking around and people are saying for my GPU you'd need at minimum 500W of power. Which, considering all the other parts I have in, I feel... might not be enough. Which again, my lack of knowledge in the area, if 500W is the minimum recommended for a GPU like this, how's it expected to have everything else work fine?
And that's why I turn to you. Does it look fine? Is my GPU just fucked and I should get my money back? You tell me. I'm stumped.
Aside from all of this, the card itself performs fine in both games and work-related tasks. It tends to get hot, like I mentioned. And that's despite the 6 fans. Interestingly enough I had 2 before and installing 4 extra made little to no difference on the temperature...
Anyway, yeah. Help!
Just upgrade you PSU.
I had the pleasure of having a too weak PSU back in the day, my PSU fried, I was lucky it didn't fry the rest of my PC.
Then the other time, my new GPU fried cause of the too weak PSU.
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/QAy5Ht1.png[/IMG]
sounds like your PSU
Well then, I guess that's gonna be an upgrade then. Especially considering I never accounted for USBs, Mobo and amount of RAM sticks...
Thanks, man.
Also, what website is that?
[editline]14th November 2013[/editline]
Actually found it. When I add in the USBs and RAM sticks it adds on another 50 watts.
Welp.
[editline]14th November 2013[/editline]
The Corsair CX-750 should be enough. That's 100W extra. Thanks again!
if you're not on a prebuilt (assuming this is a completely custom computer) i'd buy a 750W PSU, 800W if you wanna be large
Well, that system really shouldn't convert more energy than ~ 300 Watts maximum.
Judging by:
[T]http://www.sweclockers.com/image/diagram/2689?k=49f1a89f61a1322f6544d7172d48f7d4[/T]
They're using the following components:
Intel Core i7 3960X @ 4,0 GHz
Antec High Current Pro 1 200 W
Crucial M4 256 GB
Their power supply's got an efficiency rating of about 90%, 300*0,9 = 270W
Either the site that MaxofS2D referred to likes to exaggerate a lot, or SweClockers doesn't know what they're doing. Wattage-predicting websites usually refer to the GPU-manufacturers recommended power-output and other silly things like that (those values always include a standard CPU, and atleast three harddrives, then they add another 100-200 Watts to that, just to be sure) so I'm guessing it's the former.
At any rate, Corsair's CX-series is pretty terrible, and I'm guessing it's about to die. I'd recommend getting something like an XFX-branded (SeaSonic manufactured, Japanese capacitators, etc.) PSU, for example:
[URL]http://www.inet.se/produkt/6900491/xfx-core-edition-550w-80-bronze[/URL]
Edit:
Wait, do you have the overclocked version?
Edit2:
Should probably also be noted that I'm currently running a very similar system (7970, Core at 1,2 GHz, Memory at 6GHz, no harddrives, though) on a 450W PSU, and I've been doing so for the past year without any problems at all.
By my calculations, the CPU, GPU and fans pull up to 410W under peak load by themselves. Adding lesser things like the chipset, RAM and drives could well overload the PSU.
[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;42862125]By my calculations, the CPU, GPU and fans pull up to 410W under peak load by themselves. Adding lesser things like the chipset, RAM and drives could well overload the PSU.[/QUOTE]
This made me curious, mind showing those calculations?
CPU - 150W (Intel CPUs are known to pull this much under peak loads)
Fans - 60W (10W a fan)
GPU - 200W (assuming the HD7950 isn't overclocked)
410W total.
Then you can toss in the chipset and RAM, which can be like another 40-60W, depending on number of RAM modules. Then toss in the optical drive (which are usually really power hungry) and hard drive and you have another 30W at least.
All in all you'd be around 500W total.
[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;42866469][B]CPU - 150W (Intel CPUs are known to pull this much under peak loads)[/B]
Fans - 60W (10W a fan)
GPU - 200W (assuming the HD7950 isn't overclocked)
410W total.
[/QUOTE]
Is the stock cooler actually capable of moving those quantities of energy?
And if so, I'd say Intel should seriously reconsider their system regarding TDP-classifications. (The 3770 has a TDP-value of 77W).
Also, regarding the fans, the 1500RPM motors in the 120mm fans I've been looking at have had a current of around 0.09-0.2A going through them, 12V*0.2 A = 2.4W.
About the harddrive:
WD Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA Hard Drives (WD5000AAKX)
[B]Interface:[/B] SATA 6 Gb/s
[B]Read/Write:[/B] 6.8 Watts
[B]Idle:[/B] 6.10 Watts
Terribly inefficient optical drives can "steal" around 30W when active, a fairly modern one shouldn't convert more than around 17W. When they're idle they won't draw more than 1-2 Watts or so.
And lastly, regarding the memory modules; they've got roughly 2A running through them, usually at 1,5V (if they're rated for 1,6GHz). So 6W for two sticks. I'm really uncertain about the chipset, though.
[QUOTE=Rixxz2;42866875]Is the stock cooler actually capable of moving those quantities of energy?
And if so, I'd say Intel should seriously reconsider their system regarding TDP-classifications. (The 3770 has a TDP-value of 77W).[/QUOTE]
How TDPs are set is a complicated process and has changed considerably over time. But it's easiest to think as being the average power draw under a max nominal load. The CPU can draw more power than that (and does) during peak loads (ie. if all cores and threads are completely bogged down doing something like complicated maths.)
[QUOTE=Rixxz2;42866875]Also, regarding the fans, the 1500RPM motors in the 120mm fans I've been looking at have had a current of around 0.09-0.2A going through them, 12V*0.2 A = 2.4W.[/QUOTE]
Entirely depends on the fan. Some of the beefier fans that run at higher RPMs and have heavier hubs and blades draw more power. I have some 2000-2400RPM 120mm fans that pull 0.8-0.9A
[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;42866976][B]How TDPs are set is a complicated process and has changed considerably over time. But it's easiest to think as being the average power draw under a max nominal load. The CPU can draw more power than that (and does) during peak loads (ie. if all cores and threads are completely bogged down doing something like complicated maths.)[/B]
Entirely depends on the fan. Some of the beefier fans that run at higher RPMs and have heavier hubs and blades draw more power. I have some 2000-2400RPM 120mm fans that pull 0.8-0.9A[/QUOTE]
But it drawing almost twice it's rated wattage? That's pretty inaccurate if you ask me. :v:
From what I know only Intel Core i7 Extreme CPUs can reach 150W without being overclocked.
About the fans, very true, I should've included that.
[QUOTE=Rixxz2;42860480]Edit:
Wait, do you have the overclocked version?
Edit2:
Should probably also be noted that I'm currently running a very similar system (7970, Core at 1,2 GHz, Memory at 6GHz, no harddrives, though) on a 450W PSU, and I've been doing so for the past year without any problems at all.[/QUOTE]
Hm. I wouldn't think so. I bought it off Komplett, so it's this exact one:
[url]http://www.komplett.se/corsair-cx-500w-psu/635831[/url]
I bought all my parts from there so I might just give them a call and ask to have my card replaced, if that's the actual problem. God bless 2 year warranties.
Oh and as for fans, I can't remember for the life of me what the back and front ones are, but the 4 ones on top and on the side are Corsairs, 2 AF140's (0.25 A) and 2 SP120's (0.15 A).
[QUOTE=Rixxz2;42867119]But it drawing almost twice it's rated wattage? That's pretty inaccurate if you ask me. :v:
From what I know only Intel Core i7 Extreme CPUs can reach 150W without being overclocked.
About the fans, very true, I should've included that.[/QUOTE]
The average user isn't going to be crunching prime numbers or doing cryptographic hashing on all cores/threads at the same time, so there's really no reason to rate the TDPs for such tasks. The TDPs they specify make perfect sense for internet, media and gaming use.
And many modern CPUs have the additional feature of being able to target a specific TDP (usually set in the BIOS/UEFI) by downclocking all or parts of the CPU and adjusting the voltage.
[QUOTE=GiGaBiTe;42869263]The average user isn't going to be crunching prime numbers or doing cryptographic hashing on all cores/threads at the same time, so there's really no reason to rate the TDPs for such tasks. The TDPs they specify make perfect sense for internet, media and gaming use.
And many modern CPUs have the additional feature of being able to target a specific TDP (usually set in the BIOS/UEFI) by downclocking all or parts of the CPU and adjusting the voltage.[/QUOTE]
I'm an animator so my GPU and CPU goes through some shit when I do heavy rendering, so does that make me "not the average user"? :v:
Rendering on the CPU is basically tons of complex maths, so yeah it'd be pushing the CPU pretty hard.
Well, then I must say I really prefer AMDs way of classifying TDP values, as they base it around the maximum (theoretical) amount of energy the CPU can generate at stock frequencies. I assumed Intel did the same.
[editline]15th November 2013[/editline]
[QUOTE=Coyoteze;42869061]Hm. I wouldn't think so. I bought it off Komplett, so it's this exact one:
[url]http://www.komplett.se/corsair-cx-500w-psu/635831[/url]
[/QUOTE]
I was referring to your graphics card
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.