450w GPU on 400w psu?

[Guest]

I was wondering if a graphics card that requires a 450 watt PSU work on my 400 PSU? will it work? even if it does, will it explode or something?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Depends on the card and what PSU.

 

[delmetor]

You must feed a GPU with the wattage it requires. Most likely the 12V+ rail wattage, not the total of the PSU.

If you use a component with less wattage, you may eventually damage it, also it may not give you the performance it should.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

You don't want to go cheap on the PSU it's the heart of your components.

 

[Onus]

Graphics card vendors typically specify more total wattage than needed in the attempt (sometimes vain) to account for all the liar-labelled junk out there.
If your graphics card needs only a single PCIe power cable, unless you've got a stack of drives or a dozen fans it will run all day long on a 380W Antec Earthwatts.