650 Watt power supply a good buy with a 9600 GT?

[Keithformerparamedic]

Hello! I recently purchased a new XFX 9600 GT and a 650 Watt BFG (dual 12 V rails)
. When ever I play games, my system crashes. I looked on some other website and found this:

"Look at the powersupply's specifications and make SURE it meets these requirements...
It needs 22amps on the +12v Rail. (The power cord that plugs into if from the powersupply)
If your powersupply has anything less than 22 amps then it's going to crash on you while playing games & could destroy the card as well by under powering it."

Does this powersupply have enough amps to run this card?
I cannot find anywhere it says the amount of amps on the box

 

[abusive]

Yes it does have enough amps but 650W is overkill unless your gonna SLi.

Go for something like 450-500W

Like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103940

 

[Keithformerparamedic]

Overkill? Sli?

 

[abusive]

Im saying overkill cause you don't need as much power as 650W

SLi is running two of the same video cards on one chip set to achieve a performance gain, it is also know as Crossfire for ATi/AMD cards

Check to link above for a recommendation.

 

[rockbyter]

common misconception among cards is when a card requires a 22A rail for the whole system, or just the video card alone. Q6600 + 9600 GT fits under most any 500w power supply easy.

Bigger better power supply will let the unit run cooler and hopefully quieter and last longer.

 

[chookman]

More than likely your system lockups are not related to the PSU, as it is more than enough power for your system.

Does the machine lock during normal use or only games? What "games" does it lock in, or is it only one? does in BSOD or just freeze?

There are alot of unknowns here, but you could try updating the games, updating the GPU drivers, check you have the "extra" power connector in the GPU...

 

[Andrius]

My "EL CHEAPO" 550W !noname! LC Power 550GP (I think of it as a <400W PSU) is proof to the statemets above. My 9600GT works fine. It's quite well overclocked from 650MHz to 720MHz GPU Core (1800MHz Shaders) and from 900MHz to 1008 (2016)MHz memory and I have an overclocked Intel Q6600 @ 3.0GHz and 2 Raptors in this system.

The powersupply should be sufficient (unless BFG started selling crap lately). I don't really play alot of games but Supreme Commander @ 1920x1200 with high fidelity presets is quite taxing on the system. Never crashes during gameplay (crashed twice on the map selection screen so far but it's not repeatable).

Maybe you got a bad 9600GT or it is overheating. Check the temperatures (RivaTuner has logging) during gameplay. Is the fan on the graphics card spinning at all?

 

[coldneutron]

your PS has enough power for the system PROVIDED THAT THE CPU AND GFX CARD ARE NOT ON THE SAME 12V (20A in your case) RAIL! @ full load, there may not be enough power on only 1 12V, 20A rail for both, hence the crashes. the atx spec suggests that the cpu power should come off the 12V2 rail, but psu manufacturers don't always follow the spec. which rail each 12V connector comes off should be in your manual. so you can look at that and figure out which 1 of the 2 pci-e connectors to use on your gfx card. or, just switch the pci-e connectors from what u have now and see if it solves the problem.