750 ti with meager PSU

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Darren81

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Jun 24, 2016
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Hi all,

First time poster to this info filled forum.

Big question, can you run a 750ti on a 250w power supply? Please read on before giving the expected "no chance" response. :)

The power supply is a "liteon" with 180w on the 12 volt rail. Most online calculators put power usage for my system with the card at or slightly over this mark. So, further questions -

Wiki says that pcie power is also drawn from the 3.3v rail (up to 9.9w), true? If so how much would actually be taken by the card from the 3.3v?

Surely other components (hard drive, dvd writer, motherboard etc) also draw from the 3.3v and 5v rails? Or is that an assumption i am sorely unqualified to make?

I dont plan on gaming with this just yet (just using to boost system performance until i can get the parts here to build a decent pc), would this keep the load low enough to work with the PSU?

I am more than willing to underclock/undervolt it, if thats possible? Read many threads and still cant say for definite this would be possible. Would be using MSI Afterburner.

Guess i'm looking to be educated, spare no punches! Lol.

TIA for any and all responses.
 
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Evening (well, it is here) That PSU is ok, it's a mid level unit, it's certainly an improvement over your current one. So, yes it should do nicely.
You said you were worried about the connections, from a quick search it looks like your motherboard uses a standard ATX PSU, with the only issue some have found being a system fan connection to...
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BadActor

BadActor

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Oct 31, 2015
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The correct answer is, it depends. It depends on the rest of your system components and the specific card you use. I have seen 750 Ti's run on 180 watt PSU's, but they were systems with a dual core and very few peripherals, and the graphics cards was one which doesn't require a 6 pin PCIe connector. The cards not requiring a 6 pin PCie connector will draw their power directly from the PCIe slot, up to 75 watts. You can use a PSU calculator to get an idea how many watts your system will be using, and as long as you have a little wattage to spare, it should work with one of the non 6 pin cards.

http://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator
 
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pete_101

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Aug 2, 2014
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If it was a good make of PSU, then 250W is often enough. However your PSU isn't recognised as being good..... from what I've been able to find, some people say they're not too bad and others say they're crap, so it's anyone's guess at how much it can really supply before failing, possibly damaging other components in the process.
You asked to spare no punches, so here it is, you would be crazy to risk your whole system on a PSU of unknown quality. If you want to risk it, then that's fine but don't blame us if it fails.
 
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Darren81

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Jun 24, 2016
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It is an old dual core cpu, 65tdp. Will also only be running one 240gb ssd (adata sp550, if that matters), one dvd burner (would like to rip some dvd's into my digital collection), one card reader (never used). Thats about it, except mobo, doesnt even have case fans. Lol. As i understand it the 750ti runs quite cool, that correct?

With this Config. You think i'd be ok for the time being?
 
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13thmonkey

13thmonkey

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Jan 10, 2006
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if you aren't going to game on it, then what's the point of the 750ti, what does 'boost system performance' mean. A much bigger boost would be an SSD or more RAM, unless something uses the GPU there'll be no benefit to having it. And every so often something will prod it and make it go to full power, and there you might hit a problem.

If you are having to justify the closeness of the rating by saying that there is 9.5W on the 3.3V rail that will reduce the 12V load, that's when you know you shouldn't be doing it unless you were in a post apocalyptic wasteland and it was the only PSU you had and lives depended on it.
 
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Darren81

Commendable
Jun 24, 2016
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Thanks Pete. Appreciate the honesty :). What's the likelyhood it would damage the disk drive or video card if things went t*ts up?

I ask because they would be the only things worth anything. Lol.
 
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pete_101

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The video card is the more likely to sustain damage as it has more sensitive components than a HDD. I would put it at somewhere between 25-50% chance of damage. Have you seen a PSU fail, they can be quite dramatic, check out this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6snWfd1v7M

 
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13thmonkey

13thmonkey

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I'm not sure that likelihood is a good concept here, if you had a 100 machines maybe, but you have 1, it will or will not break something if it goes, and the HDD/SSD could well be damaged if the voltage spikes.

Basically it'll fail in 1 of 2 ways, it'll just die quietly and stop working. Or voltages will spike and then it will die. Good PSU's protect against the latter reaching the components of the PC.
 
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Darren81

Commendable
Jun 24, 2016
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Lol@13th monkey. Thanks for the reply.

I am assuming the 750ti would help my ageing pc to play movies from a hard drive on network attached storage without going nuts on power. If that's not the case, let me know? (As i said, i'm here to be educated.) At the moment it cant play anything from the hard disk.

That will be fine for now until, as i said in my original post, i can get the parts here (gambia) to build a half decent pc. At which point the 750ti will be moved to that pc.
 
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BurgerandChips66

BurgerandChips66

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Jan 11, 2016
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I had a cheap 400W PSU die on me (in my steam box - built only with cheap or old components) a few weeks ago. It had lasted just over 5 years.

Nothing dramatic happened like in that video, but when touching the back of the case to remove the power cable I got a nice electric shock!!

Replaced it with a new and slightly better (though still rather cheap) 500W unit. No shocks now. Fortunately no components were harmed.
 
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Darren81

Commendable
Jun 24, 2016
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Thanks for the link to the vid.

Wow, didnt realise it was that bad. I thought they just died, which i'd be willing to put up with since i just resurected the pc after about 3 years. Since i'd be risking a new ssd, video card, and possibly death lol, think i will leave the card until i get a new pc built.

Thanks for the input gents. All replies greatly appreciated.
 
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13thmonkey

13thmonkey

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Any GPU would help with that, modern onboard video would be fine too, doesn't sound like you are there though. Something like an n10/n20 would be good enough, 410,510,610 etc. and use even less power and be perfectly fine playing video. Given you are in Gambia I would expect that temps are quite warm too? not good for a PSU on the edge.
 
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pete_101

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Aug 2, 2014
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Evening (well, it is here) That PSU is ok, it's a mid level unit, it's certainly an improvement over your current one. So, yes it should do nicely.
You said you were worried about the connections, from a quick search it looks like your motherboard uses a standard ATX PSU, with the only issue some have found being a system fan connection to the old PSU. If that's the case, the new PSU will have all the connectors you need (and it has it's own fan controller so no connector is required).

 
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Darren81

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Jun 24, 2016
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Lmao. I work abroad and get paid in USD, so now ain't such a bad time for me. haha.
 
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pete_101

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That's good, you just got a pay rise, lol

 
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