Can I lower the power consumption my GTX 970 with MSI Afterburner?

[VatchCronock]

I recently installed a GTX 970 into my Alienware x51 R2 and it is using to much power when under sufficient load. This causes the PC to shutdown. Could I use MSI afterburner to limit the power consumption the 970 so that I merely get a drop in performance instead a system restart?

My plan was to lower the "Power Limit (%)" option to 75% and then see if that's low enough. Is it safe to lower the power limit of the GPU?

 

[nukemaster]

Lowering the power limit should just cause the card to clock down(lower performance) to stay within that limit. It does not react instantly so it may still have spikes over the set limit.

You should get a better power supply(do they offer a larger unit for your system?) if that is the problem. It is not good to push one into restarting the computer.

It will not hurt to try(the 970 is not a real power hog as such). You may need a more power friendly card in the future.

*edit, missed an R

 

[USAFRet]

Why have a good GPU if you're just going to cripple it?
Fix the actual problem, the underpowered/crappy PSU.

 

[lordmogul]

Really...
You bought a prebuilt PC, put in a bigger graphics card and are wondering that the power suppy can't handle it....
It's the old story.

And usually those Dell systems are built using parts that are not standard ATX conform. Which could result in the situation where a standard issued power suppy from the store doesn't fit.
Even though the GTX 970 isn't much of a power hog with an advertised power draw of 165 W and actual use of around 160-170W when gaming.

According to the Dell homepage the X51 R2 comes with a 240 W Power Supply but a 330 W unit is available. And you would need the later one to run the GTX 970. Without it you would be limited to something like a GTX 60, R7 370 or other cards with similar power draw.

So unless you can switch out your PSU (which will come with an additional change of the case) you have to step back from your GTX 970.

Setting your power target to 75% would result in circa 120-125W which might help getting through the time until you bought a proper PSU (around 500-700 W, with a proper 80plus rating, built with proper parts, manufactured by a reliable brand)