Computer freezes after installing graphics card

[Ruben Talpes]

Yesterday I installed a graphics card as well as a new power supply to support it and pretty frequently while playing games, the screen freezes.

The graphics card is a AMD Radeon R5 230 and the power supply is 520W.

My computer
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) IIx4 635 (4cpus) 2.9GHz
8gbram

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Freezing as in hanging the entire pc or only stuttering? which games are you trying?

 

[Ruben Talpes]

Mostly League of Legends and started playing Mighty quest for epic loot, (doing the same thing there). Freezing as in.. i believe just the screen cause after about.. 10-15 seconds it works again. cant remember if audio still works during that period.

Could power supply be the issue? when i installed the new power supply a bunch of cords (unused) were kinda layin over the graphics card but i opened the case and organized them as much as i could and they dont cover it or the fans anymore but the issue is still happening.

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Well your video card is really a low profile one so I doubt is taxing the PSU, however if you bought a really low quality PSU I guess its a possibility (which exact PSU model you got?)

Try lowering the quality settings on those games, it could be that you're simply expecting too much from your current setup.

 

[Ruben Talpes]

model..? the box says insignia 520W power supply (whats the u in psu?) bottom right of the box says NS-PCW5250

I'll try that, my computer didn't actually have a graphics card before so i ran league on all low settings and it worked fine except in fights (not too bad then either) but id get around 40-80 fps. after installing the card, all of yesterday it ran fine and even on high settings id get around 80-120 fps so i figured it was fine. I'll try lowering the settings and see if the screen still freezes. i have a small feeling it could also have something to do with something catalyst as well but ill try what u said.

 

[Ruben Talpes]

yeah, so idk what's up.. Turning down graphics setting does nothing, and its happening more frequently and getting very frustrating. sometimes when it happens on my regular home screen, right-clicking doesn't even bring up the same settings as when it doesn't freeze, and every time i right-click, that small menu gets stuck however many times i do that..

 

[RaDiKaL_]

PSU= Power Supply Unit

Random one you got there, but lets check first other factors, monitor your CPU and GPU temps at idle and while gaming, you can use HWMonitor Pro for this.

 

[Ruben Talpes]

ill try that but i just looked up a psu calculator and based on what i had before installing the graphics card my computer only needed around 250w to run smoothly, after the card, the calculator states i need around 816w to run smoothly.. that sounds like a ton of power needed just for a graphics card.. although on the box for it, it does say the requirements for it is 500w of greater (600 for something dual mode.. and the one i bought supplies 520w, could the issue be as simple as that? cause i could easily return the psu and find another one, or would it be cheaper to just return the graphics card and buy a less power intensive one, since i don't exactly need too powerful a card?'

thank you so much for continuing to help by the way. and regarding your suggestion, i did feel the card get a little warm when opening the case earlier but i assumed that was because of the cords in the way which i did straighten up.

 

[RaDiKaL_]

That measure of 816w is wrong, that R5 230 at most would use 150w, and I really doubt it actually goes beyond 90w actually.

Lets see how temps are first, another option is an issue with the Hard Drive, but that would also cause slow booting times that you'd noticed already.

Also, at which exact settings and resolution are you trying to play those games?

 

[Ruben Talpes]

While playing with both low and high quality the freezing kept happening. i returned that card and bout a card that required 200w (recommended) less and it even has its own fan, its been about 3 days and haven't had a single issue.

I feel like power could have been the issue because it did say on the box that 500w in parenthesis said 600 recommended and my computer on its own takes about 250w. regardless thank you very much.

 

[Hekarizblade]

Try changing the PSU but the specs are great it must not freeze if that happens
im using low 520w with mid spec rig in my case