Discussion what if you connect a 600W graphics card on 550W PSU

[antonis mark]

this isn't really a question but will the power supply fail, overheat... ?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

What graphics card?

I do not know of any GPUs that draw 600w. Perhaps you are looking at recommended PSU wattage for that GPU?

 

[antonis mark]

yep

 

[4745454b]

I can't think of any 600W graphics cards. ~400W is where they top out.

It's going to depend on the psu. Some are great and are underrated. Meaning this 550W psu can output 700W safely and you won't noticed anything. Some are set to output 600W and shutdown at anything over that. You'll be fine in that case, though you might get odd shutdowns if you ever hit 601W. Others can barely handle the 550W they claim to be and will shut down as soonas you load the game. Others still are fire hazards and lie about being a 550W. These should be avoided at all times.

 

[antonis mark]

I can't think of any 600W graphics cards. ~400W is where they top out.

It's going to depend on the psu. Some are great and are underrated. Meaning this 550W psu can output 700W safely and you won't noticed anything. Some are set to output 600W and shutdown at anything over that. You'll be fine in that case, though you might get odd shutdowns if you ever hit 601W. Others can barely handle the 550W they claim to be and will shut down as soonas you load the game. Others still are fire hazards and lie about being a 550W. These should be avoided at all times.

I use the corsair CX series the CX550M

 

[TheJoker2020]

this isn't really a question but will the power supply fail, overheat... ?

The PSU could do any number of things if it is overloaded.

What happens depends very much on the details and the PSU quality.

Is it a transient spike or a constant load, what rails/voltages are overloaded or are multiple overloaded etc.

A good PSU will ride out a transient spike, and shut down if the load lingers, a bad PSU could catch fire or parts explode which would also quite likely destroy other PC components.

As NightHawkRMX says, what Graphics card draws that much power.? Or are you reading what the graphics card manufacturer recommends as the minimum power supply wattage for that Graphics card.?

 

[NightHawkRMX]

As others have said, It does depend on exact GPU and exact PSU used.

If the PSU is of high quality, you may be able to go below the recommended PSU wattage.

 

[geofelt]

There are a couple of scenarios.

1. The psu will run, but you will get artifacts because of insufficient power to the graphics card.
2. The psu will get overloaded and fail.

2a with no damage.
2b the psu will not have the circuitry to keep from damaging other parts.

1. the graphics card will not run at all.
2. The psu will run for a while, but when the system heats up, the psu will fail.

The Corsair CX550M is a budget unit; the power is only rated at 40c.
Case temperatures are likely to be much higher.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I ran a cx550m with rx5700 (which has 600w reccomended) and it worked fine, even overclocked. I also ran an r9 390 on this psu which draws even more power and it worked fine.

Your milage may vary.