Greetings! I have recently upgraded from an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT, and I'm noticing that I can no longer sustain my overclock @266 (and thus no longer keep my memory timings at 1066). Do I have enough power? The card is required to run w/a 450W according to the box, yet people seem to run fine on my PSU with somewhat similar specs, but i'd rather get the official word from you guys! Here are the specs to my system (that you guys help me build ages ago back in the strict budgeting days =D): CPU - Intel Pentium E2200 Dual-Core Allendale 2.2GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 MOBO - GIGABYTE GA-P31-S3G LGA 775 Intel P31 ATX PSU - Antec earthwatts EA430 430W Continuous Power ATX12V GPU - EVGA 768-P3-1360-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 RAM - G. SKILL F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) OS - Windows 7 Ultimate x64 So, two questions: 1) Do I have enough power? and if not (or if you believe its worthwhile...), 2) Since i plan on building a new PC anyway within the next year or so (whilst keeping my GTX 460 for a possible dual 460 SLI), complete with i7, ddr3, SSD and the works, what PSU should I get that will adequately cover such a rig later? My possible pic: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005 THANKS
430W's ample to run that system, you're looking at around 300-320W depending on how many hard disks you have. The GTX460 will load your PCIe slot more than the HD2600XT, it's possible overwhelming your motherboard, as it is extremely basic, and not designed for overclocking. Try a minor increase in voltage to the northbridge, but be careful, the tiny heatsink may get very hot and cause you other problems. What size monitor do you use? If you're looking into two GTX460s so you can run a high resolution and/or lots of anti-aliasing, you're out of luck, as the 768MB GTX460 really isn't up to this.
Currently i am running either a 22 or 23 inch LCD monitor (1680x1050 native). What is the issue with the 460's? Are you essentially saying that it wont be worthwhile to upgrade via 2 x 460 SLI in the future? I believe i tried a northbridge voltage increase, only to find the system will not post. Probably too much strain, as you suggest might be the issue. Surprised it's not likely my PSU though =P Oh, i'm running just one HDD, plus a USB external. Thanks for the awesome help as we can always expect from you, sammorris!
For a 22" monitor it's fine, my point is that the 768MB of video memory on the smaller 460s isn't enough for higher resolutions once you start maxing games out, and that's what you'll be doing if you go SLI. You also will have to upgrade the PSU if you go SLI. If you instead went with an upgrade to a card like the HD6950, you'd get just as much performance, yet you could keep the PSU, and you wouldn't have any video memory problems either, no matter how big a monitor you used. The P31 boards are quite basic, if no luck with the voltage increases the board probably just can't handle that FSB with that card in the slot. Try grabbing a P45 cheap from somewhere and see how you get on with that. Stick with Gigabyte or MSI if you can though, cheap brands will only cause you more problems.
cool, so that sounds like perhaps another video upgrade down the road rather than sli =)... when you start getting to higher level video cards, does video memory amount start to become the more important factor? Oh, and I appreciate the suggestions! I don't think i'll bother to replace the motherboard with such a major upgrade coming soon unless you feel it would be pretty dirt cheap to replace. What do you think?
It does, not specifically because you have a faster GPU but because of what you're trying to do with it. The higher the resolution you use, the higher the detail level, and the higher the levels of AA/AF, the more video memory you need, and 768MB is enough for 1680x1050 on high details with some AA in most games, but once you get to crazy games like Metro 2033 on ultra with high levels of AA, I think 768MB's going to be a bit short. 1GB would be alright at your res, but I can see 768MB being a little bit small. Depends what you can find for the board, Socket 775's outdated now so you won't find much new for it, it'll all be second hand stuff. Waiting for a new upgrade might be wise.
Thanks for all the information! I wish I had known about how important my video memory was beforehand, but oh well, could certainly be worse right? I think it'll last me a couple years though, so no worries, I by no means need everything maxed out all the time =) I'm sure I will be back within the next 6 months with help for my next build! Thanks sammorris! =)
