Hi I just want to ask if my current CPU specs will not destroy my gpu… I got a very low spec cpu. cause thats all I can Afford thou I got a pretty decent GPU now. And I was just trying to assure not to destroy it.
So first heres my specs.
Note: this one passes the minimum requirements for the GPU to work.
CPU: Core2duo e4500 2.20Ghz
MOBO: LGA775 (32bit)
RAM: 1GB 667
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX260+
HDD: 250GB IDE
Power Supply: 500 watts true rated; (I dont know if the term true rated is only used here in our country, but what it means is that it is more efficient and reliable.)
now what I’m worried is the possibility that I will destroy my gpu… I havent put this build together yet… coz I’m afraid somethings bad is goin to happen.
#1 someone told me that with a generic power supply and wrong specs of CPU, I could possibly destroy my GPU…
#2 someone also told me that its not true and any kind of Power supply (as long as it can supply enough power for the GPU and the whole PC) and with any kind of CPU specs (as long as it meets the minimum requirements for the GPU) it will work. and if it happens that you didn’t meet the specs, The worst thing that could happen is the GPU will not work and it will not be destroyed.
I dont know what to believe :spin: So now I’m hoping you guys can help me. who am I goin to believe? Ive tried searching the net but it seems that there is no exact forums or articles about the compatibility of GPU with the other parts of the computer.
#1 someone told me that with a generic power supply and wrong specs of CPU, I could possibly destroy my GPU…
Nonsense, I had a GTX 260 running with a 450 watts supply and a 775 board for a long time.
You need CPU power for filling up the GPU, this is may a bit slower with your old CPU on big scenes.
If your supply is not suitable the system work fine but get unstable during rendering with cycles.
The only problem is GTX 260 need 2x 6 pin plugs and your supply don´t have.
I use a Y connector from 2 old 4 pin to 1x 6 pin to get it work.
As mib just said: you can not destroy your GPU this way. Worst case scenario is that your systems starts but crashes when you put full load on your PSU, which is annoying, but not dangerous. And the adapter mib is talking about is this one (you only need that one if your PSU does not have the number of plugs (the black end of this adapter) that your GPU requires. You can easily tell from looking at the GPU from the top):
If you want more (technical) information on measuring the required wattage of your PSU, you can find that here.
Being a bit of an reckless tinkerer I must confess to having blown a PSU and taken the fuses of two others over the years. The reason why it is extremely unlikely that your PSU will ever explode in a fireball and destroy your equipment has to do with the amperage fluctuations. Basically, your PSU will provide you with fixed voltages depending on what it is connected to. (The molex plug in the picture for example has 12V, 5V and ground). The problem is, that the load of your PSU varies depending on the equipment it has to power. Your PSU will maintain the fixed voltages, and for as long as it is able, provide the required amperage. If a device doesn’t get the required amperage (read: current), it will typically fail and that typically leads to a system crash.
Let’s assume the only type of voltage we have in your PC is 12V, and let us assume that your PSU is rated for maximum 450W. That means that the PSU can supply a maximum of 450W / 12V = 37.5A. If your equipment consumes no more than, say, 35A you should be safe right? Or on the flipside: would the PSU then be so close to it’s max that it could burn out?
Fortunately this isn’t a real problem because what really decided the minimum PSU you’ll able to use is peak wattage, and those peaks are usually a lot higher than your sustained wattage. Typically your PSU will, when your computer is idle use less than half of the wattage it does when it is at full power. And the peaks when hard drives spin up while you’re rendering and Blender accesses your RAM and you’re downloading a bunch of fragmented files etc., will be quite a bit higher - you’ll be running at maximum power. And because if you ever peak over what the PSU can handle you typically get a system crash, getting a PSU to deliver that 99% of the load the PSU can handle over sustained periods of time is practically nearly impossible. If your maximum power is 80% of your peak power, and your peak is 99.99999% of what the PSU can handle (so you don’t notice anything going wrong, i.e. your PC doesn’t crash violently), this still means that you will tax the PSU to its extreme only for tiny little burst, while you’ll be at 80% when you are rendering or gaming, and typically no more than 40% when you’re reading this
This was an extremely convoluted way of saying that even though it is technically quite possible to burn out your PSU, doing so in practice requires serious effort and a solid portion of (bad) luck. So in your case, I think there are other issues more likely (like inserting the GPU skewed into the PCIe slot or something), but you can’t worry about everything now, can you?
PS: Your PSU does also have fuses, which adds another layer of protection, in most cases anyway
let me just say you can burn your house down
i have had some experience lol
make sure its 80 plus and you have more than enough room than you need
a psu is one thing you do NOT want to go cheap on
I’ve had a PSU fail - loud bang, smoke etc; it was a quality brand, but was some years old and had done a lot of rendering.
Very shortly after that the motherboard started acting up before finally failing…
Coincidence? Perhaps, perhaps not.
During a storm, the telephone line was struck by lightening, the UPS didn’t help as it didn’t include telephone line protection - motherboard got damaged.
So yeh crap happens; take reasonable precautions that your budget can manage.
And while PSUs blowing up may be extrememly rare, them wearing out isn’t as rare. How they go belly-up may vary.
Hi I actually got 2 of that 6 pin but I dont know if I need to plug-in both of those 2 white connectors to the power supply or just 1 per 6 pin connector.
In a very basic view, your processor is clocked more than twice the speed of the video card, so it’s going to be affected more by the bus speed and memory on the board. That said, you’re system memory is not much higher than the video card’s and it is actually running slower than the card. You may experience a bottle neck in this setup, but the parts themselves won’t damage each other. The only way you’re going to blow out the gpu is an unlikely power spike (the fuse in the psu should blow out first if your power bar doesn’t catch it), abuse or a failure of components or materials in the card itself.
Ouch! This is something I forgot to mention in the FAQ. Yes, you do, and this is very important!
Without getting too technical: your PSU delivers power to your components via a set of different “rails” at a given voltage (5V, 12V etc.). These rails are typically the individual wires (each with several plugs) coming out of your PSU. Now, here’s the important bit: each rail has a maximum amperage. If your component try to pull more current/amperage than the individual rail can handle, you’ll have a crash. It would also not be healthy for your PSU in the long run (which does contradict somewhat what I wrote earlier - sorry, didn’t remember this point).
Solution: distribute the load over two separate rails by connecting both of the white molex plugs, and to two different rails (wires) on your PSU.
I seriously wonder how many have assumed they had a hardware failure when they simply had faulty wiring due to this…
can I increase the speed a little bit by buffing more RAM on board?
Oh yeah, as much you make possible but if you use a 32 Bit OS you cant use more than 3 GB (Windows).
Thanks man! but what do you mean about this? I need a more powerfull processor like core 2 quad or above?
If you start a cycles render the CPU calculate many things and send it to the GPU.
If you have a slow CPU and BUS it need more time to get it to the GPU.
Thats all, if all is in GPU it will render with full speed of your GPU.
