What risk if PSU not high enough wattage for video card?

Z

zedDoubleNaught

I got a new computer last month, and put in my 4-year-old dual-monitor video card. I noticed the PSU is 180 watt, then today saw that the video card says to use 300w PSUs or higher.

What is the risk of running this system? Is it towards the side of 'the video won't display as well', which I'm ok with, don't need serious video gaming. Or is it towards the side of damaging hardware, or worse? I'm more concerned about damaging the card, the motherboard, overheating, starting a fire, or something serious.
 
You run the risk of killing your components because when the PSU cannot supply enough power, you'll encounter a power cut (reboot). 180W is extremely low, are you sure you were looking at the right numbers?
 
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It is an interesting question, but my mind tends to lean on the side of "it will not kill your peripheral".

If you have less current or voltage, it should not cause your peripheral to overheat and whatnot. Your peripheral will DRAW current from the feed, If not enough current, it does not perform properly. It cannot draw more current than it is designed to. But if too much voltage is supplied in the feed, that is what zaps you.
 
d08 said:
You run the risk of killing your components because when the PSU cannot supply enough power, you'll encounter a power cut (reboot). 180W is extremely low, are you sure you were looking at the right numbers?
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Yes -- it is on the PSU, which I saw when I opened the shell. Plus, it's on the website for the specs. Honestly -- I am actually very unhappy that such an important detail is left off the info they provide on sellnig websites (like bestbuy.com or newegg.com). I would not have known if I had not opened the shell, or looked up the specs on the website, to find this info. Lenovo, and HP, latest models have this 180w PSU on their basic models.

I think I have seen what you mention, the reboot -- if I put my machine on 'Supend', then come back, it looks like it does that -- the shelpwer button light goes off, then comes back on, and gives the login screen.
 
I'm surprised a new computer would come with a PSU that small. Mine came with a 460W PSU out of the box.

Have you considered upgrading? You could easily replace it for $30-$40.
 
zedDoubleNaught said:
Yes -- it is on the PSU, which I saw when I opened the shell. Plus, it's on the website for the specs. Honestly -- I am actually very unhappy that such an important detail is left off the info they provide on sellnig websites (like bestbuy.com or newegg.com). I would not have known if I had not opened the shell, or looked up the specs on the website, to find this info. Lenovo, and HP, latest models have this 180w PSU on their basic models.

I think I have seen what you mention, the reboot -- if I put my machine on 'Supend', then come back, it looks like it does that -- the shelpwer button light goes off, then comes back on, and gives the login screen.
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Replace it immediately, it's a cheap part. Even if it doesn't kill any components, you will lose work with all the restarts. This is a no-brainer.

The wattage is not the only thing that matters, to get the real picture you should multiply the wattage with the efficiency rate. So a very cheap 600W PSU might actually perform worse than a high quality 450W one.
 
Do you need the old video card? Most new desktop computers come with the ability to drive two monitors from the onboard graphics adapter.
 
zedDoubleNaught said:
I got a new computer last month, and put in my 4-year-old dual-monitor video card. I noticed the PSU is 180 watt, then today saw that the video card says to use 300w PSUs or higher.

What is the risk of running this system? Is it towards the side of 'the video won't display as well', which I'm ok with, don't need serious video gaming. Or is it towards the side of damaging hardware, or worse? I'm more concerned about damaging the card, the motherboard, overheating, starting a fire, or something serious.
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I'm surprised to read that your PC is equipped with such a small PSU. 180 Watts is not of much use.
What happens if you overload this PSU (current drawn becomes too large) is that the voltage will drop. This may cause a sudden and uncontrolled shut down of your PC, depending on how much the voltage drop is. It might be that it then reboots automatically. Or that you have to restart your PC manually. As the shutdown occurs uncontrolled and unplanned, is it very likely that you'll lose all data which was not stored on disk.
I don't think that it will cause any physical damage to the components (hardware) of your PC.
 
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