Video card power

[biggjoee5790]

i have an evga 7800gt. my psu is 580 watts and has a few cords with the connector for my videocard. right now.. to save space and use less psu cables.. im sharing the 2 connecters on 1 cable between my video card and my hard drive. is it necessary to have the video card on a power line all by itself?? or does the psu distribute the power as needed.. even if 2 components are on the same line. im asking because the videocard manual says it needs a dedicated power source, i dont know if this just means it needs additional power.. or that it needs its own individual spot on the psu

 

[homerj14]

Does it have a PCI express? Connector

 

[biggjoee5790]

yes its pci express x16

 

[biggjoee5790]

sorry for posting again but i need to know because im worried that if its set up wrong that something could get damaged

 

[Jayce]

I was aware that the power supply kind of acts like a surge protector, in the sense that it'll distribute power to whatever needs it-- assuming it can supply it.

However, I have found that I have to group things separately. For example, the way my case is, I can't have my graphics card + my DVD rom on the same line because it won't reach.

I just kind of grouped everything together in its own little bunches just to stay organized. Meaning, for each "section" of connectors that came from the power supply, I tried to even them out to what they power.

I doubt you're hurting anything. If that was anything to watch out for, I'm sure I would of read about it on these forums at some point. The biggest gripe with power supplies is making sure that you get one that can supply enough power, and 580 watts is pretty beefy so I doubt you have much to worry about.

Granted, I'm not positive. Just stating personal opinion/experience.

 

[biggjoee5790]

yea thats what i was thinking.. i have it set up so that my video card and hard drive use the 2 connectors on 1 cable.. and my cd drive uses another cable. it saves space so i dont have to use many cables. i mean.. the cable does have 2 separate 4 pin connectors on it.. so it makes sense that its able to provide power through both of them

 

[JKnPA]

BJ.....
The power requirements should be stated in your manual.
See link below..... @12V ...... 20amp. Power supply.

http://www.inno3d.com/products/geforce7/systems_7800gt.html

John...

 

[biggjoee5790]

well the card seems to be working fine.. ive played games with it already. just so i know, what are some signs that would signify the card not getting sufficient power? what should i look for?

 

[Jayce]

If your card wasn't getting enough power, I'd suspect (but this is only an assumption) extremely sluggish response on your monitor. But DON'T confuse that assumption with slow ping on a bad connection day... aka, if you freeze for 2 seconds, don't rip apart the case like OMGAWD LYK MY VIDEO CARD IS SUFFERING.

To be honest, your power supply is 580 watts. I don't see how in the **** 580 wouldn't be more than enough for that setup.

 

[biggjoee5790]

yea i gotcha.. but im not worried about 580 watts not being enough. im worried about the fact that im sharing 1 cable between both the videocard and the hard drive