A few questions on Power Supplies

S

Sadriam

New Member
I play a game with the graphics settings at about medium, maybe a little past medium. In an area with moderate activity i get around 75-80fps. Christmas is coming and i do not have much I want, and i will be playing this game for a while a lot, so i was thinking of buying something to make the FPS even better.

I am running only a 300watt power supply, which is hear is pretty...bad. My graphics card supports a minimum of 300watts, and can overclock gpu to 750MHz, and Memory clock at 400MHz. So i was wondering if buying a higher power supply and bringing overclocking would increase my fps.

If so, would i bring up GPU or Memory?

Also, is there any requirements for a power supply, or can i just get what i can afford and put it on my computer?

Also, a side question: I noticed my LCD monitor only goes up to 75Hz refresh rate, while on my graphics card control center, i can set a maximum refresh rate of 200Hz, and when i try to set it past 75Hz, of course it says "Not Supported".

Would getting a monitor that has a maximum refresh rate higher than 75 increase FPS? And if so are there any requirements for that as well?

Thanks for your help.
 
Would getting a new PSU help you overclock... Yes and no... Of course any device will have it's limitations. However, when you overclock you do need more power. So obviously, if the power supply doesn't supply the power, it very well could prevent you from overclocking. I doubt this really is the case, but getting a new PSU certainly couldn't hurt. 300 watt power supplies are just a general benchmark; you really should get one with a fair number of amps on the 12 volt rails.

Requirements for a PSU? Nah, they are all generally the same. The only real differences between power output is the number of wires/connectors and over-all quality. Size-wise, they are pretty much all within the same general size.

Hz is how often the screen is refreshed. I believe most games are independent of the windows settings for Hz (I have seen some where you could select 50Hz or 60Hz) However, no, this would not increase your speed. Essentially, in terms of Hz with an LCD, the more Hz you have, the less of a tendency you have of things bluring.
 
higher hertz also prevents ghosting a little as well, but ghosting has a lot more to do with the response time of your monitor.
 
So, how can you tell if you have enough power to overclock? I see that on the overclock screen on my graphics card control panel, you can set the GPU clock from 300-750MHz, and Memory Clock from 333-400MHz.

What effects how high i can put these up to?

At first i thought it literally mean 300 GPU as in 300watt power supply, and if i wanted to raise it to 750MHz, i would need a 750watt power supply, but i do not think that is the case, because it says MHz.

And how can i see how high i can put these up to?
 
Sadriam said:
So, how can you tell if you have enough power to overclock? I see that on the overclock screen on my graphics card control panel, you can set the GPU clock from 300-750MHz, and Memory Clock from 333-400MHz.

What effects how high i can put these up to?

At first i thought it literally mean 300 GPU as in 300watt power supply, and if i wanted to raise it to 750MHz, i would need a 750watt power supply, but i do not think that is the case, because it says MHz.

And how can i see how high i can put these up to?
Click to expand...

Aside from the requirements of the peripherals as a whole, the idea is not only to give yourself adequate stable power for the system, but to give yourself some leeway. In other words, you don't want to tax the PSU. You want some reserve so that the PSU is not running at maximum output on any of its lines.

Or so the rule of thumb says, YMMV.

As far as the other questions, there really is no set formula. You have a set of working parameters that the components will run within. That does not mean that you can make them do it since all components are to a degree (and depending on MB design) dependent on each other. Changing the FSB or the multiplier (if the CPU isn't multiplier locked) may affect the CPU but it will also affect the rest of the system as well. It will also be affected by the abilities of the MB/BIOS.

Is the memory speed locked to the FSB?
Is the GPU tied to the FSB?
Or can these components be controlled independently?

So how far can you go?

Answer:

As far as you can within the designs of the components and MB.

The key factors are stability and thermal control.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top