NVIDIA card not getting enough power?

R

RoyGBiv

New Member
I have just built a new computer with a Gigabyte GV-N250-1GI card which uses NVIDIA GEFORCE chipset, which I have a question about.

The motherboard is a new Gigabyte GA-X58A which is using an i7 CPU, 4 gig of memory and has a new Rosewill 650 watt power supply (just FYI, the power supply and CPU were part of a special combo deal at Newegg).

When I start or end windows, I get an error message that the video card is not receiving enough power, and it is running at a lower resolution to save power. It says to attach the additional power supply or check the power source. Well, the card's manufacturer says it needs a 450 watt power supply or greater, which I definitely have. I have no idea what the "additional power supply" might be since the card is firmly mounted in the board, it is working normally, and there is nothing I can find in the installation instructions indicating another power source that can be attached anywhere to the card.

First, from what I can tell, there are no issues setting the card to any resolution/frequency combination that I want. Also, the picture I get is excellent, and since I don't do any heavy duty gaming, I'm not sure I need to change anything.

The power supply connections to the motherboard are all connected and seem to be firmly seated. I would think that if something was wrong with a connection there, nothing would work at all.

What else could this be referring to, and how do I fix it???

Thanks.

SMK
 
NVIDIA GEFORCE chipset? are you using onboard video with this?

If it isn't and you have a dedicated video card you may be running into problems that your psu does not have the required amps on each dedicated rail.

Can you post the specs to the psu and the video card if it is dedicated?
 
Did you connect a 6 pin (pcie connector) power connector from the PSU to the video card?

EDIT: Here, I circled it for you:
tempai.png


You just need to plug in the pcie power connector (from PSU) there.
 
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Thank you. I assumed it was something simple like that, but there is NOT ONE WORD about doing this in the instruction (installation) manual or in the mother board installation manual (which shows how to install a PCIe graphics card)!!!!


SMK
 
Bummer sniperchang beat me to it.

RoyGBiv said:
I am unsure I understand your complete response, but this is the info I can provide.
Click to expand...

Sorry about that. I'll try to clear that up...

For some video cards, it has a rating that will tell you how many amps you need on each of the 12v rails on the psu. Some psu's will have a multi rail configuration (so 2 12v rails or more). Some people get caught when they have a multi-rail system that has an amperage rating on one of the rails that is lower than the requirements for their graphics card. For example


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339
This Graphics card needs:
Minimum of a 450 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 24 Amp Amps.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256008
This psu has:
+12V1@18A,+12V2@18A (Two rails)

Since card needs 12v@24A > +12V1@18A what the psu can give.

The card will not be able to be powered by the psu even though the wattage is over the recommended amount.

I hope that explains it a bit better. If that was what you didn't understand about it.


Now for your situation:
You have a single rail psu rated at 50a. Which is more than enough to power your card. You had mentioned that you think that the the pins are hooked up to the motherboard correctly. While that is important I think that you may have forgotten to plug in the 6pin pci connector. You have 2 6+2pin pci connectors off of your psu. The one on the right is the 6+2pin.

pcie-connectors.jpg


That should hook up to the back of the card and to give it the extra power that it needs.

Hope that works!
 
salvage, you forget, try simple solutions first! :)

RoyGBiv said:
Thank you. I assumed it was something simple like that, but there is NOT ONE WORD about doing this in the instruction (installation) manual or in the mother board installation manual (which shows how to install a PCIe graphics card)!!!!


SMK
Click to expand...

It should be in there, but that connector is very common, it provides extra juice that the PCIe slot just can't provide. The more powerfull graphics cards can have two six pin connectors (there's also 8 pin connectors, you can see in salvage's above image). From now on, if you see that six pin connector just plug it right in.
 
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Thanks to everyone! I attached the additional power cord and everything seems to be perfect.

I can't believe there is nothing at all about this in the card's installation manual!!!

Thanks again.

SMK
 
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