8600gt

kookooshortman55

New Member
What do you guys think about running an 8600GT on a 300W PSU? It's a stock PSU that came in my family's Gateway, and I was going to sell the 8600 to them so I could get the 8800GT. I read the label, it has 2 12V rails at 18A each, meaning it has somewhere around 36A (someone is going to give me a lecture on how u can't just add rails lol). If I'm reading the right section, I'm pretty sure it says the max wattage is 300W. Now the 8600GT requires a 400W PSU, but this has more than enough amperage on the 12V rail. Is it safe to put it in? It's also running an AMD Tri-Core at 2.1GHz.
 
Last edited:

hermeslyre

VIP Member
18a*12v= 216w. If the correct maximum rating of the unit is 300w, then both the rails cannot draw their rated 18a at the same time, I.E. The more drawn on one rail should decrease the amount that can be drawn on the other. I don't know how much power a X3 would use under load, but the question is, would either be enough to upset the balance if a load of 45w (about 4a) were added to the the other +12v rail?

I dunno lol, why don't you pull your 8600gt out and give it a shot? Wouldn't hurt anything.
 

StrangleHold

Moderator
Staff member
I was thinking the 8600GT only needed like a 300 watts. It only uses like 50 watts to run. Not for sure about the amps. Unless its just a old cheapo crap P/S it should be fine. The way you add the amps up on the 12V rails is find the total watts on the 12V rails, not the total of the P/S and divide it by 12.
 

kookooshortman55

New Member
Okay well it is the stock PSU that comes with the Gateway . . . something. Lol well the thing is I had this 8600GT running on my stock 250W PSU and it had 14A on the 12V rail. I think the box recommended like 16A or 18A or something. It ran for a month (I was looking for a nice PSU and got one eventually) but I know it wasn't safe. I'm sure the 300W will have no problem I was just wondering if it's safe.

I don't know how cheap it is. Haha it has 2 12V rails, in terms of the amperage on the 12V rail, it has more than my after market PSU does and it's 500W. So when looking for a power supply for a video card, is it the amount of amps on the 12V rail or the overall wattage that's more important? I was surprised this small PSU his this many amps. It even has a 6-pin connector.
 

kookooshortman55

New Member
Well according to http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=513&card2= it has a max power draw of 3.6A. That sounds very low please tell me I did that wrong haha. I'm just confused, well I know it has 2 12V rails at 18A but I'll check to see what the max wattage is. This thing has the specs and the connectors of a 500W PSU. Overall should I just go for putting in the 8600? I've had it run on 250W for a long time, again only 14A on a single rail, but if the PSU blows on the new computer, I don't want to risk losing anything.
 

kookooshortman55

New Member
Oh well I just ordered the new card which means I'm giving the old card to the 300W computer. Let's just hope it doesn't cause a meltdown.
 

lion149

Member
Actually i think the worst that could happen would be when the PSU overloads it destroys everything else with it ha
 

kookooshortman55

New Member
Haha seriously though. Sounds like a good PSU? 100W short on the overall recommended voltage, but apparently has enough amperage on the 12V rail to run a 9800GTX or something.
 
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