Bad Graphics Card Or Do I Need A Better Power Supply

Graphics Cards: Can a PC with 450W power supply run a GPU with 400W power requirement?

You may like to check when they said it has a 400W power requirement, was this a requirement for the power supply, or a requirement only for the GPU.A number of answers are assuming the GPU requires 400W for only the GPU, not including the rest of the computer (which would thus get 50W left). Then there is a lot of concern, because 50W is not a lot for a high-powered CPU and the rest of the chips and devices (like disk drives, RAM and USB ports).However, as one answer said, are you sure the GPU is 400W? That’s because most GPUs are sold on PCIe cards that have to meet the PCIe power spec, which is 75W for a card without an auxiliary power connector, 150W with one 6-pin aux connector, and 225W with two 6-pin aux connectors. There are now 8-pin aux connectors that can provide up to 150W each, so a card with one 6-pin and one 8-pin could be at 300W, which is around the most for cards sold on the market and one with two 8-pins could require 375W. These are very high-power GPUs indeed and as most answers said, they would feel much safer having a 650W (for example) power supply to keep some headroom or margin on top of the bare minimum requirement.If however the GPU vendor is spec-cing 400W because they expect that the GPU will take say 150–200W, and the rest is for the CPU and such, then, well, they may be assuming they know the CPU quite well, but heh, it’s possible and then you’ll be OK.Also one thing, though not to be taken lightly. If the PSU is well-designed, it can run higher than its continuous rating, for a short period of time (or bursts). Similarly, in real world scenarios, it is unlikely for the CPU and GPU to both simultaneously run at their max power. Scenarios where you hit max CPU power tend not to get max GPU, and vice versa. (however, it is not improbable you could). So that can sort of explain how you don’t have to go crazy either and put in too large of a power supply. It’s a bit hard to gauge this without measuring it so unless you’re quite sure, you over-margin it a bit, and as some say, it’s nice to not have to run the power supply all the way to the max rating. Keeping it to about 80-90% of it’s max rating, no more, seems to be a good rule of thumb.

What is better, two good graphic cards or one superb graphic card to play video games in a computer?

Single superb card is always better.There is only one very specific scenario when having two video cards is better, and it's not “two good graphics cards” it's “two of the top of the line graphics cards, running extremely high resolution (today that's either 4k or 8k), with an unlimited budget.”This is the only scenario where having two GPUs makes sense. It never makes sense to have two inderior GPUs over one greater GPU.This is because the benefits of running two GPUs in parallel isn't double. You don't get double the performance of one card; the benefit is highly-diminishing. It's closer to a 20% improvement most of the time.The only time you get anything close to double the performance is when running at high resolution. The rendering technique used in this case is to use one video card to render half of the pixels and the other for the other half. This gives the best returns for cards run in SLI or Crossfire.A card which normally doesn't have the throughput to handle a high resolution can manages to eke out the most benefit from two weaker cards by splitting the pixel rendering like this.However, you are generally better off with one better card. A single great GPU will outperform two lesser GPUs for the price, especially at resolutions around 1080p, which is the standard today.Worse, SLI and Crossfire still run into issues which can cause problems with games, like rendering problems or even game crashes. You're also generating a lot more heat and using more power. It's just really not worth it.Do not bother with SLi unless you just want to burn money and just want the bragging rights of have an Uber setup.Some people are recommending buying one great card today then adding a second card a few years down the line as an upgrade. I've gone down this path and regretted it. It's nonsense. Just sell the old GPU and buy a better single one when you want to upgrade. Trust me on this.

How would I know if my PC supports a graphics card?

It is very easy to determine this. There are basically two major things things you must check - your motherboard and your power supply.Firstly, your motherboard must have a PCI-E x16 slot. You can easily Google and find images of such a slot, but I’ll attach one here as well. Even very old boards have at least one PCI-E x16 slot, if not more. You could also just search for the specifications of your motherboard and check if it has PCI-E x16 slots. The generation of the slot does not matter, they are all backwards-compatible. But it is important for it to be x16, and not lower.Secondly, you must have a good enough power supply for the graphics card you plan on buying. How much power you need is decided by the specific GPU you plan on purchasing. Not only should it have enough wattage, it should also be a good quality unit, so that it can handle the extra load that the graphics card puts on it. Generally speaking, the graphics card is the most power-hungry component, so I recommend you to do some research on the needs of your graphics card and purchase a good power supply if you don’t have one. Oftentimes the power supply is disregarded, and a bad power supply can permanently damage your system and even cause a fire(only in extreme cases of course). A mid range graphics card from a specific generation usually is well-off with a 550 W power supply with at least 80+ Bronze rating. Again, what you need depends on the GPU you will buy.If both these conditions are met, i.e., your motherboard has a PCI-E x16 slot and you have a good power supply, then your system is ready for a graphics card. One more thing you must keep in mind is that CPU bottlenecking is also a thing, so make sure your CPU and GPU go well with each other. You mainly need to make sure that your CPU is powerful enough to handle the GPU you are buying, to avoid CPU bottlenecking. You can usually do this by searching for your CPU and GPU combination on YouTube, and see a few gameplay videos with on-screen stats, and make sure that the GPU usage is around 95–100%. If it is so, your CPU and GPU are a good pair. There is no need to look at CPU usages to check for bottlenecking.Hope this helps. Cheers!

Does a graphics card need more power while gaming? What will happen if the power is low?

Yes, it absolutely does. Gaming puts a high load on a GPU(provided it is not held back by the CPU), and the GPU has to do many tasks per second to meet the game’s requirements and to run the game smoothly. For this, the GPU needs more power, so that it can efficiently carry out all the tasks given to it.What happens when the power isn’t enough is that either the performance you are getting will be reduced, the game may freeze/crash, or worst case scenario, your PC will simply shut down. In a few rare cases, the PSU, due to the high load, may burn out and damage other components, but this only happens with low-quality power supplies like the Corsair VS450, or power supplies from cheap companies like Zebronics, Intex, etc.Either way, in most cases, your PC will simply shut off, and may or may not restart by itself. This is a protective feature of graphics cards and CPU’s - they shut down if there are any critical problems like extreme overheating or insufficient/bad power.Hope this helps. Cheers!

Can I replace my computer's graphics card?

As others have said, given the information you've given us, its pretty hard to say yes or no.Question 1: Is it a laptop or desktop? If its a laptop, the answer will be NO NO NO NO NO. Did I mention you can't upgrade laptop gpu's? Ok, well, techincally its possible, but considering you're asking this question (no offense), its a definite no. If we're talking about a desktop, most likely, yes. The first order of business is to check your power supply. Considering the fact that you've told us that you're not very tech savvy, I'm assuming you have a pre-built computer. Pre-built computers generally = crappy power supply. I suggest you also post pictures of your power supply including the label. Make sure the wattage is included. While not very common, a bad power supply can destroy your entire system.It looks like your computer is more of an entry-level one so I'll assume the the capacity of the PSU (Power Supply) is around 300-450 watts. While you won't be slapping a Titan X in it anytime soon, there are alot of low-power GPU's to choose from. The first thing that comes to mind is NVIDIA's 900 series which is running off the Maxwell architecture. One of the main selling points of the Maxwell architecture is its power efficiency. You'd probably best be served by a GTX 950 which ranges from $150-175. There's also the 750ti which is about $125-150 and is another low-energy card.The graphics card is probably the easiest part to install in a computer. Most computers have at least one PCI-E slot like this:The PCI-E slot is the top, dark blue one. the bottom slot is a PCI slot.Don't worry if your computer's slot doesn't have the tab at the end, that's simply a locking mechanism for added support but is not integral to the functioning of the card. I HIGHLY recommend also researching a bit more into the subject yourself. You'll find its not really that complicated. If anything, building a computer is like playing with a big, expensive set of Leggos. Good Luck!