Power supply - gfx 5950
 

My brother got a msi geforce 5950 fx a few weeks back. He was playing Farcry today, the first real test for the card, and we found that the computer now sometimes automatically restarts.

I doubt it was an overheating problem.. as the thing has 2 fans on it and ridiculous sized heatsinks. What i was wondering though, is that there may not be enough max power to power it. He only has a 300W power supply, and this is the first card i noticed, that takes an actual power cable off of the power supply to power the fans etc on the card. I couldn't find an actual power specification/requirement for the card, but was wondering if that could be a problem, for such a power hungry card.

the rest of the system is just a 2100 Xp gig of ram, cd rom and a 120 and 40 gb hard drive.

hmmm, maybe he should've got the radeon 9800 XT :hmm:

He could definately use another power supply, especially with those two hard drives, and the card. That being said, I'm not sure if that's the problem or not. Just making a general statement.

I know the Radeon 9800 Pro requires a power cable from the power supply as well, and it mentions a 300W minimum. I have a 300w, 2 large hdd, dvd rom, blah blah blah, and it has been getting pretty hot around here lately, but i haven't had any problems with the the psu, even when stressing the card pretty heavily. If i remember right, ATI had a little faq or something, saying that if you screen went black during gaming, or some other issues (possibly random restarts?) that it was most likely the power supply.

If its not too expensive, i would recommend a larger one though. Can never hurt to get one that will be powerful enough for the demands of tomorrows equipment, instead of the minumum for today's.

Right now I using a 300W with a 1700XP Radeon 9800 Pro and, 2 7,200 RPM hard drive, about 5 fans and I don’t have any problems. As long as it’s a good power supply it should be ok.

Cool, thanks. It may be overheating then :hmm:

I doubt the card is overheating. The stock heatsinks and fans are always enough to get the job done (for stock settings). They wouldn't sell it unless those heatsinks and fans kept the card running good. Are you overclocking the card any?

Also, you may want to check some video settings. Always check the RAM too. My brother's computer used to reset during Battlefield about once every 20 minutes. A year later we found out it was a bad stick of RAM.