new vga problems?

Nemesis-301

hey everyone well last friday I bought a new vga , 1gb gts 250 from pcandparts

and I have a 500 watt power supply and its brand name is dynex. I thought it was a good power supply but its not, I have in my computer:

1 dvd/wr
2 harddisks
and the vga, but the vga wont turn on unless I plug in the 6 pin power connector that the power supply has:

so umm if I plug all these in, the computer wont turn on, but if I unplug the dvdrw or the secondary harddisk the computer turns on fine, but here is my problem, the vga works great I can play any game on maximum resolution with full graphics, but there is a weird thing happening, if I play games with low contrast for ex: metro2033 on dx10
I can see small waves on the screen its really irritating, I can only see them on low contrast, another good example is on the menu screen of civilization 5, its hard to explain but its like the screen "3ambtel3ab" I need your advice guys, do you guys think its from the vga or the power supply, should I return the vga to pcandpart?

edgelord101

Of course it's your power supply. If your computer isn't turning on when you plug in everything, then it's definitely your power supply (and and by the way, your GPU needs 1 x6pin connector, so there's no question about that). According to Nvidia, the GTS 250 needs a minimum 450W PSU. So you're just on the edge. And in games you're starting to see artifacts, which means your GPU is suffering with such low power. If I were you, I'd get a new power supply and stop using my GPU until that PSU arrives. You don't want to damage it and have to buy a new one. Like in my case, my GTX 260 needs 500W of power, and that's exactly what I have. That's why this summer, I'm getting a new PC with at least a PSU of 800W in it. Always run your GPU's on PSU's that are 200-300W above it's requirement because PSU's don't always provide 100%. In fact, most provide just 80%+.

Flakk

Its the power supply. Get a Thermaltake, Coolermaster, Antec, Inwin or anything good. and make it 500w+.
Btw Tako you should consider buying a UPS above 800watts if you are planning to upgrade the PSU to that wattage level. (and good UPSes are not cheap)

edgelord101

Flakk wroteIts the power supply. Get a Thermaltake, Coolermaster, Antec, Inwin or anything good. and make it 500w+.
Btw Tako you should consider buying a UPS above 800watts if you are planning to upgrade the PSU to that wattage level. (and good UPSes are not cheap)

I was actually considering that because my UPS can't hold my PC ingame. It just shuts off like I don't even have a UPS. It only works when I'm not running any games. Where could I find a good UPS? And how can I know the wattage of my current UPS? All it says on the front is SelfProtec (the brand) and Mistral 1000ST.

Ohhhh... I just read on the back it says under output 500W. Well it sure isn't acting like it has 500W!

edgelord101

Well, from what I say from pcandparts.com, to get to total Wattage, you divide the VA (whatever that is) by 2. Well... To get remotely close to 800 Watt support, I have to pay over $250. Great.

MrClass

A good power supply can reach 85% efficiency. So if you have a cheap PSU, you'll be lucky if it can give 70%. A thermaltake 600watt PSU should be fine.

Nemesis-301

well I tried connecting 2 power supplies at the same time, it worked, but no improvement...

edgelord101

Nemesis-301 wrotewell I tried connecting 2 power supplies at the same time, it worked, but no improvement...

Regardless, your PSU isn't sufficient to load the entire PC together. So if I were you, I'd order a stronger PSU from pcandparts.com and tell them to take your GPU and test it. You have a year of warranty, so don't worry.

Flakk

Nemesis you still need a good enough powersupply with 48a +12v, any coolermaster or Thermaltake above 500watts is good. You can also get a seperate power-supply for your videocard only which pcandparts had but i think they ran out of stock im not sure.

Sorry for going offtopic;
Tako I ran in to the same problem when i upgraded my 350watt psu to a 700watt psu. I searched and i found the PCE UPSes but i didnt buy it from pcandparts, I went directly to the official Distributor in the Dawra region and I bought a 1200VA UPS. Its really reliable and can hold up to 30minutes on its dual 12volt batteries even while ingame. But it cost me around 132$ TTC.

And for the wattage its not like what you said the 1200va is 720watts. The calculation is based on the PF or Power factor in which you : Power Factor * VA = total Watts . The standard power factor that PCE are taking is 0.6. So you multiply 1200*0.6=720watts. The only thing i didnt understand is how they set the Powerfactor value, why cant it be 0.7 or 0.8.

Anyways sorry again for going offtopic, just thought id help someone.

Xsever

It's not only about power (Watts).

The GTS 250 required 22~24 Amps on the 12V Rail of the PSU. Cheap PSUs may have 500W, but they cannot deliver this current on the 12V Rail.

Conclusion: Buy a quality PSU ASAP or you will damage all your parts. Never go cheap on a PSU. It's the most vital component in a PC.