Graphics Kinda n00b question

Hi, Im thinking of buying an ATI Radeon Sapphire HD 3870 Graphics card (which is considerably better than my current 8600GT) and I want to know two things:

1.) Will my 500W PSU be meaty enough to power it?
and 2.) Is it compatible with my ASUS P5NE-SLI Motherboard?

Regards
Jon

 

Hi.
1) It'll propably work, but just to be sure, could you list out your complete spec? Or then you could calculate it yourself in here.
2) Every graphics card works in every motherboard, if it only has the right connection (AGP/PCI-E) and your mobo propably has PCI-E, so you are fine with that.
If you're planning Crossfire, you need a crossfire compatible board.

 

yes (as long as it has a 6pin PCIE power connector) and yes (as long as it has a PCIEx16 slot) but both of those are a given these days.

but if you want 2 in crossfire, you have to have a crossfire enabled Mobo

 

According to that my reccomended PSU wattage is around 438W, which is good. I have a Q6600 at 2.44 Ghz, 4GB of Corsair Ram @ 333MHZ each and NVIDIA 8660GT @ 512MB, Im planning to add some more cooling and overclock my CPU soon after Ive got my card, thanks for the answers anyways .

 

I personally don't put too much credence on those PSU calculators, since it also depends on make of PSU (ex. Corsair PSUs are conservatively rated; while cheap ones are overrated) and some MBs are power hogs (e.g. DFI NF4 boards); Also, I much rather have a PSU that's got more power than I need

 

radogrill is right, it all depends on the make of your PSU, if its a well known brand it should be fine. If its something that came with your case or a cheap no name then it probably won't handle it too well.

 

As mentioned before it does depend on what make of PSU you are using, but if the GT isn't having any problems try stick on a coupel extra fans if you have then and see what happens, if no change at all I would imagine it would be fine, either way good luck, tis a brilliant card!