PSU New graphics card too much for aging PSU?

I've had a system for a while now which is showing its age (no OC, Q6600, 4GB DDR2, Gigabyte P35-DS4 mobo, but with a 6950 PowerColour card) and a Tagan 480W PSU (28A at 12V).

For the past year or so I've had a small 'HTPC' (i3, low profile graphics card) which has been fine for some mid-range games but I've been wanting to get back into proper gaming. I bought a XFX 7950 at the weekend for a short-term upgrade until I upgrade everything else this summer.

Swapped the cards over (2x 6-pin power connectors as well), the new one won't boot or show anything on the display even after reseating etc.

I thought it was the PSU, but after reading this article, it suggests the 7950 has less demand on the 12V rail than the 6950?! (Although going by that article, the 6950 shouldn't have even worked...)

So, is it likely to be the PSU or a dud 7950? If the PSU was underspecced, shouldn't it have at least booted?

Thanks

 

is the psu working with the 6970 back in it?

 

Sorry, should have said. Yep, swap that back in and it's fine.
I noticed a thread from a few weeks ago about Scan shipping refurbs, but it looks new...

 

Well you've worked out that the PSU is fine, even if it is right on the limit, so I would point my finger at the GPU as being a dud.

 

+1 to gpu dead. got any friends that have a pc you could try it on?

 

Not locally or got any other PCs that are capable of running it (all mini-itx/htpc). I'm tempted to get a new PSU just in case (as it'll probably need one for the full upgrade anyway) but I'm not convinced

 

If you have had the card for less than 7 days you can send it back for a refund, whether it works when Scan test it or not. So if I were you I would get on the case and phone up Scan for an RMA number.