Video Card Question

[luv2kruz]

Just bought a XFX 6800GT PCie video card for my system. I knew that the card required additional power from the power supply however, when I received the card, the cable that goes to the card has two connections that merge together and connect to the card (kinda like a Y connector).

I could only find one extra connection to my power supply and connected it. The card works but I keep getting the message that the card is not getting enough power so it has reduced its peformance. Logic says that I probably need to connect the other connection, but I only found on spare power connection.

Do I have to get another power supply with more connections or can i somehow get the one I have to work (i.e is there such a thing as a splitter for these things).

My system came with a 420W power supply, which I thought would be enough given that the case it came with can handle up to 4 hard drive and a number of optical drives. Currently, I have two DVD drives, a flash card reader, one hard drive, the video card and obviously the motherboard.

Any help would be great.

PS Sorry if these are stupid questions, I'm kinda new at this computer stuff.

[redwudz]

You can get a Y splitter that works with 4pin Molex power plugs, but I don't think that's your problem. That Y on the vid card is probably so you can plug back in what you unplugged to make use of the vid card.

It's sounding like your PS is not putting out enough power or the voltage output is low. That's a serious problem if so. Check your power supply voltages. You can usually do that in BIOS or a program like Motherboard Monitor. Or you may just have a bad connection.

You haven't filled out your computer profile, so I have no idea what your system is.

The wiring on a typical PS or even the splitter can handle quite a bit of power. Unless their wiring is really substandard, or the PS is badly underrated, you should not have a problem with a 400W+ PS.

Or there is a problem with the video card.

PCI video cards draw a lot of power, especially SLI, but most any PS rated over 350W should be able to handle it, depending on what else is plugged in.

My computer is running 4 HDs, Zip, floppy, DVD ROM, DVD burner, CD burner and a PCI-E Vid card and I still have enough power with a 480W PS.

[luv2kruz]

Redwudz,

The Y cable is definitely both going into the card and not one in and one out to connect to something else. The spare connection was hanging there and I did not disconnect something to plug into the video card.

Just as an update, I did disconnect one of the optical drives and connected that power cable to the second one that feeds the video card. I booted up the system and the video low power message did not appear (the fan also got a bit louder). So I'm guessing that the video card is alright and I simply have to find another power connection to connect to the second power cable to solve the problem. Hopefully I can set up some sort of splitter.

Thanks for your comments.

BTW - how do I check the voltage of the PS in Bios?

[redwudz]

Checking the voltage in BIOS depends on your BIOS. Some have a 'Hardware Monitor' page. If not, Motherboard Monitor is free and works on most MBs. The info on which ones work or don't should be available on their site.

I wonder why a second connection to the PS would help if all the wires come from the same PS connector. I still wonder at your PS capacity.

[Poppa_Meth]

I don't know what kind of PSU you have. If it's got 2 +12v rails you might be drawing too much power on one and when you unplug the optical drive and plug it's power connector in you may be drawing off both rails. Of course you could also just have too much on the rail to begin with. Make sure it isn't hooked up with the other bigger power consumption devices like the HDDs. I put a 6600GT in a Dell 4600 which has a max rating of 350 on the PSU and have had no issues. It's running AGP but it still draws heavy power. I split it off the FDD though with no problems.

[Heywould3]

i did some looking around at this card.. and from what i can tell your PS should be plenty.. it might be that the cable you used is a y adapter and you plugged into the wrong one.. is that possible from the configuration of your set up? try removing the first cable you plugged in and leave the one from the drive.. see if you get the errors again.. it might just be a pass through for people with limited 12v sources..

worth a shot

[luv2kruz]

I think I figured out what might be wrong.

Firstly, I untangled the spaghetti that my system builder shipped me and found out that the power end that I used, even thought it had four wires going the connector, was split off from two wire splitter up stream. So, there was no way this would work, but I could not see this immediately.

I ended up taking one of the ends that came directly from the power supply to an optical drive and plugging this into one the power connections to the video card (i left the other hanging for now). I then took the other end that went to the other optical drive directly from the power supply and put a y splitter on this and fed both optical drives from this. NO error messages so far.

I also did some more research on the manufacturers web site regarding why the power cable to the video card had two ends connecting into the card. They said that this is for when you want to overclock the card, you need to connect these ends to two separate power cables coming from the power supply (I guess for more juice). If you only plan to use the card as built with no overclocking, then these two ends (or one end only) can be fed from one connection to the power supply.

Thanks for your help and comments.