Not Enough Power

[Bravo Company]

What can happen if your power supply doesn't meet a recommended power usage for, say, a graphics card? I've did some power supply calculators and I should have enough power.

I'm upgrading my PSU in about 2 days so I figured it'd be fine to install my card now.

 

[pillar]

Well it really depends on what psu you have right now & what psu you plan on getting, not to mention what the video card that you have right now. Also check out the following site, which is helpful in determining the minimum wattage you need to keep your computer going while running a video card: http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html

 

[drbob]

The recommended listing is quite a bit over what is required, simply b/c the companies cannot afford to have people with way underpowered rigs buying the card and then complaining. If they don't state [a slightly bogus] power requirement, than they'd be filling out refunds left and right.

Just look up the TDP (total dissipation power) of that card on a specs site, that is the max it'll draw under load.
Then use a PSU calculator to see how much your /current/ system requires. If your current system + TDP is less than your wattage, you should be good.

There are other factors involved (amps on the +12v being a major part of it) but that all depends on the build quality/manufacturer of your PSU)

I'd say go ahead and install your card, it shouldn't hurt much (well it has a slight chance at killing the PSU but you're replacing that anyways) ... at most your computer will just shutdown if it can't handle the load

 

[Arn0t]

yeah, exactly what Bob said. The figure they give is over-rated (i once say power requrements for a card put it at 650W and if your running SLI 680W for the whole system)

I would also agree with Bob, and say put it in. If i dies, i guess you go without a computer for 2 days, but i see no reason why that would happen.

All should go well