OK, I have read quite a bit of info today and I am getting conflicting opinions.

I just bought a new EVGA GeForce 7600 GS 256MB 8X AGP vid card. I didn't notice the small print on the side of the box that says it requires a 400 watt power supply until I got it home. I have a 300 watt power supply.

I was looking up power supplies and found info pages that said I need the 400 watts to run the video card and others that said that if I don't have a bunch of extras plugged into the power supply I actually only need enough power to run what I have.

Do I need to buy a new power supply to run my new video card and system?

Here are my system specs:

Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2
MidATX Case
Bestec 300 12E REV-D 300watt. Power Supply
K7MNF-64 PCB 1.x 400MHz FSB USB2.0 8XAGP
Nforce2Chipset 400MHz FSB
AMD Sempron 3000+ ~2000MHz 512L2cache 333MHz
Samsung 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz RAM (2 x 512MB)
Maxtor 80Gig 7200rpm HDD (16MB cache)

(Old video card - Chaintech NVidia FX 5700 LE 256MB DDR 8X AGP)
New video card - EVGA GeForce 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 8X AGP

NForce2 Audio Chipset (Useing Sony HiFi Sterio Headphones With Mic)
DVDR-RW Double Layer 8.5Gig
DVD-ROM
8 in1 Digital Media Manager
Logitech USB 2.0 3 Button Optical Wheel Mouse
Standard 104 key Intrnet Keyboard
Logitech USB 2.0 WebCam
17"CRT Anti Glair TrueFlatScreen Monitor
Cable Internet 4000kbps-down/384kbps-up (Running at 4550down/425up)
Linksys Network Everywhere Cable/DSL 4 port router NR041
(Shared via Home Network) Lexmark p3150 PrintTrio Printer/Scanner/Copier/Digital Card Reader (with it's own power source)

So do I actually need to buy a new 400 watt power supply?

Also just out of curiosity if the 400 watt power supply is recommended or needed what would happen if I ran the 7600 GS on a 300 watt power supply anyway?

Thanks for any help.

OK, I have read quite a bit of info today and I am getting conflicting opinions.

I just bought a new EVGA GeForce 7600 GS 256MB 8X AGP vid card. I didn't notice the small print on the side of the box that says it requires a 400 watt power supply untill I got it home. I have a 300 watt power supply.

I was looking up power supplies and found info pages that said I need the 400 watts to run the video card and others that said that if I don't have a bunch of extras plugged into the power supply I actually only need enough power to run what I have.

Do I need to buy a new power supply to run my new video card and system?

Here are my system specs:

Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2
MidATX Case
Bestec 300 12E REV-D 300watt. Power Supply
K7MNF-64 PCB 1.x 400MHz FSB USB2.0 8XAGP
Nforce2Chipset 400MHz FSB
AMD Sempron 3000+ ~2000MHz 512L2cache 333MHz
Samsung 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz RAM (2 x 512MB)
Maxtor 80Gig 7200rpm HDD (16MB cache)

(Old video card - Chaintech NVidia FX 5700 LE 256MB DDR 8X AGP)
New video card - EVGA GeForce 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 8X AGP

NForce2 Audio Chipset (Useing Sony HiFi Sterio Headphones With Mic)
DVDR-RW Double Layer 8.5Gig
DVD-ROM
8 in1 Digital Media Manager
Logitech USB 2.0 3 Button Optical Wheel Mouse
Standard 104 key Intrnet Keyboard
Logitech USB 2.0 WebCam
17"CRT Anti Glair TrueFlatScreen Monitor
Cable Internet 4000kbps-down/384kbps-up (Running at 4550down/425up)
Linksys Network Everywhere Cable/DSL 4 port router NR041
(Shared via Home Network) Lexmark p3150 PrintTrio Printer/Scanner/Copier/Digital Card Reader (with it's own power source)

So do I actually need to buy a new 400 watt power supply?

Also just out of curiosity if the 400 watt power supply is recomended or needed what would happen if I ran the 7600 GS on a 300 watt power supply anyway?

Thanks for any help.
You could run it, but Windows XP will give you notification that the video card is not receiving enough power and is running with decreased performance.

You could run it, but Windows XP will give you notification that the video card is not receiving enough power and is running with decreased performance.

I see. So I should just be paitent and wait until tomorrow when I can go back out and get a 400 watt power supply?

One more thing I thought of. A 400 watt power supply isn't going to require I change any settings in BIOS or possibly fry something because my system being built with a 300 watt power supplt is it?

Thanks again.

No you will be fine the more power the better as far as vid cards and performance, also memory, I would go with a 480