I recently purchased an ATI Radeon X1900 PRO (PCI-express). It needs to be connected to the computer's power box, which is recommended to have 450 watts. When I opened the system and read the side of the box, it said it had 375 watts. I live in America where the outlets give 125 watts. I would like to know if my video card can run under these conditions.

Thank You :cool:

Nick1337,

Power (Watts) is equal to voltage times amps. In the US, volts are typically calculated at 120V or 125V (different places will use different numbers). So a 375 watt power supply would be (375 divied by 125 is) 3 amps. But that doesn't really matter. That power supply, no matter what, can only give 375 watts. You can't have it give more or else its safety circuit will trip and it will kill itself to prevent a fire.

I think the 30 amps is wrong. I think it should say 3.0 amps. And the 60 watts is wrong, too, I think. It makes sense for it to say 60Hz or 60 Hertz, but not 60 watts. Anyway.

Bottom line: Your power supply may have the capacity to run what you've got in your computer now, plus the graphics card. But it may not. You may need to get a new power supply. If that's the case, you have two things you need to make sure you pay attention to:


Will it fit in your existing case?
Power supplies are rated by watts. Get the biggest that will fit


"Unused" watts are fine - it leaves room for expansion and means that your power supply doesn't need to run as hot (which means its fan doesn't need to run as often and overall your power efficiency is greater).

If this helps you out, good. If not, ask again and I'll see if I can better answer your question.

-TS