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Solve : Does the psu affect the cpu?

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Hey i just UPGRADED the cpu on my computer.  The windows experience number for my processor rating went up to like 5.5 I think which i was happy with.  Well today I installed a new graphics pci-e card, now it says my processor rating is like 3.7.  The graphics cards says it requires a 300w psu,  and I do have a 300w psu.

My question is "could my new graphics card be robbing my processor of power?"  and if so "would just upgrading the psu fix the problem?"Yes.

If your graphics card requires 300 W, and you have a 300 W PSU, that leaves no power for the rest of your computer. Less power means it runs slower, and can actually ruin your hardware. Consider upgrading your PSU.Ignore the above post. Obviously the card is not using all of the power, it simply requires 300w to power it.Obviously a GPU with a 300 W requirement is not drawing all 300 W all the time. But if he has a 300 W PSU, then it is likely that he is overtaxing his PSU, especially if he just upgraded his CPU as well. A 300 W PSU is not enough to handle a rig with newer components. And while I don't know what exactly affects windows ratings, having an underpowered PSU at best results in crashes under heavy loads.

A Radeon 4870 for example, not exactly top of the line, draws 270 W when running 3d graphics in games, 147 W just to display the 2d desktop. Combine that with newer CPUs that draw close to 125 W, plus hard drives, etc..., and you are taxing the PSU which leads to overheating, and possibly overheating the other elements as they try to draw power as well which leads to poorer performance.

I'm not a computer engineer, just a physics teacher, so if Allan is and he swears it isn't affecting it, believe him. But it seems like if the only thing you've changed is the GPU, and that changed the rating of your CPU, then either insufficient power supply or insufficent RAM are the KEY suspects, and most GPUs use their own built in RAM. Or maybe the CPU has degraded due to overheating and you are just noticing now because you just ran the test again? Quote from: monkeydave on March 07, 2011, 02:41:19 PM

If your graphics card requires 300 W, and you have a 300 W PSU, that leaves no power for the rest of your computer.
You said that, not I. Quote from: Geek-9pm on March 07, 2011, 03:52:49 PM
Maybe 450 swats.

That sounds kind of cruel. Quote from: monkeydave on March 07, 2011, 03:32:30 PM
Obviously a GPU with a 300 W requirement is not drawing all 300 W all the time.
It never draws 300W. the requirement on the box is a estimate of the rating of power supply required to power an average system with the card installed.


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And while I don't know what exactly affects windows ratings
the CPU sub-score is calculated from the features of the processor, number of cores, and a measurement of calculations per second per core. A few googles on the problem and most of the problems are solved by properly INSTALLING the drivers for the new card, or in extreme cases even a clean install of the Operating System.

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and you are taxing the PSU which leads to overheating
Drawing more power then the rated amount for a PSU generally leads it to shut down, unless the draw is only momentary.


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and possibly overheating the other elements as they try to draw power as well which leads to poorer performance.
heat is generated by the electricity flow. A component  "wanting" more power doesn't cause it to run hotter.
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But it seems like if the only thing you've changed is the GPU, and that changed the rating of your CPU, then either insufficient power supply or insufficent RAM are the key suspects
The GPU is not the only thing that changed. There are now new driver components, all of which run in kernel mode and thus if improperly installed/configured will cause and intercept more interrupts, even during the CPU test. The CPU may very well be running at the exact same speed as before, but the test gives a lower rating because some of the time is interrupted by the driver. This doesn't even account for the fact that they no doubt also have an integrated driver installed that may still be active.

Quote from: rthompson80819 on March 07, 2011, 04:01:00 PM
That sounds kind of cruel.
I inadvertently deleted a post by Geek above yours that said the OP should get a 450W PS (I meant to click on "quote" and clicked on Delete instead - sorry)I figured something like that happened.  No problem.interesting, you mean the integrated graphics might be draining some of the calculations?   I guess I assumed that the integrated00graphics would get turn off when I started using the new  card.  I'll have to see if I can shut that down,  the reason i got the graphics card was so the integrated wouldn't tax on my system as much. 

The new graphics card, while not a heavy duty game card, is a 512mb graphics card.  The driver's for the new graphics card came straight from the Nvidia driver page, for some reason the included cd wasn't recognized by my dvd drive.

my system is not a really souped up system but if it would help this is what I am using
intel d945gcl-- main board
intel e4700 core2 duo-- cpu
nvidia geforce g210 512mb pci-e-- graphics
m-audio delta 1010-- sound card
and a 300w power supplyWell I went into device manager and the only display adapter it's showing is my new card.  I also went into the bios and picked my pci-e as my default video PROPERTY.  I started to download the drivers again, and I got a blue screen crash.  When I restarted the pc I got something like "windows lost contact with the video driver," or something along those lines.

I really don't like blue screens.  I am probably GOING to order a new power supply (550 w) just to be sure.

 I would love some more insight if anyone has any!


And thanks to everyone who has helped so far, you guys rock!Ok I am still going to be putting in a new psu, but when I took the pc apart to look at my old psu; I found that my cpu fan/heat sink was not seated tightly to the cpu.  I think it was just overheating, cause it is working fine now.


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