Power supply unit affect performance?

[BenyBen]

Hi,
Here's my Hardware
Cpu: p4 1.9 Gb
Ram : 512 Mb DDR
Mobo : Asus p4p800 Deluxe
Video : Asus GFX 5700 256 MB
PSU (power supply): 350 Watt...
Hard Drives : 80 Gb and 160 Gb Western Digital

I am getting poor performance out of Unreal tournament 2004.. At first it was very nice, I could run 1024*768 with all the settings maxed out...

But as I keep playing, my performance drops, and not I get computer lag again during gameply. Someone suggested that with my setup right now, I should get a stronger PSU (like 400W)...

What led me to beleive this is that sometimes when I power off my cpu, my system won't go through the POST when I try to power it again, and I just get a dark screen. After shutting down the Power to the PSU for a few seconds, I get back up fine... But the last time, it scared me shitless, the system simply wouldn't come back up.

Then I switched my video card to my old Gforce 3 - That worked.
Switched again to my GFx 5700 - worked...

It all looks like the PSU is my problem, but I'm also wondering if you heard about a weak PSU causing bad framerates....

 

[jagec]

350W what brand?

Because if it's a good brand (Antec, Enermax, PCP&C) 350W will be more than enough to power that system.

That said, the only way I could see a bad PSU causing poor framerates would be if the video card needed auxilary power, like the 9700/9800. I don't know if that's the case with the 5700.

 

[BenyBen]

No, it doesn't require auxiliary power...

And yeah, I think it's a no name PSU....

 

[jagec]

I would suggest upgrading to a good brand PSU, even if that *isn't* the cause of your framerate issue, simply because you've got a lot of expensive hardware that it would suck to lose if your PSU decides to bite the dust. Granted, not *all* no-name PSUs take hardware with them when they die, but it's a much higher incidence than brand-name stuff.
Some brands *cough* Deer *cough* are notorious for killing just about everything in your system when they go.
The school where I work had a good half-dozen computers they must have ordered 5 years ago or so...no-name motherboards, Celerons, and generic cases with Deer PSUs...I couldn't get a single one of them to power up, not even spin a fan, much less boot.

 

[BenyBen]

Thanks muchly ofr your help...

I think I'll follow your advice and buy myself an antec PSU. Wouldn't want my hardware to blow....

 

[BenyBen]

ok, so I rebooted my computer earlier, and b4 it shutdown, the screen started showing an acid trip image (distorted, shitfting paterns)...

I had to forcefully power the machine down, then the computer would not reboot.. EVER... So, I popped in my old geforce 3 again, and my system boots up just fine.


After a while, I thought to try and shut down to put the new video card in again, and it boots up, except that after a while, some kinda pixelated streaks appear on my screen, and more and more would come up... when I reboot, even the bootup screen is weird (shaking image....)

So, I just looked, and my power supply unit has this on :
tigerpro model tp-350 12v ver.2.03
+3.3v- | +5v
14a | 35a
200w max
350 W max

So, Is is a 200w, or 350? Also would you think a cheap no name PSU could cause such a problem? Thanks

 

[BenyBen]

bump

 

[fowlrock]

your video card is taking a crap....

time to RMA it....

I had the exact same thing happen to my first 9700pro...

 

[Soup]

maybe your agp slot is dirty??

happened to me, after while of games i would get a pink screen with streaks on it, cleaned the slot with some alcohol, and never happened again

 

[Fenster]

Might I just point out the obvious first; make sure you have the latest chipset drivers installed. If so, maybe try reinstalling them? I've had similar experiences on previous systems when I forgot to install VIA's chipset drivers.

If that's not it, I'd say it's either your card or your PSU. Hell, maybe both! Get a new PSU anyway. First thing I do after getting it is stick in some new, name-brand, low RPM fans. I've heard a lot of people saying that Antec and Enermax fans start to go out in a relatively short time from purchase. A hot PSU is a sad PSU. Maybe even try that before getting a new PSU?

 

[BenyBen]

your video card is taking a crap....

time to RMA it....

I had the exact same thing happen to my first 9700pro...

Ahhhhhh that's scary, I bought it from a place with good exchange policy... So it shouldn't be an issue, the scary thing is that the card, and the motherboard are brand new (one week usuage)... So something burned it out. Could a bad PSU do that?

maybe your agp slot is dirty??

Hmm, The mobo is brand new, and I looked at it and there was no dirt in there...Plus, my old Geforce 3 works in there. Maybe it's the problem, but all sings point to no is what my eight ball said. I'll still give it a closer look though.

Might I just point out the obvious first; make sure you have the latest chipset drivers installed. If so, maybe try reinstalling them? I've had similar experiences on previous systems when I forgot to install VIA's chipset drivers.

Well, I don't think this applies, since the system does not even boot ( i mean no POST) with the card in...

If that's not it, I'd say it's either your card or your PSU. Hell, maybe both! Get a new PSU anyway. First thing I do after getting it is stick in some new, name-brand, low RPM fans. I've heard a lot of people saying that Antec and Enermax fans start to go out in a relatively short time from purchase. A hot PSU is a sad PSU. Maybe even try that before getting a new PSU?

yeah, the psu seems like it's blowing out quite hot air... But I thought this was normal, since the fan is woking fast and noiseless, pulling that heat away from the psu.

 

[BenyBen]

fowlrock, you were right, my video card died. Thankfully I bought it somewhere with a nice return policy...

Just in case, I bought myself an Antec Tru power 430 W PSU... Now I'll be sure it's not the freakin psu. Thanks for your help all...