Q&A – Should I upgrade my PC’s power supply if I buy a new graphics card?

A. Depending on how much power it can punch out, you may not need to.

If you’re into gaming and you’re thinking about buying a new graphics card, make sure you look at the power requirements of the card. You’ll either find this on the Nvidia or ATI websites or in the graphics card manual (look for the section on “system requirements”).

If you’re gaming with just a single card, you should have no trouble if your PC’s power supply rating is at least 550-watts. The cheaper the card, the lower the power rating of the power supply needs to be.

If you’re talking about gaming with two or more cards, then you’ll need to start thinking about a more serious unit that can output 700, 800 or even up to 1000-watts depending on the graphics cards you use.

For power supplies running multiple Nvidia graphics cards, check Nvidia’s website specs here.

For power supplies powering more than one ATI graphics card, check AMD’s website here. (Unfortunately, AMD has been tardy in updating this list and there’s no mention of Radeon HD 5000-series cards here.)

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