My two year old HP came equipped with a 300W power supply and a 8500GT video card. Ran very well with decent graphics, until last week when BSOD and just about anything else you can imagine took place on my screen. Multi colored artifacts, complete freeze up, BSOD (B=Black), white areas turned yellow, Safe Mode only boot and then no boot at all. Process of elimination targeted the video card. Bought a Radeon HD4670 for which ATI recommends nothing less than a 400W power supply, preferably higher.While waiting for such power supply to arrive from Newegg, I installed the HD4670 to see what would happen. Would it run at all on a 300W supply? Would I have drop outs, or anything else happen to the new card? Well, 4 days in running with the HD4670 on a 300W supply, nothing negative has happenend, which leads me to this question. From a "demand" perspective, how does FS compare to arcade type video games? Do I really need that 400W power supply to assure proper functioning of the video card (it does have a Zalman Fan) while running FS9 or is the manufacturer simply covering their butt assuming most users will be playing the arcade type of games, which probably do demand higher power (I'm guessing) and those type of games don't interest me anyway.I welcome all comments.Thx

Seems to me that since everything you plug into your computer needs power, better to have too much rather than too little. Yes, your system will run on 300W, but I bet that 300w is being pushed. Bob

My two year old HP came equipped with a 300W power supply and a 8500GT video card. Ran very well with decent graphics, until last week when BSOD and just about anything else you can imagine took place on my screen. Multi colored artifacts, complete freeze up, BSOD (B=Black), white areas turned yellow, Safe Mode only boot and then no boot at all. Process of elimination targeted the video card. Bought a Radeon HD4670 for which ATI recommends nothing less than a 400W power supply, preferably higher.While waiting for such power supply to arrive from Newegg, I installed the HD4670 to see what would happen. Would it run at all on a 300W supply? Would I have drop outs, or anything else happen to the new card? Well, 4 days in running with the HD4670 on a 300W supply, nothing negative has happenend, which leads me to this question. From a "demand" perspective, how does FS compare to arcade type video games? Do I really need that 400W power supply to assure proper functioning of the video card (it does have a Zalman Fan) while running FS9 or is the manufacturer simply covering their butt assuming most users will be playing the arcade type of games, which probably do demand higher power (I'm guessing) and those type of games don't interest me anyway.I welcome all comments.Thx

The power supply is the most important and most often overlooked componet in a computer system. It is more often than not the root of all evils, when you have problems. There are a lot of cheap crappy power supplies on the market that don't deliver their rated specs. For most newer components you should have at bare minimum, a 400 watt from a reputable manufacturer. You are better off getting a power supply in the 500 to 550 watt range if you have a medium sized system with a medium end video card that only requires one power connection. The more powerful systems with high end video cards require more power and need power supplies in the 750 to 1000 watt range.It is not the type of video games you play that dictate the size of power supply you require. It is the hardware you have to supply power to that is the deciding factor. A cheap low end power supply can short out, and take out a lot of your components with it. Bill

My two year old HP came equipped with a 300W power supply and a 8500GT video card. Ran very well with decent graphics, until last week when BSOD and just about anything else you can imagine took place on my screen. Multi colored artifacts, complete freeze up, BSOD (B=Black), white areas turned yellow, Safe Mode only boot and then no boot at all. Process of elimination targeted the video card. Bought a Radeon HD4670 for which ATI recommends nothing less than a 400W power supply, preferably higher.While waiting for such power supply to arrive from Newegg, I installed the HD4670 to see what would happen. Would it run at all on a 300W supply? Would I have drop outs, or anything else happen to the new card? Well, 4 days in running with the HD4670 on a 300W supply, nothing negative has happenend, which leads me to this question. From a "demand" perspective, how does FS compare to arcade type video games? Do I really need that 400W power supply to assure proper functioning of the video card (it does have a Zalman Fan) while running FS9 or is the manufacturer simply covering their butt assuming most users will be playing the arcade type of games, which probably do demand higher power (I'm guessing) and those type of games don't interest me anyway.I welcome all comments.Thx

Very interesting. I used to work at HP and was part of the intro team on new products, particularly their high end systems and some gaming systems. Knowing all that was going int the PC, especially their high end graphics card I always new that power supply would be an issue. I voiced my concerns but my itty bitty voice was never heard. Totally ignored to be exact. Until such high end PC's were released and customers were calling in with BSOD's and overheating I knew very well what the issue was.....When no problems were found and all else fails, we were told to have them reinstall the OS or ship in for repair. Nine times out of ten, no problems were found at the service center...Then the process repeats itself all over again until an escalation occurs for buyback.To my knowledge, a 300 watt power supply is ridiculous with any high end cards in a system that has multiple hard drives, DVD drives etc, etc...I would suggest upgrading that power supply...300 Watt power supply is minimum for your system, which is never quite enough

I did a couple searches on similar cards. Mfg recomendations seem to be 400W PSU minimum, 500W with crossfire.

I did a couple searches on similar cards. Mfg recomendations seem to be 400W PSU minimum, 500W with crossfire.

Thanks all. Bought a 500W supply. All seems to be well, so far!