Need More Power ?

Hi all i need some help , i just installed the XFX 8800GTS vidcard on my pc and i installed GTA 4 , the problem is that my computer shuts down when i start to play , could this be a powey supply issue ? i have the Thermaltake PurePower Butterfly 480 Watt Power Supply u guys think i need a biger one ? thanks for the help .

Thermaltake is not to shabby...best thing to do is test it with a digital multi meter
If your not familar with DMM's Read This

The best thing you can do is list all your componants if you can so we can better help you.

Could also be a driver issue...what drivers are you using ???
I've had drivers work with all my games except for BF 2...update again and all my games work except Letf4Dead.

Might even be a CPU issue,but you didn't mention what CPU you have...is it Single Core/Dual Core/Quad Core???

I also wouldn't rule out the game itself being an issue here, GTA4 is an extremely buggy game, and even 7-8 months after its release I still get people troubled with this game, no matter what hardware or software they are running.

But if you can list your system specs we can get a good indication of what type of power consumption you should be expecting, and go from there. But the best thing you could do is look at a GTA4 enthusiast forum, and see if you can track down any indication that certain driver revisions, settings, or game tweaks result in the most stable performance.

It could be a defective power supply or a problem laying with some other component, but to help rule those out you can look at various stress testing methods, such as looping 3dmark or pcmark for a few runs, as it will put a lot of load on your system, and if it is stable there you can look at the game itself or the drivers being incompatible with the game as the cause of your troubles. If those benchmarks crash every time when you reach the CPU test for instance, then you can see the CPU as a possible culprit.

The chances of narrowing this down go up with the more information we have, and the more testing you are willing to do

Hi again , well i dont think its the game because i have another game for my nephew called Radiator Springs ( Cars )
and it also shutted down it happens like if electricity just went off instantly , the driver il downloaded its the one on the XFX web and i played other games like GTA VC and Unreal Tournament and worked well , so i think since GTA 4 is more demanding game it went off becouse of that , but ill try that multimeter test thanks alot .

the computer is

ECS GF8200A (V1.0) Motherboard
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 6400+
200 GB SATA HD Maxtor
160 GB IDE HD Seagate
2 GB RAM OCZ
1 DVD RW LG

The driver version is : 6.14.11.9038 , Driver date :

7/14/2009 .

Actually, the CPU might be the problem here. According to the ECS specs, found here, the motherboard only supports cpu models up to 95w. If what you do have is an Athlon 64 X2 6400, then it is a processor with a 125w TDP, as verified by the AMD documentation. I am still downloading the user manual to see if there is any useful information in there, but as of now my guess is your cpu is simple straining that little 3-phase PWM on the motherboard to much and the crashing is a result of that either overheating or just hitting its limit and the instability causing your system to reboot.

If this is the case, the best solution to avoid damaging your motherboard, is to replace the processor. The Athon II X2 240 for example, is a great chip for this swap. The chip is supported with the latest bios, it has a 65w TDP instead of 125w, so you save power, heat, and noise...and best of all it is cheap at only $60....and it is a faster chip than your existing 6400. Thats the only thing that really sticks out as wrong with your system, your drivers are fine, the components are compatible, you have plenty of power...but your cpu is not supported by that board.

Ohh i see , didnt check that out when i bought the computer , well i guess ill have to buy another CPU then , you think the Athon II X2 250 is better ? and also does my mobo support the AM3 socket ? well thanks very much .

According to the ECS spcs the GF8200A is AM3 Ready.
That is it is a socket AM2+ board that also supports AM3 CPUs with DDR2 RAM.
It looks like many AM2+ socket boards can support AM3 CPUs with the proper BIOS.
The thing to remember is that AM3 CPUs in socket AM2+ boards use DDR2 RAM while AM3 CPUs in socket AM3 boards use DDR3 RAM.

The GF8200A only supports up to 95W CPUs. The AMD Athlon II X2 240, 245 and 250 CPUs are all only 65W

GF8200A (V1.0)
AMD Athlon II X2 240 ($60.99)
AMD Athlon II X2 245 ($67.99)
AMD Athlon II X2 250 ($79.00)