How can i check if my PC can handle the extra power? It seems to have a ton of empty power slots coming out of the power supply module :dunno:
You would have to open your PC casing to see the writing on the power supply exterior box. They should show you some electrical power information. But they might be useless to be honest as alot of the cheap ones that normally comes with a PC casing you buy are run of the mill low end. It can power or deleiver the said power or voltage problem is they might use cheap part which mean the throughput pf power is not consistent. With some component that is not good news. That is why you see more shop sell third party power supply modules. If you are a serious gamer you would go right to get one of those. My DVD recorder will not cut DVD at 16X last time I had a cheap $50 power supply. I have to record at 5X then...it does not make drink coaster out of my all my DVD blank disc. But once I got a replacement power supply ( ANTEC cost me abit over $150) and everything is fine again. I used the cheap on as a standby as my original one died.
Check to see what kind of power plug it uses to plug the power cord to the card from your power supply module. If it is not the same, you might have to buy cables for it. So ask the shop for more details. If not go home and found you can't play it tonight heheh...and have to make another trip to the shop to get it.
When you say slot I am not sure what you mean. You mean the electrical plug like those you plug into your Cd or DVD player?
Anyway...just take note about how you will need to power this card so make sure if that card does not run on power from the PCI express slot then make sure you know how that card you buy gets it's power. And also from one or two separate power cable/plug.
If you bring it home and run it and find that it can't perform fast or had some problem...it could be the card or it can also be lack of power. Just something to think about.
Video cards these day is getting more powerful, require more power and bigger size and generates alot of heat too. So it is not longer just about how fast but how well it can sit with the rest of your existing hardware.
This might be useful info:
Power and PCIe 2.0
Due to the lower power 65nm GPU this video card(GeForce 8800 GT ) only requires one auxiliary power connector that is located at the rear of the card. NVIDIA recommends a minimum 400 W power supply with 26 amps for a single GPU configuration. This video card also fully supports PCI-Express 2.0 for forward looking systems. Thankfully it is backwards compatible with the current PCI-Express version and you should have no troubles running it on current motherboards. We are using an EVGA 680i motherboard and have had no troubles in single or SLI operation with it.
This is what some power slot uses to power the card: ( 6 connection type connector)