How can you tell if your Video card isn't getting enough power?

[Monkeee]

how would you know if your video card isn't getting enough power supply? just wondering :)

[tesco]

you'd probably get a lot of computer lockups\freezing and artifacts in games.

[Monkeee]

what are artifacts?

[Peerzy]

what are artifacts?

www.google.com + graphics card artifacts = Answer

[Monkeee]

i did that

[tesco]

it's random colors and lines and other crap appearing on the screen.

here's one example but there's lots of other kinds of artifacting: http://www.webslingerz.com/eyepoppers/deskpoppers/images/artifacts.jpg

it's basically things apearing on the screen that shouldn't be there. ;)

[Monkeee]

hmmm... you think
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-153-007&depa=0 is enough for a 6600 GT?

[tesco]

For sure.

[Monkeee]

alright thanks alot rossco

[harrycary]

umm, artifacts are reminants of a previous video frame appearing on the current video frame.

hence the name.

[atiVidia]

harrycarry: artifacts are also an effect of memory corruption or GPU algorithm corruption due to excess heat. if the excess heat lingers, the data/algorithm corruption could become permanent i.e. memory failure/GPU transistor burn. artifacts generally arent a problem with cards which dont get enough power, especially nvidia cards. nvidia cards simply slash core/memory clocks in half if it doesnt receive enough power, such as when a molex is unplugged.

[Duffman]

If you don't know what an artifact is, when it happens, you'll see it and go, shit, im a moron. I never saw an artifact til last week when I let ATI tool try to find the max mem on my card while I went to school. I came home 3 hours later, and sat down and wen't shit, im a moron.