After about 30 min of gaming my sytem shuts off just as if the power plug was pulled. The same thing happened when i left it on for 5 hours to download, (no GPU being used). I just got the GTX 460 2 days ago, my system has never done that before, as many of you know the card is rated 450 watts and 24 amps on 12+ rail. My PSU is 550w and 25 amps on each of the 3.3v 5v and both 12v's My card is not overclocked, also all of my temps are fine! Should i buy a stronger PSU?
It depends on what else your running in your tower. The card could just be pushing your psu to it's limits. To find your total amps. I believe it's your total watts on the 12v line(found on the psu) divided by 12. You should not just add the amps together, that is not likely the real number of amps. You may need a stronger psu but that's not always the case. You could also have a bad video card. Even though it's brand new, it doesn't mean it's perfect or can't have problems right away.
My wifes computer did that with a Antec 550W, she run stock with a AMD 940 Quad and when I swapped out her 9800GTX for my GTX280 she started having issue with it shutting down like you. I gave her my Corsair 850W and she was all set to play Sims 3 until the cows come home, no more shutdowns. As a bonus I got to buy myself a Silverstone 1000W because now I was out a power supply.:banana:
You don't need to buy a stronger PSU, unless the one you have is defective. I have a Corsair CX-400w and it has no problem running this rig even after overclocking the CPU. I measured the power drainage of the whole system and it was always below 250W while running furmark. make sure your PSU is fine, if it is you don't have to change it. unless you have connected dozens of power hungry gadgets to it and it's really pushed to the limit.
