Camerongray, m Lots of people read this. Do you have some proof that a generic 500 watt supply is not enough power for that video card?
here is a list of power supplies which were found to fail. They are all generic, cheap Power supply brands:
http://www.johnnylucky.org/power-supplies/psu-lemon-list.htmlNotice in particular that many power supplies in the list were unable to deliver the power wattage for which they were rated, failing at 300 Watts, for example, when rated for delivery of 500 Watts. These power supplies also have a lot of power ripple and were excessively tolerant of out-of-spec power delivery during brownout scenarios.
Additionally, they tend to degrade faster, due to using lower quality Capacitors. which fail much sooner or for which they have a much more restrictive temperature rating than is typical inside a power supply.
For the most part the reason that Cheap, Generic Power supplies are low quality is the same reason the cheap generic version of anything (Except most foods, I guess) tends to be poor quality, which is simply that they are built down to a price. Cheaper capacitors tend to be a given for cheap, generic versions of electronics. Crappy inductor loops, wiring the PWR_GOOD signal directly to the 5V output rail instead of having discrete logic, etc.
Here is a compilation of short clips, created by CPC hardware labs, where some generic power supplies are tested and which demonstrably fail in every instance. Only 2 of the sampled 14 actually delivered the power they were rated for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6snWfd1v7M