Should I stick with my existing 440w psu or upgrade it?

I am having a Intel Core 2 Duo system. I am using it for gaming only. I am having a Asus motherboard on the same with 4GB RAM. Recently my graphic card stopped working. It was out of warranty. Now I am going to buy a better one. When I searched on Google about my gpu problem I found that ample of time this kind of problem appear when the psu is low. But I am having a standard 440w psu which looks to be enough for my system. Should I upgrade that or stick with the existing one. Is there a way by which I can find whether my psu will support my new gpu or not.

I will recommend to upgrade. Get a new one. You can find that easily that on web. Look for a psu which is higher than 440w. There is no problem in using a higher psu. It does no harm to your system. Sometime the system needs more power but if the psu is limited then it can create issue with the internal components.

It is better to use the most latest and new hardware to get enough performance from your system. You mentioned that you are using it from long time so there is no problem in changing it. For new gpu you need a better psu. I think for a standard gaming pc, the gpu must be around 700w. That would be able to provide ample of energy to the system. While 440w here is enough for any regular system for day to day work. PSU here are cheaper. If you think your graphic card is damage due to the low power, then you must surely upgrade that. Basically in the specification of every graphic card you can easily find what is the optimum power consumption. I can list you some budget graphic cards. Also called as entry level gpu, you can use them to play games on minimum settings and they are also low on power consumption. You can look for Sapphire Radeon HD 6570 1 GB DDR3, ATI Radeon HD 5670, Zotac GeForce GTX 560, MSI GeForce GTX 550, etc. This are entry level cards that offer you budget upgrades and low power consumption also. If you go for high end cards or multi-gpu support then surely you will also need to go for psu upgrade. The cards that I had mentioned above works well with any old motherboard. Buying a high end card is not the only choice here. For that you will need more better hardware or else you wont be able to get optimum performance out of it.

Go for Sapphire Radeon HD 6850. I will not say it is an entry level card, but it is a mid range one. It comes for Rs.10,000. You can find that on many website. You can use it for high end gaming also. And also upgrade your psu. That will be more better.

Power supply is an important but yet ignored part of a pc. It deliver the power source to other hardware and if does not work well, then your system components can be affected. You can go for a reasonable psu by Antec. There are ample of models available under it. It is costly but it is more better and offer you long lasting support. I was using a regular 250w psu on my system. I am not really having a gaming pc here. The 250w psu works well with day to day job. But due to power fluctuation my processor and hard drive was damaged. Then I bought a new system and this time I added separate money for the psu. I bought one from antec. I had seen on many website that we go for cheap products here which does not give us reliability and later on that cause use damages. Like the one you faced. Your gpu stopped working. A regular graphic card itself consume around 120w of power. And if you are using a high end card here then it consumes around 250w. So if you are having a 440w psu then other components are not getting enough power. When you are playing games the power usage increases. The cpu consumes around 100w and more 100w is consumed by other stuff. It can be higher if you have more fans in your system. So just go for a good psu once. So that in future you do not require to go for upgrades again and again. This is really easier I think.

I do not think that really matter much here. If you go for a psu upgrade then it is obviously better. But on the same hand go for a new 440w. If you existing psu is really old. If not then you can just add a new graphic card. That's is more than enough I think.

Upgrade is only applicable here if your usage is high. Or else you do not really require to go for any important upgrades. You can add a new psu if you want depending on your need. It happens ample of time that in future due to low power support your system components starts failing. It is necessary that you must have alteast 1GB DDR5 gpu in your system for better output. Or else the overall performance is affected. There are budget cards also, but they are not really good enough. I had gone with a mid range gaming pc. It was actually a waste of investment. Because here I got a entry level card that after a year failed to work with any new game. It was missing lack of features. I was also not able to upgrade because of old hardware here. So I a planing to buy a complete new system here with bigger monitor and dual gpu. Obviously that kind of system will need a 750w psu. While for the regular one 440w is more than enough.

Better upgrade it and go for a higher one. There are some psu which also comes in 500w series. You simply buy any one recommended model from it and test it out. The power output is the most important thing here which is required and buying a higher is good for any system.