I've been having trouble with artifacting on my 7950 GX2 video card. In dealing with technical personnel at XFX, I have learned that this video card requires a 12v rail that supplies 22 amps.

In the short time I have been looking at the specs of many power supplies, I have found that they don't seem to be supplying more than 18 amps to any single 12v rail. I have, so far, found one exception and that is the Aspire Beastpower 680 watt PS, which supplies 22 amps on one 12v rail and 24 amps on the other 12v rail. I have never considered Aspire brand of PSU to be quality, as compared to Antec, Seasonic, etc.

Anybody aware of a PSU that is of quality manufacture that can supply 22 or more amps to a 12v rail?

hball
I will post this in the video card section in case that is where this post best belongs. It seems to fit in either place.

What's your budget?
What kind of power are you looking at?

post belongs here.


i'd invest in this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817104014


good, solid PSU.

if you want a cheapter option id recommend the hiper 580w psu..have mine for a month now and it seems to be great, + it is modular
it's $100

it is sli certified

really though, if you add it up i havent seen many builds (that dont use like 12hddS) that use more than like 400w mab 450 with a monster card like that

i might be wrong im no expert but invest in quality over quantiity as a crap psus are usually the problem, not the wattage


100th post!!!!

LOL, I figure if I owned a $600+ video card that budget wouldn't be a word anybody would use. However, I've looked at PSUs in the $200+ range.

I thank the other posters for their posts, but I need to reiterate that this video card needs a PSU that supplies 22 amps to the 12v rail.

Check out all the best PSUs and see for yourself that they don't supply but 18 amps to the 12v rail. There are probably exceptions to that, and those are the ones I am looking for. I have already found the Aspire Beast Power 680w PSU that supplies 22 amps and 24 amps respectively to its (2) 12v rails. However, I'm not real keen on Aspire. (note: will purchase Aspire if I have to to maintain warranty on this card, that is if my warranty is still good after running it on a PSU that only supplies 18amps on the 12v rail and now card is artifacting up the yin yang.

hball

I think you've misunderstood what the tech was meaning. I had an Fortron FSP 700 that I was using with my XFX 7900 GTX Extreme. I was overclocking it so I know it was drawing more power than normal. I was having problems with my video as it sometimes would artifact, not come on at all or would freeze. XFX tech support told me it was the amperage on the 12v rails (it had four 12v rails averaging 15amps each.). I changed over to a SILVERSTONE SST-ST7 750 (it has a quad 12v rail system at 18amps per rail) and everything was fine (So, my problem with the FSP 700 PSU was that it had weak 12v rails to begin with). What the tech failed to explain to you was that, while you needed 22 amps on the 12v rails, he neglected to mention that it didn't have to come from ONE rail. It could come from a combination of several rails. You are experiencing some of the issues I was having so I understand where you are coming from.

Check out the Silverstone PSU that I got. Several people on here use it for highend systems and it's always handled everything nicely.

SILVERSTONE SST-ST75ZF 750 ($209)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817256006

However, I've looked at PSUs in the $200+ range.

hehe, this is a beast. Bar none. One of the best PSU's on the market

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817703001

The 7950GX2 doe not require 22 amps on a rail, the minimum is probably around 22 amps for all rails added up, depending on the system.

An 18 amp per rail PSU is overkill, but it does work (see sig), and I like overkill. Got to power 5 raptors after all 8O

Better to have too much than not enough.....

Nothing wrong with overkill

Yeah, well budget is a word that a lot of people tend to not mention... for around $200 I highly recommend the PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750. Direct from them it's $199.99 and I think newegg should have it in soon.

I have considered that I misunderstood what he was saying and thinking worse case scenario. Talking to the electricians at work had them shaking their heads that my video card would require 22 amps but I wanted to cover the bases. There's probably some other problem that is causing the artifacting, as I am running the bare minimum in my system (7950 GX2 card, (1) hard drive, (1) DVD-ROM, (2) 120mm fans, (2) 80mm fans and whatever juice my mobo, 4 gigs of ram, soundcard take.

My current PSU is SLI certified, 550 watt and does supply 17 amps to one rail and 18 amps to the other rail, so I will quit worrying about it as the cause of my problems.

I'm beginning to think it's the drivers, as I cannot use the 91.31 WHQL drivers because my computer gets run/stop errors and reboots. Nvidia came out with 91.33 drivers to fix that problem and everything ran fine for about a month until now and now constant artifacting and freezing up of the computer.

hball

I wouldn't do that yet, what psu is it? Have you considered trying a new psu to see if it's the issue? I don't think it is, the drivers have been a big issue with that card, but you should still rule it out before dismissing it. The funny thing is that your pci-e rail shares with all the other hardware, the cpu and mb share the other rail, and it definitely draws the most power.

How about heat? You say stable for a month, has it gotten hotter in the last month? What are your temps?

I wouldn't do that yet, what psu is it? Have you considered trying a new psu to see if it's the issue? I don't think it is, the drivers have been a big issue with that card, but you should still rule it out before dismissing it. The funny thing is that your pci-e rail shares with all the other hardware, the cpu and mb share the other rail, and it definitely draws the most power.

How about heat? You say stable for a month, has it gotten hotter in the last month? What are your temps?


As for the power supply, yes I have a second one that works fine in my other computer and I moved it over and got the same results (artifacting).

I live in Northern California and two weeks ago we experienced an extreme heat wave (temperatures up to 115 fahrenheit) and everything was running fine them. Right now, temperatures have been in the mid 90's and that's when the problems started. My computer sits less than 10 feet away from a window air conditioner that runs the whole time I'm sitting at the computer. In fact, my front intake fans have that cold air blow right past them.

With the artifacting, I have been unable to access the Nvidia control panel to check the temperatures of the 7950 GX2. I have checked my 7800 GTX and with the same conditions that my 7950 GX2 has been crapping out, it's been running 43 degrees centigrade. I know the 7950 is two cards/processors and will be running warmer than that. However, at this point, the artifacting is happening immediately upon boot up and continues before the card really has the chance to heat up.

My latest communication with the techs at XFX, has them directing me to try the 91.37 drivers that have come out for the quad sli.

hball

An A/C actually causes air to dry up (most of the heat drawn is from moisture) and also slightly ionizes air. This is what gives ppl headaches when sitting too close to an A/C for too long.

Electronics have operating ranges with minimum and maximum humidity as well for a reason, and ionized air is a no-no. Try moving the rig further away from the A/C.

I don't suppose you could try that card in a different computer could you?

true. but if budget is no problem get a PSu with a single 38 amp rail.