Power Requirements

[theram]

Am I the only one that's noticed the absence of detailed power requirements for graphics cards in online stores and card manufacturer websites? I'm most often upgrading prebuilt PCs, and online prices for graphics cards are often 50% lower than in-store prices. However, if I can't get an amp requirement for a specific graphic card, I'm not going to order it online. Publishing detailed power requirements used to be the norm, now it seems to be the exception. How can we get the online stores and manufacturer websites to start publishing this info again? Any ideas?

 

[WR2]

Maybe a better choice of online stores and manufacturer websites?

Something like this (Evga website):
or this (BFG website 8800GT OC):
or this (Powercolor website HD 3870):
or this (NewEgg website with link to Powercolor website):
and this on the TigerDirect website (Evga 8800GT) which is different from the Evga website itself:

 

[theram]

OK, pick either one, TigerDirect or Newegg, go to the GeForce 8600 GT (or any other specific model) and pick any 10 of them, and tell me what the 12V amp requirement is. Now do you see what I mean?

 

[aevm]

So you're saying newegg should hire people to do this and save customers the research effort. Of course, newegg's prices would have to go up, to pay those salaries... I think I'd rather leave things as they are.

 

[theram]

No, the manufacturer should provide this information. Go one step further, pick any 10 cards, go to the manufacturer website and tell me what the +12V amp requirement is. If you're lucky, you'll get 2 out of 10. I know that those who haven't been around as long as I have, or don't do a lot of upgrades, don't know that these specs used to be published as a matter of routine. I don't understand why they stopped publishing them or even making them available.

That +12V minimum is the critical factor in determining whether or not a card will work with a given power supply. The lack of information available makes, for example, an 8500GT which could be purchased for $80US online, a $160US purchase in a retail store where the power specs can be seen on the box.

 

[emp]

They state power requirements for the high end gaming cards more often than not, for the midrange I'll agree with you that they don't publish them (At least not usually), but then again for "crap cards" (like HD2400 or 8500) and midrange cards (HD2600 or 8600) you don't really need big power supplies or even external power connections (Except for the 8600GTS and even then it doesn't require much power) so you shouldn't need to worry if it'll work or not. That mostly applies to high end (8800, HD3800s, and ESPECIALLY HD2900)

Forgot to add, but this also brings extra revenue to retailers, because in case someone needs a new PSU and are uneducated they might have to go through 1 or 2 cheap PSUs before they finally decide to spend a decent amount of money on an adequate PSU. Not an honest thing to do, but at least it brings more profit and slowly educates people on the importance of PSUs.

 

[theram]

You are absolutely right. Unfortunately my bread and butter is performing inexpensive upgrades for clients who want to extend the life of their system without spending a ton of money. Most of my work is on Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, etc. with stock 300W or so power supplies rated at 15-20A on a single +12V rail. Even some of the "crap" cards want 22A. So when I can't purchase online due to lack of specs, the client either buys a whole new system or doesn't upgrade at all when faced with the cost of a retail card AND new PSU. Oh well, it looks like I'm a lone voice in the wilderness. Thanks for the replies, all.

 

[WR2]

Most of my work is on Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, etc. with stock 300W or so power supplies rated at 15-20A on a single +12V rail. Even some of the "crap" cards want 22A. So when I can't purchase online due to lack of specs,

I really hope you aren't making your decisions based on what the manufacturer claim for minimum or recommended specs. What you need is much more accurate data that you can get from manufacturer or e-tailer websites. Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, etc., forums are a good place to check to see what other owners have done for upgrades.

Beyond that you want "real" performance data which you can use to estimate what types of upgrades individual systems will handle. And you want to be able to convice your customers your recommendations are accurate.
Besides the OEM forums you can use available review data such:

From Anandtech 3850 / 3870 GPU review
Learn how to use the Outervision eXtreme Power Supply Calculator to spec out tricky or non-standard systems.
Lots of other handy info out on the web to help you do your job: Roundup of many GPU power requirements

 

[theram]

Actually, yes, I am making my decisions based on what the manufacturer's stated specifications are. To do otherwise would put me out of business very quickly, and would be downright dishonest to my clients. There are matters of warranty, liability, and integrity (at least for me), which enter in when one is performing such a service for others.

As for "real" performance data, reviews, and looking at what others have done, its completely worthless in this situation. Its fine for playing around with one's own system, but has no merit when performing work for hire on someone else's system. If I use anything other than manufacturer specs, and something goes wrong, there is no way the client is going to sue Anandtech, Outervision, or the Dell forums. They would sue me. Get it?

I appreciate the replies, but you don't seem to understand, its simply the lack of published manufacturer's specifications that I'm talking about.