How to Power a 7800 GS AGP...

[Chain145]

Hi Everyone,

Upgrading my graphics card from a Nvidia FX 5200 (don't laugh!) to a 7800 GS AGP.
I've read and read and read some more about reviews and making sure the power supply can cope.

I hear a 7800GS will need a 12volt rail + 20 amps. Here's what's on the side of my current power supply...

AC Voltage Current
INPUT 115V 10A
230V 5A

DC +3.3V +5V +12V -5V -12V +5Vsb
OUTPUT 28A 40A 18A 0.5A 0.5A 3.0A


The DC OUTPUT +12V and 18A concerns me... Does anyone know if this will suffice? Would a 7600 GS be a better choice for this PSU?
Thanks for any help,


PC SPECS: AMD Athlon 64bit 3000+ 2Ghz 512Mb RAM (DDR) Windows XP.

(All this just to run Call of Duty 4!!! lol)

 

[alvine]

i dont own that card personally
i looed on google "nvidia 7800gs agp"
and it doesnt seem like the card needs external power supply connector
so it should work fine
as for the cod4
good luck with that

 

[drums101]

i have the card and it needs a molex power connector and ur right it does need 20 amps on the 12v rail but ur 18 amps will suffice just fine...for cod4 i played it maxed out at 1024x768 at about 35fps with a pentium 4 so its not bad but it could b better

 

[Zorg]

That card actually only draws 44W or 3.6A, so technically you are good. A PSU that has one 18A rail is probably a no name low quality PSU and that is where your problem may lie.

 

[Chain145]

Thanks for your replies. As far as i know a 7800GS is almost as far as AGP goes in terms of performance (for under $300)

There seems to be a lot more 7600GS's on Ebay than 7800's.

Does anyone know why this is??

I've also noticed some are 256mb and some 512mb. Is bigger better?

 

[Wolfshadw]

Go with the 7600GS and a memory upgrade (preferably up to 2GB). Your single core CPU is going to hold back anything more.

-Wolf sends

 

[Chain145]

Interesting thanks Wolf,

When i check my PC specs in Hardware Profile, it only shows a single AMD Athlon 64bit 3000. However, when i had the computer built, it was supposed to be a 'dual core' with two AMD Athlons.

I've never got my head around this. Somebody told me once that you need special hardware to actually use both chips at the same time. Does this mean I have two Athlons but only one usable one (at 2Ghz)? Do you know anything about that???

 

[4745454b]

There is no dual core 3000+. The lowest numbered dual core was the 3600+, and I'm not sure that was released for the S939. All modern hardware should support a dual core, you'll need to make sure you have the right "HAL" loaded for windows. If you use the uniprocessor driver, you'll only have one core working.

If I read this right, you have a 3000+, 512MBs of ram, a FX5200, and windows XP. I would not stress the PSU with an 7800GS. Get the 7600GS, and start saving up for a new system. I spent $45 and get 4GBs of very nice ram, you don't want to know how much that will cost for DDR.

 

[Wolfshadw]

No. The AMD Athlon 3000+ processor is just a single core processor. Think of it like lanes on a highway. A single core has one lane. A dual core processor has two lanes. A quad-core processor has four lanes. Regardless of how many lanes, it's still just one highway (processor).

In order to have a dual-core system, you'd need a motherboard that accepts a dual-core processor and, of course, the dual core processor itself or a motherboard that can accept two separate processors (though these would not be considered mainstream).

-Wolf sends

 

[rickzor]

It will do fine...i had a 7800gs with a 3500+ oced to 2.5 ghz for a very long time with only 16 amps on the 12v rail, and it worked perfectly.

Oh, did i mention that the 7800gs was oced too? It was a great overclocker, i scored nearly as much as a 7800gt.

 

[Chain145]

K, thanks for your help everyone. That sheds some light on the matter.