6800 Ultra and power?

davemar14 · Apr 15, 2004

Tom reccomended a 480 watt PSU for the new 6800 Ultra. When you look at the power consumption of all the cards, the 6800 Ultra only uses 20 watts more than its predicessor. How come you need such a large PSU? I mean people are running 9800 XT in SFF boxes with 200 watts. The power consumption between the 9800 and 6800 isn't that great. Can it be that you need 480 watts? I currently have an Antec 430 watt with my current setup. If I upgrade to a 6800 Ultra, will I need to upgrade the PSU.

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Vapor · Apr 15, 2004

You SHOULD be fine. If you had more stuff in your case, I'd recommend an upgrade.

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

davemar14 · Apr 15, 2004

Thx man. I'll probably wait till see what people are running the cards with. I HIGHLY doubt you will need freaken 500 watts to run the new card.

Snorkius · Apr 15, 2004

The thing is low-power or cheap PSU's have three ATX power rails. Two are used by the card, that leaves only one(!) for everything else.

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Vapor · Apr 15, 2004

The 6800U doesn't need two dedicated rails!! THG themselves said they used two on the same rail (or maybe it was [H]). It only needs two dedicated connectors for a more consistent supply of power.

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

Snorkius · Apr 15, 2004

I'm just quoting Nvidia. I don't know anything about the real need for it, but if Nvidia recommends it, there must be a reason.

...NVIDIA prescribes that each of them receive a four-pin molex connector from an ATX power cable that is not connected to other devices, with the exception of fans. In English - each of the ports requires a dedicated ATX power cable, and both need to be connected! This may pose a problem for many users, since even many of the more powerful power supplies often only feature a total of three ATX power cables...

This quote was taken from THG, but most sites say the same thing...

A long long time ago, but I can still remember, how that music used to make me smile... <A HREF="http://www.nexus.hu/zonix/DIGGER.MID" target="_new">Digger rulz</A>

Vapor · Apr 15, 2004

if Nvidia recommends it, there must be a reason.

Yeah, they've probably been sleeping with the PSU makers....

Oh well, if it is true that it requires two rails, then I'd get a second PSU dedicated to the card and some other junk...but first I'd have to get a 6800.

Maxtor disgraces the six letters that make Matrox.

TheGreatGrapeApe · Apr 15, 2004

Look at the 3Dcenter's review, they used an OEM 300W PSU and a 350W Name Brand PSU. The said it may be luck that they had no issues with the OEM. But I would say a quality 400W PSU should perfrom fine as long as the rig is not completely jammed with extras.

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davemar14 · Apr 15, 2004

Could you explain the whole rail thing. Is that the 12 V, 5 V, and 3.3V? Also, is there anything about the 6800 non ultra. Will this card be as power hungry? Besides, the non-ultra will be like $200 cheaper.

Vimp · Apr 15, 2004

I was just looking over Enermax's site and noticed that on all their new power supplies they specificly mention among its featuress that there is an extra power connector for high end graphics cards.

"Extra Power connector:Extra 4-pin power connector provides high-end graphic card with stable current."

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Vimp · Apr 15, 2004

Just read up on Thermaltake's 480w butterfly PSU and it has 9 4-pin connectors. This power supply as well as Enermax's new 470w Noisetaker are easily found at under $115 Canadian ($87 US), at local stores where I am.

Fortunately I could probably justify buying such a power supply since, for one thing, my FX 5900XT is occasionally causing me to get warning messages telling me its not getting enough power and as a result automaticly reducing my clock speeds as a safety precaution. (Last warning resulted in my core dropping to 250mhz from 300mhz 2D, and my memory dropping to 500mhz from 700mhz.)
And secondly the power supply I use now only cost me $39 Can, and it happened to come with a fancy looking 18" aluminim case that conveniently manages to house all my computer components.

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Aquamark=36077 3DMark03=5322Edited by Vimp on 04/15/04 05:36 AM.

skystreak · Apr 15, 2004

Hmmm. I just bought a case with a 500W PSU. Seems to have 4 power cord stems but from what I can tell, only one of the 4 pin connectors (which is currently hooked up to my 9700 PRo). Does this mean I'm going to need another ?

ChipDeath · Apr 15, 2004

It can't have only one 4-pin molex, otherwise you'd not be able to plug in your Hard disks & optical drives. Are you sure they're not just neatly tied away or something?

As for my point of view, if a new 6800 Ultra card wouldn't get enough power from my Enermax 430W PSU, then I simply won't buy one. I'm not spending yet more money on upgrading what is already (IMO) a fairly high-end PSU (for a home gaming system).

Of course we don't know what Ati's new hardware will require yet, so maybe I'll have no choice...

Assuming Ati don't insist on such silly PSUs, (and similar performance between Ati/NV), then Nvidia's top card will have to have a considerably lower price than Ati's.

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Sapphire 9800Pro 420/744Edited by ChipDeath on 04/15/04 02:54 PM.

dhlucke · Apr 15, 2004

Last I checked OEM distributors were using measly 230W-300W powersupplies. I can't imagine them going up to 480W or so.

We should all be able to make do with our current powersupplies. I really hope so at least.

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skystreak · Apr 15, 2004

I'm probably just an idiot. I got the impression the 4 pin molex were the smaller connectors (like the one that I use for my 9700 pro) as opposed to the larger connectors that I use in my hard drives. Forgive my newdom. So in short, for the idiots reading this (mostly me but its nice to think I have company) the molex connectors are the same connectors you use to hook up your hard drives and DVD drives ?

Boy do I feel like an idiot now heh

ChipDeath · Apr 15, 2004

Ah yes. Partially my bad actually - I'd forgotten that some earlier cards used the small power connector. (the floppy drive power connector).

All these modern cards use the larger ones like the HDD ones, yes. My 9800Pro uses one, for instance.

---
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XP1700+ @205x11 (~2.26Ghz), 1.575Vcore
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dunno · Apr 15, 2004

<A HREF="http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2004q2/geforce-6800ultra/index.x?pg=28" target="_new">http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2004q2/geforce-6800ultra/index.x?pg=28</A>

According to Tech-Report, the 6800u only takes 8 more watts than a 5950 at load. Also, ATI recommended 300w for 9800 but people can run it in 200w Shuttles.

davemar14 · Apr 16, 2004

Yeah. That is exactly why I don't believe the 6800 Ultra needs 480 watts. How many people are going to buy a new $100+ power supply and another $500 for a video card. I'll wait for the 6800 non-ultra. It's $200 cheaper, and from sources, it says it only needs 1 molex connector. Therefore it should take less power to run.

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6800 Ultra and power?

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