Power Hungry....

Everyone loves great looking graphic's......

Few can afford, but most would love to have.......

Here is another shocker, the power requirements of high-end video cards.

Nvidia 285 2 gig memory, full load draw 389 watts!!
Nvidia 285 1.8 gig ram, full load draw 405 watts!!
Nvidia 295 1.8 gigs ram, full load draw "528 watts"!!!!
(:!

Toms Hardware

Just something to consider when purchasing a new video card.
(imagine 3X295 in Tri-SLI...thats almost 1600 watts for "just the video cards")

Originally posted by mrmonsoon
Just something to consider when purchasing a new video card.
(imagine 3X295 in Tri-SLI...thats almost 1600 watts for "just the video cards")

Someone should really look into making a kettle with such a system.

Also, the PSU for that.....

reply to post by apex


actually, about 1500 watts is the limit for power-supplies (limited by household 110 current).

This is why they started to introduce 250-500 watt external power supplies for video-cards

You mean voltage, right? 110 or so in the US, isn't it? So 110V needs 14 A to get 1600 Watts, I can see how problems would arise.

Here we get 240V, to draw up to 3100W if we limit to 13 Watts, which seems to be what all the fuses are built to.

Still a lot of power though, and pretty much all of it heating the room it's in.

reply to post by apex


In the "US", standard circuits, so I am told, Are 12 amp's.

There are several circuits in the house (this is how we avoid issues), but all limited.

To get more power (watts) you need more current, which requires a high current 110 or specially installed 220 through the fuse box.

Haven't you ever wonder why you never see power supplies for computers for more than about 1500 watts??(consumer level equipment)

Even Pc Power and Cooling stops @1300 watts.

Those numbers look like system combined power consumption. The card itself should take about 300W at load.
A 700W PSU is recommended for a single card and 1000W for two.

reply to post by DGFenrir


Follow the link.

You will see it is the video card alone.

That is why I posted it.

Originally posted by mrmonsoon
reply to post by DGFenrir

 

Follow the link.

You will see it is the video card alone.

That is why I posted it.

Yes I followed the link but it's hard to believe those numbers since XFX officially recommends using at least a 680W PSU and that is if you have a i7 + this card. i7 alone takes ~250W on full load according to some reviews and many reviews show that the GTX takes ~300W.
But this card is a failure anyway. It's powerful and all but dual-gpu cards suck imo.

reply to post by DGFenrir


Understand, these number were at 100% load.

Also understand, M$ said you can run vista with a single core and 512 ram!!!!
(there was a law suit over that one)

That is why they take so much power.

PCI-E - 75W (2.0 provides more but the card does not require it)
6-Pin power connector - 75W
8-Pin power connector - 150W

The card can't take much more than 300W

Edit:
If you want to see a power hungry card then try 4870X2. That thing takes 50W more that GTX295.

[edit on 1/9/2009 by DGFenrir]