Thursday, April 26, 2012

Can all 128mb video cards run off 280 watts of power or less?

There aren't any details about the power needed to run the card on the descriptions|||I would say that if we speak only to the card... No Worries!

BUT! It will depend on how many other cards/drives you have in the machine. Typically, a single drive / CD-Rom / video card setup should be fine with a 280w. Anything less than 150w will be pressing it!|||depends on the card.

you are gonna push a power supply with a big card.

newegg.com

get a sparkle.

MIKE|||no. older 128mb gpu cards may be able to, but newer models require minimally 350w power supplies. However, it also depends on what other hardware you have running in your computer.|||Why do you care about the power? That depends not just from the card but from the slot that is attached too.



PCI Express slots slots conected with 3 supply lines:

two 12volts and one 3volts



According to the PCI Express x16 1.0a specification, up to 72 watts of power can be transferred through the +12V lines of the mainboard as well as through the additional power connector 12volt Ext., i.e. 144 watts in total. Plus some power can be transferred from 3volt line



So a card not natter what card is, 128MB, 256MB or more, can't use more than 150 watts, have in mind that from +12 and +3volts lines other devices take power too.



For AGP slot it pretty much the same.:



Quite a few of the AGP slot pins are designed to supply power to the graphics card – 3.3v, 5v and 12v.



The maximum consumption currents on these lines are 6A, 2A and 1A, respectively, according to the latest specification, AGP 3.0.



If you know the voltages and the maximum currents, you can easily calculate the power consumption of the graphics card through the AGP slot – it is about 41.8W



Today no one is surprised to see an extra power connector on top-end graphics cards. These connectors are analogous to the power connectors of hard disk drives and optical drives (RADEON 9700/9500-based cards use the power connector of the floppy drive) and they supply power by 5v and 12v rails. Some graphics cards are equipped with two such connectors even.



Thus, the maximum power consumption of graphics cards with one additional connector, without counting the AGP slot in, may range from 110.5W to 170W, of graphics cards with two additional connectors – from 221W to 340W.



The two power connectors on the GeForce 6800 Ultra is not a consequence of a crazy appetite, but a desire of the manufacturer to ensure the stability of power supply by dividing the currents into two connectors.

Even for 6800 ultra that uses 2 extra connectors the power never exceed the limit of 80 watt.



So as you see no card use power more than 140 watt.

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