6800...a power hog?

S

SerialThriller

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 15, 2004
Messages
359
I have been recently told that the 6800s eat up power...and that a person needs a 450w or more PSU to power the card correctly.

Is this true?
 
SerialThriller said:
I have been recently told that the 6800s eat up power...and that a person needs a 450w or more PSU to power the card correctly.

Is this true?
Click to expand...


Yes usually. Of course if u have alot of other stuff that needs more over 450 is prefered. Also quality over quantity helps...
 
well shit...i just bought a new 400w PSU, do you think if i am running nothing on the PCI bus and have just like a floppy, cd drive, and a 160 GB HDD, along with 1 gig of RAM it should be ok?
 
SerialThriller said:
well shit...i just bought a new 400w PSU, do you think if i am running nothing on the PCI bus and have just like a floppy, cd drive, and a 160 GB HDD, along with 1 gig of RAM it should be ok?
Click to expand...

Hmm.. cpu? And 6800 gt or ultra?

EDIT: What brand of PS?
 
last thing...what would happen if i was running let's say 300w PSU wirh the 6800GT? i mean what would be the effect on the system?
 
SerialThriller said:
6800GT.
A64 3200
Coolmax 400w PSU with one 120 mm fan

seem ok?
Click to expand...


Hmm yeah u should be fine at stock settings... one way to find out! ;D
 
if the power supply is a notable brand name like entec of enermax etc, 300 watts is enough for the ultra aswell. Even with a high end cpu and 4 harddrivers and 2 cds roms.

The high wattage requirements are for shady power supply makers.
 
I am not really gonne OC this thing anytime soon so it'll be at stock.

Also, would the PSU die or what would happen if i had too much stuff on too low a PSU?
 
it could if its overloaded, but the system will crash on start up before that happens though.
 
I have a 300 watt Chieftec PSU
It powers:
P4 2.4
Mobo
RAM
Audigy player
CD/RW
DVD-drive
PCI LAN
250GB Harddrive
and a 6800GT
System runs just FINE!!!
I don't know who started the "hype" about 450Watt, but I don't recognize that claim!!!

Terra - Who's GFX-manual states a 300watt PSU for the 6800GT(350watt for Ultra)
 
my current computer (aka a piece of shit with wires sticking out of it) keeps shutting down randomly when i am using it....and the only way i can restart it is by turning off the PSU, any idea what this is?
 
6800GT 300W PSU recommended
6800U originally had a 450W PSU recommended, most manufacturers changed the it to the revised nvidia recommendation of 350W

6800 non-ultra uses less power than 6800GT

I run a 6800GT @ 400/1100 (6800 Ultra speeds) with a 350W PSU (cheapier A+GPB) with no stability problems.
 
Do you run Win XP?
If you do have you checked the logbook in XP?
It logs all erorrs, and should be able to give you a hint ;)
(if you don't know where to find the logbook, do a search for "logbook" in help, and then you should get a link to run it, and then you look a the System Log...and see what erorrs it reports.
It might be a big help :)

Terra...
 
A quality 400w PSU will power a 6800U just fine. Its the quality of the PSU that matters and not the wattage rating.

The 6800U was advertised as requiring a 480w PSU when it first released but it has since been changed to a 350w PSU as the minimum requirement.

I would suggest a name brand 350w PSU for the GT and a 400w for the 6800U. If you have that then your set.
 
Terra said:
Do you run Win XP?
If you do have you checked the logbook in XP?
It logs all erorrs, and should be able to give you a hint ;)
(if you don't know where to find the logbook, do a search for "logbook" in help, and then you should get a link to run it, and then you look a the System Log...and see what erorrs it reports.
It might be a big help :)

Terra...
Click to expand...

No events in the event log....hmmm what else could it be...how would i find what it is?
 
No events at all?
You do see the event: Eventlog started don't you?
There should be loads of events, but no errors if everything is running fine.
But if there are no errors, then it isn't a software,or a "normal" hardware problem.
Could be your PSU that is over it.
Could be a fault on the mobo.
Could even be the GFX-card that is the problem.
It sound to me like you got some faulty current in some hardware.
Would help if you could list the specs of the Pc(inluding the age of the componets)

Terra...
 
I sorta over did mine with a 550 watt antec :rolleyes: little bit of a waste... Oh well, it will atleast be one part of my system that I will be able to use for the next few computers. :cool:
 
Terra said:
No events at all?
You do see the event: Eventlog started don't you?
There should be loads of events, but no errors if everything is running fine.
But if there are no errors, then it isn't a software,or a "normal" hardware problem.
Could be your PSU that is over it.
Could be a fault on the mobo.
Could even be the GFX-card that is the problem.
It sound to me like you got some faulty current in some hardware.
Would help if you could list the specs of the Pc(inluding the age of the componets)

Terra...
Click to expand...

mmm, i'll run it again but there didn't seem to be any events and it is hard to get the thing running...

Specs:

Biostar M7TDA Mobo (i think that is the correct model)
Intel P4 1.6 Ghz
400w PSU
ATI 9600PRO
one 20 GIG HDD
one 40 GIG HDD
3x256 SDRAM (not DDR)
Windows XP pro

not sure about the ages for specific components but they range from like 5 - 1 years old.

i think that is everything, remind me if i left something important out.
 
You are having trobules running the logbook?
When you get it running click on the "System" in the left hand window, otherwise it will display nothing...the two others are "Program" and "Security", but you need to clcik on them to get the logs for each part shown in the right hand window :)

Terra...
 
SerialThriller said:
I have been recently told that the 6800s eat up power...and that a person needs a 450w or more PSU to power the card correctly.

Is this true?
Click to expand...

480w is the minimum requirement, at least that's what it says on my BFG 6800u box.
 
If I can run a 6800GT on a 200W supply, I'd imagine your 400W supply will do just fine. :)

The 6800GT uses less power than a 5950U, so it's not as power hungry as people might think. And here's my uptime:
11 day(s), 16 hour(s), 29 minute(s), 13 second(s)

It would be much longer, but I used to shut my PC off everyday before I left for work. Both the event viewer and the nvidia debug log show no errors.
 
I'd look for any locations where there may be components grounding out that shouldn't be. If there's a short-circuit, it could easily cause big-time instability. Also, is your cooling adequate? Lastly, have you split everything onto seperate power cables? The 6800 should probably get one power cable to itself.
 
Here's the 6800GT Rig I'm running 'flawlessly' on a Zalman 400 Watt PSU:

PIV 2.8ghz
Gigabyte 8KNXP i875 motherboard
1GB Kinston HyperX
2x80GB WDigital HD's in Raid0
Gainward 6800GT Golden Sample
Soundblaster Audigy Platinum
Belkin Firewire card
TDK 48x CD/RW
Pioneer 16x DVD
Sony 4x DVD/RW =/-
4 80mm case fans

Also, I have one other device on the same rail as my 6800. :p :D

Mr.Dearthian
 
You guys must have been blessed with good power supplies... even the quality ones can have problems.

I've had an Enermax 365w with a 1700+ @ 2.43GHz that I had to return, because the 12v rail dipped to instability.

Also the Antec ARIA's 300w power supply that I use shuts the system down when I overclock it between 2200 - 2400MHz. This is with using the onboard video, nevermind an external card!

I think with a namebrand 425-450w power supply, you're close to guaranteed your system will run without problems, whatever you throw at it. But anything lower, there is a certain amount of variability between individual power supplies where there is doubt on whether it will work. It may run with a 200w power supply, but it may not.

Just some interesting things to note, you might be surprised by the wattage draw of some components:
OC'd CPU - 70- 100w+
1GB RAM - 64w
AGP Card - 50w+
Mobo - 20-40w
HD - 20w
 
My Thermaltake 300 watt PSU powered my system without any problems. Spec as below. I decided to get an Enermax for system stability and higher overclocking. My Thermaltake didn't allow me to OC as much as my Enermax!. :confused:

Abit BH7 (Intel 845PE)
Intel 2.5 ghz P4 533 FSB OC 3.0ghz
512mb 2700 DDR
256mb 3200 DDR
Leadtek Winfast 400 TDH 6800 OC 390/820
Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2
30gb IBM Deskstar 7200
Plextor CD-RW 40r-40w-12rw
Pioneer CD 40x
Pioneer 16x DVD
Enermax 420 Watt Noisetaker AX
+3.3V@32A, +5V@36A, +12V1@15A, +12V2@14A,
[email protected], [email protected]
19" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u
Logitech Webcam Messenger
Windows XP SP2
 
Considering many people are running them in Shuttle/Soltek cubes with 250 WATT power supplies I'd say you're fine

I've crammed 3 HD's, a 3.0 P4, 9800 Pro AIW, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz cold cathode, and a DVD Burner in my cube on a 250 Watt supply and had zero probs, as have TONS of other cube owners.

I'm begginning to think there's no need for a 500+ watt PSU
 
Those cubes aren't exactly the most power demanding systems, with only 1 PCI slot and room for 1 cd/dvd drive.
 
Gainward and PNY both list 350W for their ultras
Gainward lists 350W for its GT
PNY lists 300W for its GT
BFG says 480W for the ultra, and 300W for the GT, My guess is that BFG never updated their site or packaging after Nvidia revised the specs
 
the cooling on my machine seems fine (45 F) and would someone please explain how to get to that logbook in Windows XP? When i searched for it i only came up with a logbook for Norton i apparently have.
 
any 6800 should be fine on a quality 300-400W psu w/ a good 12v rail.
 
eeeew, i just went into the event viewer, scrolled to the bottom and got a msg saying it was corrupt then all the events were cleared....

any thoughts?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top