Any program that detects amps, watts?

[provoko]

I know sandra does it when you do burn in wizard, but that's just for the core.

And I know Volts X Amps = Watts. But what are my amps for a particular device like CPU/RAM/VIDEO?

When I overclock my CPU I get different amount of amps (Watts/Volts = Amps). Sandra supplies the Watts info, and bios the volt info, but how do I find out what my amps are, and what they'll be when I overclock more?

I get 65 amps at 2.3 ghz with 1.75 volts for a total of 115 watts.
I get 73 amps at 2.388 ghz with 1.825 volts for a total of 135 watts.

How does sandra know my amps and is there a program that gives me this information for all my components especially CPU/RAM/VIDEO?

Thanks.

 

[BillR]

I’m not entirely sure what the value of such a program would be. Software is notorious for bad readings so any subsequent calculations from bad information would be worthless.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/ohmslaw2.html

This will give you the basic calculations to work with, but it like any calculator is only good if your data is good.

I know my readings in Sandra are better then some, but still not close to my voltmeter.

Luck

 

[Devistater]

No software is going to have anything even close, sorry. Mainly because the motherboards only give readings for voltages not amps or watts. And even the voltage readings from mobos are notoriously innaccurate. Sandra is just making guesses.
The best you can do is to find out the overall wattage your system is using and make educated guesses for CPU, and video and memory. Video cards often have wattages easy to find out. CPU as well. Memory not so often. The hard drives mention a amperage on them that they use so you can figure the watts of that. Get a cheap wattmeter and plug it between your system and your wall plug if you need to Just keep in mind that the wattage its sucking from the wall is not what its giving to your computer. Typically power supplies supply 60%-80% efficiency (antec neopower hits as low as 60% where the enermax noisetaker hits up to 80%) of the power they suck from the wall.

 

[Rogue]

http://addict3d.org/index.php?page=downloadfile&ID=3403

It's called overclockulator..really cool try it!

 

[provoko]

So theres no way to find out my amps for my cpu, sandra is just guessing?

Those calculations on that link, BillR, is the same exact thing I mentioned in my post, or am I missing something? watts = volts X amps, but I don't know my amps or watts are.

I've tried overclockulator, it's not that great, plus, same problem, doesn't tell me what amps are and the variables it uses to calculate watts don't make sense.

So wattmeter would tell me watts, but 60% lower, hmm, is there a device I can stick somewhere in my computer to figure out the real watts that the CPU is using?

So let me get this straight, no one knows how to figure out my amps? Hehe.

 

[Ice Czar]

to do anything other than guess, there would need to be a physical ammeter to actually read from
something the mobo lacks

as illustrated here
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-powercons_2.html
and
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-powercons_3.html

CPU values are educated guesses based on the thermal design power more often than not
http://users.erols.com/chare/elec.htm

the overclockulator linked is the type of basic tool youd need to employ
based on a 100% draw worse case senerio
realworld values will vary as the draw increases and decreases based on actual use

youd be able to calculate the amps from an acurrate voltage reading (that is stable) and the actual thermal watts shed
if
you where actually able to account for all the heat paths, which you cant accurately do
http://www.arcticsilver.com/measurement1.htm

 

[provoko]

My god, so I should just get a 2000 watt PSU juuuust to make sure. Haha.

Thanks for the information, if I was hardcore I would try that stuff from xbitlabs.

How about rail information, if I'm using too much wattage my rails would fluctuate a lot, right? Or is that not always the case?

Rails:
Lowest for 2.3ghz at 1.75 volts were 3.25 / 4.84 / 11.86
Highest for 2.3ghz at 1.75 volts were 3.30 / 4.92 / 12.10

Lowest for 2.4ghz at 1.825 volts were 3.23 / 4.81 / 11.92
Highest for 2.4ghz at 1.825 volts were 3.30 / 4.92 / 12.16

Do lower rails mean more power consumption?

 

[provoko]

Anyone?

 

[Ice Czar]

Do lower rails mean more power consumption?

not per se

1. AC source power contributes alot to the stability of a rail
if your AC VAC is lower the supply has to draw more amps from the socket
and if it fluctuates alot its hard for the supply to keep it stable

2. the supply itself could have its pots set too low for the reference voltage, which is why some supplies have adjustable external pots, you add some resistance as you have more components and connectors (but not much)

3. Temperature effects the capacity of a given supply,
engineering tech specs will provide a derating curve
or simply a statemnt like rated at full power for 0 to 25C reducing to zero power at 70C

4. and finally yes, too much of a load can lead to too low a rail
since the draw of alot of components isnt static that can lead to fluctuation
but a consistantly low reading can well be because the supply doesnt have the capacity for its operating temperature, components that are a static load are Hard Drives and Fans after they have spun up (generally about on quarter of their rated draw at that point)

5. and in closing, software monitoring pulls its data from the SMBus (System Management Bus) its notoriously inaccurate, so true values need to be determined independently with a multimeter, and then if you can you calibrate the monitoring software
(MBM for instance allows this)