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GF 6800U power consumption

T

thylantyr

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Messages
157
A few thoughts. Nvidia says we need two power connectors
to power the video card. Nvidia also recommends a 480w
power supply.

Those two facts are causing people to call the chip a
power hungry beast.

Now the weirdness.

Toms Hardware did a system power test and it showed that
during computer boot up time and Windows idle time,
the ATI 9800XT consumes more power than the GF6800U.

Do you feel this test to be valid ?

But during 3D gaming the test showed 6800U consuming
less then 30W more than 9800XT.

If so, then why a 480W supply ?
 
Remember that a prescott is taking up to 100w right now and the 6800 was measured at around 100 watts.

Most 450-480w power supplies are rated for 20 amps on the 12 volts line, the one needed for the processor and the video card. Therefore doing the math thats only 240w of power from the power supply. With the video card and processor running at full power, we're getting very close to the limit.

That being said, some have done tests and it ran just fine with a 350w high quality power supply, and a lot of 431 power supplies. It looks like nVidia is just being cautiaus.
 
it isn't so much the overall wattage that nvidia is worried about it is a psu that can deliver enough amps on the +5 and +12 rails, a generic 400 watt psu won't do it well, but a quality 350 watt could probably do it easily, hence the overcaution so they won't get people saying, "my 400 watt $7 el cheapo psu won't run the 6800 ultra" the moral of the story, get a good psu like an antec, enermax, Pc power and cooling, fortron source, sparkle, and probably some others that aren't coming to mind, and don't worry about it.
 
you don't want to gamble with a psu, it could cost you every component in your case hooked to it. Nvidia is playing it smart. It may work on a 200w psu, but for how long?
 
Tech Report is only showing about 30W more than a 9800XT and 10W more than a 5950U under load. It does seem like NVIDIA is trying to play it pretty safe here. Especially considering most PSU's can't perform at their rated specs.
 
Originally posted by obs
Tech Report is only showing about 30W more than a 9800XT and 10W more than a 5950U under load. It does seem like NVIDIA is trying to play it pretty safe here. Especially considering most PSU's can't perform at their rated specs.
Click to expand...

Video card makers and other hardware manufacturers do this every time. They dont want to take the risk that maybe one person wont have enough power because their stupid and plug too much onto one strand so they recommend these huge PSU's that noone needs. I usually put 400-480w PSU's in my systems but i build workstation style machines here. Like 4+ Hard drives, 3 or 4 opticals, 2GB of RAM, 3 or 4 PCI and the works. A good name brand 300w PSU will run this video card fine but i would say most will need around a name brand 350w PSU if their system is farely high end. HP and Dell and most of them still use those dinky little 200-250w PSU's in their systems so i doubt their going to upgrade them to 500 watters just for a video card when it doesn't need it.
 
TechTV benched their 6800Ultra with a 420watt PSU and ran into no problems. Depends how much stuff you have running your rig.
 
Originally posted by creedAMD
you don't want to gamble with a psu, it could cost you every component in your case hooked to it. Nvidia is playing it smart. It may work on a 200w psu, but for how long?
Click to expand...

he ran 3dmark for 11 hours strait on a 200wpsu, im sure a 400w would be fine.
 
Wattage rating isn't very important at all. When a PSU gets rated it could or could not put out anywhere near that amount so you have to look at each individual rail and also note the combined 3.3v and 5v rails that most all PSU's have except the Antec True Powers for example.

The brand is the most important aspect of a PSU. A 300w name brand will beat a 400w generic any day of the week. The majority of PSU manufactures rate PSU's at like 25C and i've yet to see a PSU run that cool. PC Power and Cooling rates theirs at like 45C i believe. So their PSU's have to be around 100-150w larger then they actually are in order to put out that much wattage at 45C. The attributes of heat cause most of the wattage lost.

In other words you want a good name brand that runs farely cool and quiet more then anything else. The Antec True Powers are the best for the price range followed by the much more expensive PC Power and Cooling models.
 
Originally posted by burningrave101
The Antec True Powers are the best for the price range followed by the much more expensive PC Power and Cooling models.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I guess it's a good thing I was gonna pick up the 550W Truepower to mod and sleeve anyways. ;) I guess I'll be good to go. :D
 
don't forget fortron source and sparkle, they use the same parts and their PSU's are great buys, excellent price and vastly underrated (in terms of the wattages they are listed at, like PCP&C, they are very conservative in their wattage ratings), they have it where it counts, good design, quality parts, good stabilty and reliabilty.
 
Originally posted by Merlin45
they have it where it counts, good design, quality parts, good stabilty and reliabilty.
Click to expand...

Which is something that sadly, far too many people today ignore. All the masses can typically think about is the "My power supply is bigger then yours" mentality. That school of thought has lead to far to many damaged computers and confused users.....and needs to be put to rest.
 
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