power Question for those who use the gtx 260

[genetech]

What are the wattage and the amps of your power supply for running this card in yours rigs. I ask this because i hear people running this card with less than recommended power supplies. ex:520 watt with 28 amp 12v rail. This is just to get a general area of what is required to use this card.

 

[NKD]

Nvidia is always going to recommend higher power than you need, they try to sell more power supplies and plus they cover their butt so people with a single rail 450 watt dont stick in a gtx 280, if you look at gtx 280 sli requirements at sli-zone, they dont recommend anything lower than 1000 watt, heck they dont even have a good 850 in there.

a good 550 should do the job, with 2 or three rails, I had a an antec true power trio 550 running with my gtx 260 but I upgraded to a cooler master 750 recently not because I needed it because I got a kick ass deal on it, and it is 80 plus certified for 70 bucks, brand new.

if you have a good 500-550 watt, you should be fine. I think looking at the power number of gtx 280 sli at vr-zone with quad core running at 4ghz, the system power usage under load was 508 watts, so technically my cooler master should be able to power a gtx 280 sli system.

heck a corsair 450 80plus should do the job.

 

[MassiveOverkill]

See sig, 18 amps each rail (2)

 

[genetech]

After looking at my power supply. It appears to have 4 12v rails at 18 amps each at 750 watts. will 2 of these combined be enough to run a gtx 260?
I keep getting told that the full 32-40 amps has to be delivered through each rail, But combined that is like a full 64-80 amps total. So does the amps have to be 32-40 amps each (36+36=36Amps) or does it have to be total (18+18=36)? Cause this will decide if i need to get a new power supply before i buy the gpu

 

[NKD]

After looking at my power supply. It appears to have 4 12v rails at 18 amps each at 750 watts. will 2 of these combined be enough to run a gtx 260?
I keep getting told that the full 32-40 amps has to be delivered through each rail, But combined that is like a full 64-80 amps total. So does the amps have to be 32-40 amps each (36+36=36Amps) or does it have to be total (18+18=36)? Cause this will decide if i need to get a new power supply before i buy the gpu

dude those power requirement are nuts, there is no way in hell a card needs 32-40 amps for itself, Nvidia states the total amperage for your psu if you want to run a card such as gtx 260 or 280.

reviews that have power numbers are the best ones to go by for power requriements.

I have not read the hardocp review for power requirements, but the most recent one I read was at vr-zone.com where they compared all the cards.

here wer the numbers.

quad core running at 4ghz with a single gtx was 293watts under load.

and with gtx 280 sli it was 508watts under load.

now if you have a good 500 watt with 32-36amps on multiple rails you should be good, an effiicient 750 should be able to run gtx 280 sli with multiple rails without a problem. even if you add 50 more watts for extra fans and hard drives, 550 from a good 750 watt should be more than enough.

Nvidia wants you to buy a 1200watt psu for gtx 280 sli, which I call bull, so if it was up to them they would have you buy a 800watt for a single gtx 260.

I think just for the card 18amps on a single rail should be more than enough, thats ofcourse if your psu has rails for graphics cards, or combined 36 amps for the whole system.

 

[NKD]

I just read guru3d article and they even confirm that for gtx 260 you need 36amps and 500 watt minimum, and 550 watt minimum with 40amps for gtx 280, that is accumulated amperage if you have a high end system not just the graphic card, total amps required for the highend system. so if you read somewhere that just the graphic card needs 36amps than whoever wrote is really talking out of their you know what, lol.

 

[Xeth]

GTX 260 has a TDP of 182W which is ~15 amps total on 12V (5V current draw should be minimal). Those 15A will be split between the PCIe slot and the 2 connectors, and each source should draw no more than ~6A (75W), so you should be fine as long as you spread the load across your rails.

 

[chinesepiratefood]

Nvidia is always going to recommend higher power than you need, they try to sell more power supplies and plus they cover their butt so people with a single rail 450 watt dont stick in a gtx 280, if you look at gtx 280 sli requirements at sli-zone, they dont recommend anything lower than 1000 watt, heck they dont even have a good 850 in there.

a good 550 should do the job, with 2 or three rails, I had a an antec true power trio 550 running with my gtx 260 but I upgraded to a cooler master 750 recently not because I needed it because I got a kick ass deal on it, and it is 80 plus certified for 70 bucks, brand new.

if you have a good 500-550 watt, you should be fine. I think looking at the power number of gtx 280 sli at vr-zone with quad core running at 4ghz, the system power usage under load was 508 watts, so technically my cooler master should be able to power a gtx 280 sli system.

heck a corsair 450 80plus should do the job.

1 12v rail is better than multiple, because you don't have to guess what cable is powered by what rail.

Also, to the OP: my GTX 260 is powered by a Corsair HX520

 

[cannondale06]

1 12v rail is better than multiple, because you don't have to guess what cable is powered by what rail.

Also, to the OP: my GTX 260 is powered by a Corsair HX520

exactly what I was going to say. for some reason he thinks that having multiples is better when in fact its not. also most good power supplies actually have a single rail even though they are listed as being multiple.

 

[NKD]

well, your graphic card does not necessarily suck all the power through just the power plug it is also powered by slot so the power is split between rails, most powersupplies might have multiple rails but they also have a combined output, corsair series does not have a true single rail, they have multiple rails configured to work as one, only one that has true single rail is their 1000 watt, I never said multiple rails were better, they are pretty equivalent, well in my case, I have coolermaster real power pro 750, with four rails with 19amps each and two are dedicated for graphics cards with two eight pin and two 6 pin adapters, so in my case it is easy for me to tell.

my main point was that a good 500 watt should do the job, I had antec true power trio and I was running quad core at 3.6 and hd 4870 crossfire with the power supply, and that had12v rails with 18amps each and max 42amps combined.

 

[cannondale06]

well, your graphic card does not necessarily suck all the power through just the power plug it is also powered by slot so the power is split between rails, most powersupplies might have multiple rails but they also have a combined output, corsair series does not have a true single rail, they have multiple rails configured to work as one, only one that has true single rail is their 1000 watt, I never said multiple rails were better, they are pretty equivalent, well in my case, I have coolermaster real power pro 750, with four rails with 19amps each and two are dedicated for graphics cards with two eight pin and two 6 pin adapters, so in my case it is easy for me to tell.

my main point was that a good 500 watt should do the job, I had antec true power trio and I was running quad core at 3.6 and hd 4870 crossfire with the power supply, and that had12v rails with 18amps each and max 42amps combined.

Corsair has several models that are single rails like there VX450, VX550, TX650 and TX750 models. the HX520, HX620, and HX1000 are the Corsair models that claim to have multiple 12v rails.

 

[NKD]

yes they have single rail, but they are multiple rails stichted together, the hx1000 series is the only series where they have true sinlge rails with 40amps on each, all the other single rails are multiple rails working as one, which still turns out to be better.