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Video Card Power Usage Question

K

KillerPotato

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 14, 2005
Messages
167
I've done a little research, and was getting ready to upgrade my computer, until I realized the Chaintech nforce 4 ultra mobo I was looking at had a 24 pin power connecter, while my PSU only had a 20 pin connector. I read that the extra four pins were mainly for providing power to the pci-e video card, yet the motherboards were also designed to be able to run without those 4 pins.

After reading how it might be unstable with a card that draws all its power from the pci-e slot with only a 20 pin psu (namely the X800XL), I am undecided how I will go about this upgrade. Considering comparable 6800GT's are at least 50 dollars more for the pci-e variant (which i was considering because it had a method of drawing external power other than directly through the pci-e slot, hopefully making it more stable), it looks as though my only other decent alternative for an externally powered card to try to maintain stability would be an X800pro, which while slightly cheaper that the XL, has 4 less pipelines.

Would the 4 fewer pipelines be noticably worse that I should take my chances with the PSU and go for the XL, or should I play it safe and go with the X800pro? Would the X800pro even be a much safer bet? Considering Ive been playing most of the latest games on an athlon 1600+ and ti4200, anything would be a huge upgrade, but I also want it to last me a while since I'm used to using my hardware until I can no longer play games on it at minimal settings with good frame rates. Are my worries completely unwarranted?

I already have the Thermaltake 480w psu though because my no name one died several months ago, and am not too keen on adding another PSU to my upgrade price, especially if it has the chance of running the new hardware fine. Does anyone have any experience running highly taxing games on a X800XL with a 20 pin PSU?Thanks for any advice/suggestions.
 
Bump

I have the same question and was considering buying the X800XL, yet only have a 20 pin PSU. Its a quality psu, mind you, but I too need to know whether or not people have experienced some stability problems attempting to run an X800XL with a 20pin connector.

The benchmarks show that the XL performs a good bit better than the pro, but I dont know if its worth spending the extra money and not even knowing whether it will be stable or not. Hopefully the extra power connector on the pro would make it more stable, and you could always upgrade the card itself the next generation if theyre as powerful as nvidia says theyre going to be.
 
I would get a new PSU just to be safe, Thermaltakes PSU's arn't the greatest anyway.
 
For the purpose of being cost effective though, would the extra power connector on the pro help it be more stable? I'd rather buy upgrades over time rather than spending a huge pile of cash at once, so if I can, would it be advisable to allow my 480W thermaltake to run my upgrades (3200+ Venice, Chaintec nForce 4 ultra, a gig of ram, and a vid card) using an X800 pro, and buy a new PSU and Video card when the next generation rolls around?
 
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