Nvidia Card question

[Krazy Canuck]

This is not a CM related question,

I'm positive I recently read that certain FX series cards are shipping with their own dedicated power cord which you have to plug into an existing wall socket. Can someone confirm this for me?

I've tried to find mention of it on the Nvidia website with no luck, I've looked on the MSI website and they don't make specific mention of this. Was I dreaming?

Thanx in advance,

KC

[Schrullenhaft]

None of the NVidia-based cards uses an external powercord to my knowledge. I can't remember if the Voodoo 6000 was going to use one (before 3dfx died off).

Rather most of the higher end cards have power connectors on them (standard molex connectors for internal drives) since the AGP bus can rarely provide the amount of current that they need.

[Krazy Canuck]

Originally posted by Schrullenhaft:

None of the NVidia-based cards uses an external powercord to my knowledge. I can't remember if the Voodoo 6000 was going to use one (before 3dfx died off).

Rather most of the higher end cards have power connectors on them (standard molex connectors for internal drives) since the AGP bus can rarely provide the amount of current that they need.

Ahh, I wasn't dreaming, I was confused.

Thanx for the correction.

KC

[Sirocco]

I have a Creative 3D Blaster 5 GeForce FX 5900 in the PC I'm attempting to build, and I was surprised to discover that, although it's not required, it requests power from the power connector on the motherboard beside the AGP slot. I don't think the TI4600 in this machine has a similar setup.

[Hpt. Lisse]

Oh, it's required all right, if you want your card to perform in any D3D/OpenGL mode...

However, this isn't an Nvidia-FX5900 series thing alone... the ATI 9700 & 9800 series requires the supplemental power adapter as well. The cards simply exceed the power requirement of the AGP 2.0/3.0 slots they reside in. Small price to pay.

It would be interesting to hook up a volt meter and see just how much extra current these cards draw on the molex connector...

I believe (it's been awhile, ya know) my Voodoo 5500 card required a molex power connector as well. So did the few 6000's that made it out (yeah, some were actually manufactered, not 2 but 4 GPU's working in unison). But never a wall AC adapter.

[Schrullenhaft]

Just to blather on uselessly in this thread. Here's a shot of the AGP version of the Voodoo 5 6000. When you maximize the photograph you'll see the black connector above the 15-pin VGA connector. That's the power input for the Voodoo 5 6000, which required an external AC adapter (pumping DC voltage to the card). Here's a sneak preview of the card.

As Hpt. Lisse stated above, the molex power connectors are necessary to run the cards in 3D mode for the higher-end cards that have them. I believe that they take the 3.3V feed and probably regulate it down to the 1.8/2V range. However they suck a lot of electrical current down at that voltage, which is far too much for the AGP 2.0/3.0 spec (and would make the CPU unstable, etc.). In fact having a good, beefy power supply is another requirement of running these cards or you'll see some instability in your system.

[Krazy Canuck]

Originally posted by Schrullenhaft:

Just to blather on uselessly in this thread. Here's a shot of the AGP version of the Voodoo 5 6000. When you maximize the photograph you'll see the black connector above the 15-pin VGA connector. That's the power input for the Voodoo 5 6000, which required an external AC adapter (pumping DC voltage to the card). Here's a sneak preview of the card.

As Hpt. Lisse stated above, the molex power connectors are necessary to run the cards in 3D mode for the higher-end cards that have them. I believe that they take the 3.3V feed and probably regulate it down to the 1.8/2V range. However they suck a lot of electrical current down at that voltage, which is far too much for the AGP 2.0/3.0 spec (and would make the CPU unstable, etc.). In fact having a good, beefy power supply is another requirement of running these cards or you'll see some instability in your system.

Whilst we're blathering;

It seems a shame(tinfoil hat plot?) that we can never get a few years out of our rigs before we have to go to a full blown upgrade. I find it upsetting!

Here is an opportunity for a vid card manufacturer to capitalize on that segment of the market still struggling along with their 250 watt power supply, P4 1.6 and a G3 vid card. Sell a card with it's own transformer and watch it fly out the door.

Would they not be cutting down considerably on the internal heat problem? We could upgrade without having to get a loan....

I've vented, I'm done...

KC

[rune]

Just for your information, Intel and others are releasing the next generation of power supplies/Motherboard/Cases this year called BTX. Along with changing the video card from 8X AGP to PCI Express [benefits are doubtful, however see tomshardware.com for a good article], it changes the design of the motherboard and case so fans on processors and video cards are not needed. Basically the entire system is designed for air flow through out the case.

BTX cases/motherboard will come in three flavors, and anandtech.com and tomshardware.com both had interesting articles on the layouts. Gone are things like serial ports, parallel ports, mouse and keyboard ports, etc.

Rune

[Redwolf]

I have a TI 4400 and a PCI TI 5200. They have their own ventilators but no extra power supply.

They draw more power than my Radeon 8500LE, about 9 watts more when in "display-only" mode, that means 2D or displaying a 3D image, but not building a 3D image. I didn't measure full-power 3D run power consuption.

I am much more satisfied with the NVidia parts (and my new Intel rig over the AMD box), but speed/dollar is not my primary concern.