TSGL: Power with AGP or PCI-e

[Bo Maurin (KI/EAB)]

Thanks John, for a very good answer! 

-----Original Message-----
From: list-bounces at tsgserver.com [mailto:list-bounces at tsgserver.com] On
Behalf Of John S
Sent: den 4 januari 2007 12:34
To: Tech Support Guy Mailing List
Subject: Re: TSGL: Power with AGP or PCI-e

Bo wrote:
> >> Of most interest right now is a GeForce
> 7600GS or 7600GT card.
>
> These cards are available as both AGP and PCIe versions (my MB 
> supports only AGP). My question now is if anyone knows if AGP 
> configuration require more or less from the PSU? Or is the graphical 
> bus irrelevant of how much power the card will draw from the system? 
> <<
>   
Bo,
Your present ATI-9800 card draws 42Watts. The general limitation current
draw from an AGP3.0 standard (AGP8xx) slot is 40 to 42Watts.  As you can
see, your present card is maxing out what your AGP slot can deliver as
it is.

The nVidia 7600GS card draws 27Watts and the 7600GT draws 36Watts.  Due
to more efficient architecture these days in vid cards more can be done
with less power consumption.  Similarly, this advancement is occurring
with RAM modules and CPUs.
Therefore, you will be fine with fitting either the GS or GT cards to
your AGP slot even with their self contained cooling fan(s).

I have one 7600GS (AGP8x) card fitted to one of my machines and can
vouch that it is an excellent bit of gear.

Of course you could fit a card to your AGP slot that drew much more that
40Watts.  Such cards should already have an additional socket to be able
to receive additional power from an available power chord with a small
Molex plug coming from your PSU for that purpose.  I suspect from
reading your post that you may not have a spare power chord available.  
Anyway, I would not suggest the use of power splitter cables with a
250Watt PSU as it is likely to be supplying near all the current it can
with your present configuration.

The PCI-Express Standard allows a maximum of 75Watts to graphics cards
through PCI-E slots.  Hence, MBs with such multiple PCI-E slots will
supply power to the vast majority of mid to high-end vid cards (even
when more than one such card is fitted) without the requirement of
additional power supply.  Naturally, boxes with such MBs will
undoubtedly be (or should be) fitted with substantial PSUs (480W min ??)
wherein a lot more power is required for adequate overall cooling
purposes as well.

Cheers... ~ John S.


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