HarHarHar! - GF8800 to use 400+ Watts!

[SuperSix]

Make sure to read the first comment - Funny as hell! :D

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4442

[Super Nade]

The first post does make many pertinent points. I may have to start working on my fast breeder reactor to power my rig. With shrinking process technologies, one would expect the power consumption to reverse itself or at the very least stay put. Now this is really getting out of hand.

[jonnyGURU]

This sucks.

Die sizes and power consumption are supposed to be LESS in the evolution of a product, not more. Otherwise, you're just "overclocking" existing product with better yields.

What really pisses me off is that Intel "quietly" caved in on the 240VA rail limit for the ATX12V standard. Rail separation has good intentions, but with power hungry GPU's, the 240VA limit simply doesn't work (unless there's a separate rail for each PCI-e like the OCZ GameXstream and Ultra X-Finity 800W)

I'm not saying I "fault" Intel, but if they stood their ground on the ATX12V standard of no rail over 240VA, then GPU manufactures would have to improve power efficiency because no ATX12V power supply would power their high end cards!

[Super Nade]

I see the GPU market heading the way of the Prescott, where clock frequency was bumped up by adding more and more pipelines, which ofcourse necessitated humongous L2 and even L3 caches to prevent pipeline stalls. All this extra silicon was consuming a lot of power, which was exarcerbated by leakage problems and this equated to massive heat issues.

While Intel moved onto smaller process technology, power budgets came crashing down only upon implimenting an efficient architecture. The Netburst crap really didn't cut it anymore.

However, with GPU's I don't think these guys have the freedom to restructure architecture as CPU's, because they have to adhere to DX and OpenGL models. Plus, the GDDR in use is not the most energy efficient device on board. ATI did overhaul their architecture, but sadly I don't see the horizon in terms of hogging power. With GDDR4 and a smaller process (x1950 series), power consumption seems to have levelled out.

I am really scared for ATI now, they have had the hottest and most inefficient cards on the market so far. DX 10 could make everybody sit up and say FU, this is enough!

[Spectre]

As I have become famous....or infamous for saying elsewhere....I'll believe those power figures when I see them (do remember the chicken littling of 6800 power consumption which i have running on a 270w Topower). A recommendation for a 450w PSU for hte whole system when the system recommendation for a 7950 is 400w hardly makes for the 350w GPU's people were predicting.

[dBTelos]

Nothing new there, but nVidia is sure making this DX10 revolution hard for us PSU "gurus".

[madmat]

I see the GPU market heading the way of the Prescott, where clock frequency was bumped up by adding more and more pipelines, which ofcourse necessitated humongous L2 and even L3 caches to prevent pipeline stalls. All this extra silicon was consuming a lot of power, which was exarcerbated by leakage problems and this equated to massive heat issues.

While Intel moved onto smaller process technology, power budgets came crashing down only upon implimenting an efficient architecture. The Netburst crap really didn't cut it anymore.

However, with GPU's I don't think these guys have the freedom to restructure architecture as CPU's, because they have to adhere to DX and OpenGL models. Plus, the GDDR in use is not the most energy efficient device on board. ATI did overhaul their architecture, but sadly I don't see the horizon in terms of hogging power. With GDDR4 and a smaller process (x1950 series), power consumption seems to have levelled out.

I am really scared for ATI now, they have had the hottest and most inefficient cards on the market so far. DX 10 could make everybody sit up and say FU, this is enough!

There's a glaring misinterpritation here. Intel did not add more pipelines, they added more stages to the existing pipes. This means that each calculation had more stages in a longer pipe to go through. nVidia is adding parallel pipelines to execute more calculations simultaneously, not to speed up the clockspeed. In essesnce it's similar to adding another core where the pipes (cores) are parallel to one another.

[Rubycon]

They'll just have to put the power connector right on the back of the card like monitors have! 120-240VAC direct input. :D

The brick idea -sans voodoo 6000 - may make a comeback.:eek:

Imagine the UPS manufacturers needing to add GPU power plant onto the list along with laser printers of things NOT to plug into your UPS! :D

[irev210]

The brick idea is alive and kicking!


Anyone with two GF8800GTX's in SLI with a quad core kentfield is going to need a LOT of power.

Overclocked kentfield system with 1.65vcore, 2GB ram, and a LOW power X300 video card pulls ~300 watts at idle.

[Hutch]

Kentsfield uses the same power as the 965xe, the Pentium D 3.73ghz w/HT, which has been the closest thing to quad core so far, with 2 actual cores and 2 'virtual' cores.

In all honesty, who cares about how much power your desktop uses. If you can afford a kentsfield and two 8800's in SLI, then you clearly can afford the small jump in your electric bill. Personally I'm thinking of investing in a really powerful PSU right now, with these cards coming out. Oh yea I just signed the lease on my new apartment (getting out of my parents home!) and electricity is included in the rent. ;)

[dBTelos]

Hutch, I think irev is talking about a $500 PSU not a jump in your electrical bill.

[davidhammock200]

Referring to Nvidia's new release 11-08-06.

I have been told by PSU companies who have these in their possession,
that they have only 1 PCIe connector & consume a total of only 225W, mostly +12V.

So if you have +12V@18A available on your PCIe connector you will be fine &
anything over +12V@15A "should" work. ;)

[Spectre]

Referring to Nvidia's new release 11-08-06.

I have been told by PSU companies who have these in their possession,
that they have only 1 PCIe connector & consume a total of only 225W, mostly +12V.

So if you have +12V@18A available on your PCIe connector you will be fine &
anything over +12V@15A "should" work. ;)

I am still going to wait but that is a fair bit off of the 300w-350w mark ;)

[davidhammock200]

I am still going to wait but that is a fair bit off of the 300w-350w mark ;)The ATI's are still suppose to be 300W+. :crazy:

[Spectre]

The ATI's are still suppose to be 300W+. :crazy:

Well I'll just be cautious still...... :D

[reg_pfj]

I personally don't mind if my gaming computer sucks eight amps out of the wall while benchmarking that new hentai game at 2048 x 1536 resolution. Why not? If I can get 339 billion pixels an hour through the 160 Watt 21" Trinitron, it's worth $30 a month for electricity right? That's the reason I ran 10 gauge romex to that outlet in the first place. It reminds me of my favorite car. How many miles per gallon of 102 octane leaded fuel did a 427 Cobra get in 1966? Who cares?

Now my dvr is another thing. It has to quietly do its job; I don't want to be distracted by five 120mm fans laboring away while I'm watching reruns of Archie Bunker. That's why it uses a Palermo and an fx5200. This reminds me of my other favorite car - a Ford Festiva. It damn well better get 40 mpg, and had better do it while drinking the gas equivalent of keystone light.

[Spectre]

How many miles per gallon of 102 octane leaded fuel did a 427 Cobra get in 1966? Who cares?


The Chevy 427 in the 1966 Chevrolet Impala SS gets around 8 mpg w/ an 11:1 compression ratio....and even 102 octane is touch and go.....you want ot be a touch north of there and leaded if you haven't out in hardened valve seats.

But who is counting ;)

[Hutch]

Thats about what those giant soccer mom gas guzzling suv's get. And yea, that's 40 years later with fuel injection... *cringes*

Honestly, what the hell is the point of an SUV. 'Sports Utility Vehicle'... Just think about the name, SPORTS UTILITY VEHICLE! WHAT THE @#$% IS THAT!

If you're going to get a gas guzzling car, atleast put that gas to good use in a fast car! Hell my 04 SRT-4 with around 300 h.p still gets over 20mpg (if you drive it like a girl scout... in which case I get about 12-15mpg lol)

[Makalu]

The marketing material included with the card claims NVIDIA requires at least a 450W power supply for a single GeForce 8800GTX, and 400W for the 8800GTS. Top tier vendors in Taiwan have already confirmed with DailyTech that GeForce 8800 cards in SLI mode will likely carry a power supply "recommendation" of 800W.

erm if a complete system with one graphics card needs a 400w supply then there's no way that just adding another card will require another 400 watts...and two cards in sli/crossfire don't draw twice as much current as one card anyway.

[davidhammock200]

erm if a complete system with one graphics card needs a 400w supply then there's no way that just adding another card will require another 400 watts...and two cards in sli/crossfire don't draw twice as much current as one card anyway.PSU manufacturers already have shipping versions of the cards, the max draw is 225W & +12V@18A. ;)

Now the ATI GPU's may be as much as 300W+ each, but we just don't know.

[Makalu]

well 225w and 12v@18a is a more believable number to me judging from the initial performance specs but now I'm thinking 400-450w is a bit lower than what Nvidia is going to wind up recommending for these. That would be about 30 or 32 amps of max continuous 12v assuming the unit follows the Intel guide...not saying it wouldn't suffice but it doesn't leave much overhead for the rest of what i'd assume is a "high-end" set-up.

[davidhammock200]

well 225w and 12v@18a is a more believable number to me judging from the initial performance specs but now I'm thinking 400-450w is a bit lower than what Nvidia is going to wind up recommending for these. That would be about 30 or 32 amps of max continuous 12v assuming the unit follows the Intel guide...not saying it wouldn't suffice but it doesn't leave much overhead for the rest of what i'd assume is a "high-end" set-up.The lowest priced PSU I could recommend for a single on of these
is the $49 XCilo GoodPower 500W (max combined +12V@30A) at new egg.

[Makalu]

The lowest priced PSU I could recommend for a single on of these
is the $49 XCilo GoodPower 500W (max combined +12V@30A) at new egg.

If the card alone draws 18a of 12v current under load then I'll be recommending users avoid any dual-rail unit unless they are sure about how it's wired (exception would be the I-Star PD3/Seventeam *PAF's with 26-28a on 12v2). Single rail units with phony dual rail labeling would be ok, but any true dual-rail unit that follows the Intel guide (12v connector is on it's own 12v rail and everything else on the other 12v rail....or even units with mobo power and cpu connectors on one rail and everything else on the other) and has a "normal" current limit of 18-20a would be marginal at best...

EDIT: I reckon if these cards have 2 PCI-E connectors and a dual-rail unit is "upper tier" SLI or Crossfire Certified/Ready we can assume it would work

[Skott]

Cant wait for November 8th to see what these G80s do in actual realworld applications. Picking a psu is getting more and more important each build.

[Makalu]

yeah for sure it's all just speculation till then...number of power connectors and the distribution between those and the slot power will determine a lot. Could be many months before we find out what DX10 and SM4.0 will do, but the closer it gets the more I think I'll just stick with XP and DX9 for another few years.

[Skott]

Yeah, I'm not all that excited about VISTA neither. XP wont go away anytime soon. New games will still run fine on it for a couple more years at least. Maybe after the first Vista SP it'll be worth upgrading but I dont see a real need for it from the start.