225 W and 300 W Graphics Requirements

[Capt Caveman]

I know the subject has been covered a little bit but after reading Anandtech's Article on IDF Fall 2006, I'm wondering how this may impact us in the near furture.

As someone that's looking to upgrade to Conroe in the near future, will I need to upgrade again based on these new power specs:

I assume new motherboards will be required to handle these new video cards?

Add a power brick or upgrade to a 800w+ psu?

 

[jiffylube1024]

New power supplies are the only possible issue I think. The cards will be PCI-e 16X.

I was reading somewhere about "discussing a new power adaptor for next-gen cards" - a new connector rather than the 6-pin PCI-e power adaptors we have now. I think that next-gen cards may either use 2 of these connectors (on one card) or perhaps may introduce a new connector if the discussion is true. An external power "brick"/adaptor is another possibility, possibly occupying a 5 1/4" drive bay.

 

[aweigh]

I see 1k PSU's becoming common in our future. Truthfully I'd rather have a power-brick because if it shorts out or catches fire, hopefully the damage will be localized in the external brick and not fry my motherboard.

 

[BassBomb]

i wouldnt mind a brick

 

[moonboy403]

i got myself a FSP BoosterX 3 which is a psu that fits into a drive bay and only powers my video card
it's not bad for 80 bucks considering i can still put my antec 380w to use

 

[SpeedZealot369]

Originally posted by: moonboy403
i got myself a FSP BoosterX 3 which is a psu that fits into a drive bay and only powers my video card
it's not bad for 80 bucks considering i can still put my antec 380w to use

How much juice does it give?

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

i believe in 200+W mainstream-cards when i see them. and i think there are plenty of rumors and exaggerations out there about the upcoming cards but i wont ever buy a power hog. we might see some power hungry new cards in the high-end class but eventually both companies will have to step back and release other cards that will use less than 100W. becuz there are ppl demanding them..hopefully.. ^^

 

[hmorphone]

I wouldn't mind something like the FSP Booster, but $80 seems like a lot of clams.

 

[Corporate Thug]

a 225w VPU means that most people can still run their systems with 600W PSUs because dual card users are still very much a minority

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: Corporate Thug
a 225w VPU means that most people can still run their systems with 600W PSUs because dual card users are still very much a minority

I agree with that. It would basically be like two X1900XTs running together and a very good 520-550W PSU can handle that. A decent PSU at 600-650W should also be able to handle it if it's got enouh amps on the 12V rail.

The new power requirements don't really bug me. I kind of think of video cards like cars. If you want ground-pounding torque when you hit the loud pedal, you better forget about mpg.

 

[tuteja1986]

see , Just have a case that has 2 slot for PSU :! get 2x 550W PSU :! one for mobo , hard drive , Optical drive ect 2nd for GPU

Problem sloved

 

[akshayt]

I feel buying a separate PSU for the GPU is actually gonna make thing cheaper for us.

Say a 300watt PSU costs us 50$ for the GPU.
Another 75$ for a 300-350 watt PSU for the rest of the system.
Total is around 125$

On the other hand a single 600-700 watts PSU of this kind may cost a whoppin 150-200$ or even more!

 

[the Chase]

The way I read the blue box bullets in the article the new cards "may" require improvements of existing form factors. PCI-SIG investigating ATX form factor. I think I'll hold of on my Core2 build until the new mobo specs are out.(If they change.)

 

[maxxxxel]

I prefer to wait until Rev 2 of DX10 boards come out based on 65nm G85 and the R670 (so i heard) I have a new OCZ 540W and im not prepared to buy another one.
I think that the people who have just have 1 DVDR and 1 HDD and 65nm CPU should be able to run a G80 or a R600 with a 500-600W PSU

 

[LittleNemoNES]

lol I plan on doing Crossfire with R600 but...I will need to buy a 1kw PSU :Q

 

[Dkcode]

There is no way i will buy a video card that requires 300W to power it. If these stupid power requirements are needed to fuel the new line of GPUs then i'll call it a day. Why cant ATI & Nvidia learn something from Intel & AMD; making faster products that are more efficent in the way they use energy?

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: Dkcode
There is no way i will buy a video card that requires 300W to power it. If these stupid power requirements are needed to fuel the new line of GPUs then i'll call it a day. Why cant ATI & Nvidia learn something from Intel & AMD; making faster products that are more efficent in the way they use energy?

I agree 100%, I can see more people getting a console for playing games.

 

[gramboh]

External AC power brick included with card would be the best way, but the cost would be passed on to the consumer (an AC brick must be cheaper than a PSU though right).

Depending on the power and heat/noise output of G80, I might be waiting for 65nm GPUs. Certainly not going to deal with an FX-5800 like card.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

if u release a new generation card that asks for twice the power u better make it perform twice as fast. since i dont see the latter coming i doubt +250W holds true.