What is minimum power supply for an X1950XTX?

[9nines]

I have a late 2004 DELL XPS3, with a 460 watts power supply. It came with a 6800GT PCIe card that I want to replace. That card uses a 6 pin power plug.

From what I can gather at Dell forums the 12 volt rail is 16 to 18 amps.

Should that power supply be able to handle a X1950XTX? or is the ampage too low for the 12 volt rail?

 

[happy medium]

It requires a 450 watt psu when system is fully loaded. If you only have 1 or 2 harddrives, and a dvd drive you should be fine. I think your power supply is a duel rail psu with 15 amps on EACH rail ,but i'm not shure. It would hard for me to believe that they make a 460 watt psu with only 17 amps on one 12v+ rail. Call Dell and ask them.

 

[PING]

I have a Dell 9150 with 380W PSU with ATI X1900XTX. The PSU will have a rating on the side for each rail. I think mine has 18amps for each 12v rail for a total of 32amps( 2X12V). I think X1900XTX is 30amps minimum. Anyone knows the minium amps for X1950?

And, I have 2 80GB HD, 1 DVD-ROM, 1 DVD-Writer, Pentium 4 D 830. Never had a problem with playing games.

 

[Anogar]

I use a 550W power supply for my Sapphire X1900 XTX.

 

[9nines]

From Dell Forums someone added a picture from the PSU on a XPS 200, after it was taken out of system. The label on the picture read that it is 17 amps on the 12v(a) rail and 17 amps on the 12v(b) rail, with total 12v of 32 amps. My XPS 300 either uses the same PSU or a better one. Other confirmed the Gen 3 and 4 XPS system used 460 watts PSU, with 17 amps on two 12 volts rail with total of 32 amps on 12 volts.

Confirmation question: Does having 32amps total on two 12 volt rails satisfy the 30 amp on 12volts minimum recommendation for the X1900 cards or do you have to look at the separate rail's 17 amp, in which case it is too low? I think it does satisfy it but I want to make sure before I buy the card.

 

[RelaxTheMind]

supposedly the x1950xtx draws less power. So imo you should be fine.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: 9nines
From Dell Forums someone added a picture from the PSU on a XPS 200, after it was taken out of system. The label on the picture read that it is 17 amps on the 12v(a) rail and 17 amps on the 12v(b) rail, with total 12v of 32 amps. My XPS 300 either uses the same PSU or a better one. Other confirmed the Gen 3 and 4 XPS system used 460 watts PSU, with 17 amps on two 12 volts rail with total of 32 amps on 12 volts.

Confirmation question: Does having 32amps total on two 12 volt rails satisfy the 30 amp on 12volts minimum recommendation for the X1900 cards or do you have to look at the separate rail's 17 amp, in which case it is too low? I think it does satisfy it but I want to make sure before I buy the card.

In that case your good to go. Time to go shopping

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: RelaxTheMind
supposedly the x1950xtx draws less power. So imo you should be fine.

it does, so if the poster above is running a 1900xtx on 380, the OP should be fine with a dell 460.


hell, i run my overclocked 1900xt on a 430 watt power supply with 3 hard drives, a dvd rom and burner, and an overclocked dual core opteron.

 

[MDE]

I'm using a 430W PSU to run my overclocked X1900XT with two hard drives, two optical drives and an overclocked Athlon X2, I'd imagine your Dell will be fine since the X1950 draws less power.

 

[PingSpike]

I always tend to think that video card power supply requirements are fairly conservative to take into account how many people have sh|tty ass overrated powersupplies in their machines.

 

[Ackmed]

btw, several estores appear to have them in stock;

http://www.buy.com/prod/RADEON_X1950_XTX/q/loc/273/202987758.html
http://www.thenerds.net/index.php?page=productpage&affid=8&pn=100435843
http://www.clubmac.com/clubmac/shop/det...cwbfroogle&adcampaign=email,cwbfroogle
http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detai...n=email,pwbfroogle&wt.mc_id=pwbfroogle

I say appear, because I have never used those sites before. They say instock, but who knows. A lot of sites say that with a lot of things, and its not true.

 

[9nines]

Thanks for all the information. Based on the review, on this site, peak consumption is 245 watts for the X1950XTX. On 12 volts that is 20 amps (using amps X volts = watts.) so If I have a spare 12 amps, hopefully that is enough for other stuff.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
I always tend to think that video card power supply requirements are fairly conservative to take into account how many people have sh|tty ass overrated powersupplies in their machines.

you mean overestimates, not conservative. conservative estimates give a low number, such as, conservative estimates on the cost to fly to mars are $25 billion