Inquirer says that R300 will require 28 Watts ???

[NicColt]

Link to Inquirer
"We're hearing that the R300 is so power hungry that currently it needs an external power supply unit (PSU) to keep it juiced up, and consumes a rather more than adequate 28 watts."

Damm, didn't the voodoo 5 need an external psu ?

 

[vss1980]

Yeah, 3Dfx did make a VSA-100 based board that needed an extra PSU, but apart from the Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 5000 boards, there were hardly any of these cards manufactured.

I also doubt ATI will actually make a card that will require an extra PSU. I'm not discounting the possibility of it using that much power, but if it is only 28W that could just require an extra power connection from the normal system PSU like the Voodoo5 had.
Of course, they could just make use of the AGP Pro standards which give the cards more juice by using more power connections on the AGP connector, but the average motherboard doesn't have that (which would narrow ATI's potential audience).

 

[GetInMyFatBelly]

Is this the sign of things to come? Does the power connector near the AGP pro slot maybe have something to do with this??
See pics of the Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra at www.newegg.com (AMD motherboards), see it.
http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage...09-03.JPG/13-139-109-04.JPG/13-139-109-05.JPG

 

[Killrose]

Maybe on certain card versions that have more than three chips

 

[Pariah]

Canopus TI500

Note the 4pin molex power connector on the end of the board. Only Geforce 3 that used one to my knowledge, but 3dfx isn't the only one.

 

[Operandi]

Damn 28 watts is a lot of power for a single graphic chip using today?s small process. Remember the Voodoo's both used larger die's and multiple chips to require the extra power the AGP slot couldn?t provide. And that Canopus TI500 card only uses the external power connection for "cleaner" power, not for more power.

If it?s true the R300 must a monster of a graphics chip, this could be a turning point in the graphics card industry.

 

[Bozo Galora]

via is well aware of the fact that todays AMD mobo can't supply enough voltage to the Geforce 3- 4 to make
the six strobe voltages (3 - 2X and 3 complimentary) and the card's input wattage to initialize these cards in
3D accelleration reliably. There's only two ways to make these cards work - bypass the mobo power
distribution with an additional +12V PSU 4 pin connector on mobo, or connect a separate line rail (like from
Antec truepower) directly into vidcard, like the new TX25 Canopus Ti4600.
Since the card requires +1.5V, and since the cards components have not changed for current vidcards, I
don't know if they are using the +12V PSU connector to alleviate other things, like HDD's or CDRoms, but
then why would they put it so close to AGP slot? Its a lot harder to kick down 12V to 1.5 than 3.3V to 1.5
Also, all the +12V lines come from the same taps on PSU PCB, so I don't understand how this helps either.

But clearly, Nvidia and VIA are doing things behind the scenes to try and fix the endless misery that people
have trying to get their Geforce running properly at rated 4X.

Most people downgrade their system and live with it.

 

[vss1980]

In all honesty, I'd rather have a power connector on my graphics card than the mess of voltage regulator components that the Geforce 4 cards have on-board at the moment. More components usually means that there is potentially more to go wrong with the card as well as additional construction costs.

Also, depending on how they try and lower 12v or 5v to 1.5v, clever use of inductive and capacitive regulation and smoothing techniques would make the difference in components needed very small.

 

[Operandi]

I don't know if they are using the +12V PSU connector to alleviate other things, like HDD's or CDRoms, but

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn?t that connector also carry a 5.0 volt line? 5V would be a lot easy to step down from then 12V.

 

[Bozo Galora]

ya, +5V is Red wires

 

[hans007]

i thought the r300 was also going to be a laptop chip. i doubt it uses 28 watts.

 

[Bozo Galora]

these guys reviewed the soyo kt333 and didn't even use the dam connector on mobo

link

 

[MoMeanMugs]

<< i thought the r300 was also going to be a laptop chip. i doubt it uses 28 watts. >>



What rock have you been living under?

 

[hans007]

<<

<< i thought the r300 was also going to be a laptop chip. i doubt it uses 28 watts. >>



What rock have you been living under? >>




i dont know, possibly the I HAVE A LIFE, and dont keep up on the absolute latest video cards rock.

 

[MoMeanMugs]

<< i dont know, possibly the I HAVE A LIFE, and dont keep up on the absolute latest video cards rock. >>



You may have that indeed. Maybe you went out so much that you lost your proper English grammar.