New PSU for 7800 GT OC ?

[amdexclusive]

I just ordered the BFG 7800 GT OC for my Asrock 939 DS2. It will be used in conjunction with ATI AIW 9600xt AGP, so I emailed BFG about power requirements with two video cards but Non-SLI. Here is what they said...

"Best place to find out how much power you need is www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply. Check their calculator, add 20% to the figure, and use that as your base minimum power supply requirement. It is also worth noting that the 7800 series cards require a power supply with a minimum of 24 amps on the 12 volt rail (12V@24A), and we recommend a psu that comes with a pci-e power connector (6 pin)."

Ok so I went & checked out the link and basically I need a 500W minimum. So I'm checking around, reviews, forums, etc but what throws me is BFG tech saying 24amps on the 12 volt rail. Theres alot of PSU's out there that don't have that, if I'm reading it correctly. My confusion is (while reading PSU user reviews on Egghead) that there are alot of users giving great reviews on PSU's that DONT have that rating yet they have 7800 GT's GTX'x in their system ?

I'm missing something here. If anyone could please shed some light on this or recommend a tried and true PSU @ 550/600watt with 6 pin connector for 7800 I would greatly appreciate it. I'd like to have the PSU in place before that 7800 arrives

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[johnnqq]

400 is the bare minimum. 500+ is only for sli. with a 400watt psu you can probably run a 7800gt.

 

[stevty2889]

A decent 450w PSU should be more than enough. I was able to run a 6800GT on a 350w enermax, and the 7800GT actualy consumes less power than the 6800GT. That's gonna be a lot of fun..getting an ATI and Nvidia card to operate at the same time..I am having a heck of a time getting my 9600 pro AIW to work with my asrock board. The video card works fine, it's the stupid capture drivers that don't want to work.

 

[Spike]

I thought you could have a PSU with dual rails that had a combined total of 24a or over, not that all 24a had to be on the same rail. I hope that is enough as my PSU has dual rails with 17a and 19a on the two rails...

-spike

 

[amdexclusive]

Originally posted by: johnnqq
400 is the bare minimum. 500+ is only for sli. with a 400watt psu you can probably run a 7800gt.

Well with all the fans (2*120 & 2*80 + cpu) 2 hard drives, 3 optical drives, Audigy front panel, Aerogate 2 thermal controller, cathode light, etc...based on the website BFG referered me t0...I'm pushing 500watts. Thats with AGP & PCIe video cards runnin together.

Side note: I called up PC Power and cooling and had a real long talk with the rep ( this guy was a big enthusiat too). I'm going to get the turbo cool 510 Express. Anyways he's tellin me about the next Nvidia card due out 1-2 weeks before xmas....PC Power & cooling provided them with special 1200 watt power supplies for testing. This new Nvidia card requires 230 watts alone and will cost about $1100 initially!! The guy seemed legit. I think he said the NV90...60% faster than a Geforce 7800 GTX. DAMN!!

Thanks for the input...

 

[amdexclusive]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
A decent 450w PSU should be more than enough. I was able to run a 6800GT on a 350w enermax, and the 7800GT actualy consumes less power than the 6800GT. That's gonna be a lot of fun..getting an ATI and Nvidia card to operate at the same time..I am having a heck of a time getting my 9600 pro AIW to work with my asrock board. The video card works fine, it's the stupid capture drivers that don't want to work.

What source r you capturin from ? Tv ? RCA ? Dvd ?

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: amdexclusive

Originally posted by: stevty2889
A decent 450w PSU should be more than enough. I was able to run a 6800GT on a 350w enermax, and the 7800GT actualy consumes less power than the 6800GT. That's gonna be a lot of fun..getting an ATI and Nvidia card to operate at the same time..I am having a heck of a time getting my 9600 pro AIW to work with my asrock board. The video card works fine, it's the stupid capture drivers that don't want to work.

What source r you capturin from ? Tv ? RCA ? Dvd ?

None right now..the drivers have yellow exclamations in device manager with error code 10 saying the device failed to start, so nothing works. Doing that for the rage theatre audio and video drivers, and the crossbar.

 

[amdexclusive]

hmmm well those should be loading with the Catalyst WDM drivers before you even load MMC, mine do. I've heard of winXP SP2 problems with some AIW's. Maybe Cat uninstall then reload AGP GART.

 

[stevty2889]

Yeah, for a long time I didn't use SP2, because of the problems, but then I eventualy got it to work. I had though about that, so I whiped out again, and installed windows with no SP, and still have the same problem. Then tried SP1 and again, still same problem. I've tried 3 differant versions of the drivers besides the ones that came with it, and it just refuses to work.

 

[amdexclusive]

Well I got mine in april 2004 and had to RMA it in August of 04. Ati has good 3 year warranty "to Fix" your card. They sent it back but it wasn't "my" card because I marked mine in a little obscure spot 🙂. ANyways it was the easiest RMA I ever did...just fill out web based rma request and they emailed me next day with RMA number. Took about 12 days to get it back.

 

[stevty2889]

Hmm, well I suppose I should hook it back up to the old motherboard and see if I still get the same problems. I suppose it's possible the card just went bad, or it's just not compatible with the new motherboard, but I got it in december of 2003 so it's still under waranty.

EDIT: in any case, I ordered a haupage tv tuner, becuase I've gotten tired of having to deal with ATI driver problems every time I have to switch motherboards. With both this AIW card, and my old TV Wonder VE, I've had nothing but headaches from their drivers.

EDIT 2: "sigh" well it's not the card itself thats the problem. I put it back on the old motherboard, and jury rigged a setup outside of the case, with an old 3.2gb hard drive with windows 98. All the drivers installed fine, mmc installed fine, and then first try the stupid card worked fine. but doesn't want to work with the new motherboard, even though everything is the same as the old system but the motherboard and cpu. Ugh, maybe I should give win2k a try with the new one. I just want it to work!

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: amdexclusive
Side note: I called up PC Power and cooling and had a real long talk with the rep ( this guy was a big enthusiat too). I'm going to get the turbo cool 510 Express. Anyways he's tellin me about the next Nvidia card due out 1-2 weeks before xmas....PC Power & cooling provided them with special 1200 watt power supplies for testing. This new Nvidia card requires 230 watts alone and will cost about $1100 initially!! The guy seemed legit. I think he said the NV90...60% faster than a Geforce 7800 GTX. DAMN!!

Thanks for the input...

You can't go wrong with PC P&C. Enjoy!