How much power does your video card need?

Started by Sarge · 5 posts · 1,243 views

  2. #2
    Sarge wrote:Tom's Hardware looks at over 100 video cards and their power needs. The article also discusses system power consumption, efficiency, and evaluating power supplies. Should be useful for many.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforc...power,2122.html

    EXCELLENT Sarge. More manufacturers should give us an idea of what they need.

    Here's a on-line calculator that is supposed to help you figure out how big a power supply you need for a given computer system.

    http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

  3. #3
    Thanks guys. Wow. Lots of numbers and charts.

    Nice link Doc. According to that calculator I was within 5w. Said I needed 401w @75 performance, a 550w I had was just fine if not perfect. See how much this crap costs in electric?
    $150 a year just for the video, plus I never turn these things off.

    Maybe I should take back up motorcycle and car restoration. Somehow it seems cheaper as a hobby 🙂
  4. #4
    The calculator is nice, however it doesn't speak of the benefit of a well designed PSU. Saw an expensive PSU recently that had about 100 molex connectors (needed 1) and only 4 SATA connectors and 1 PCI-E connector. Talk about designing for technology 5 years ago.

    Also not all 400W PSUs are even remotely close in function, some are far better.

    Let this be a guide, but not the end all be all.
  5. #5
    ZPM anyone?