Antec 430 Watt enough for a BFG 6800 Ultra OC?

B

btf

Limp Gawd
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Aug 11, 2004
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Title pretty much says it all. I was going to buy a 6800GT but I can't find anyone with it in stock (Canada) and one store had the ultra's in stock so I caved in...

Recommended power supply is 480 watts. You guys think I should be ok?

All I have in my system is a HD with CDRW.
 
you should be ok with the smal amt of periphals you have, dont overclock at all.
i have seen a BFG 6800 Ultra run on a machine with a truepower 430 with some problems so be observate.
 
btf said:
Title pretty much says it all. I was going to buy a 6800GT but I can't find anyone with it in stock (Canada) and one store had the ultra's in stock so I caved in...

Recommended power supply is 480 watts. You guys think I should be ok?

All I have in my system is a HD with CDRW.
Click to expand...
The recommended is 350W not 480. Youll be fine.
 
Silverghost said:
The recommended is 350W not 480. Youll be fine.
Click to expand...

The recommended PSU for the ultra is in fact a 480 watt, the 350 watt for the GT, read the thread again, he got a ultra, not a GT.
 
I noticed today someone on Hardocp.com that was using a dedicated power supply for his videocard.

This seems like a good idea. How would you get it to start at the same time though? What do you do with the atx connector :)
 
You cross two of the wires on the ATX plug and turn it on and off using its external switch. I've heard of people doing this to run their peltiers off of a separate psu. I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to splice those power switch signal wires into the ones on your main psu so that they would power on and off simultaneously.
 
bvincent said:
The recommended PSU for the ultra is in fact a 480 watt, the 350 watt for the GT, read the thread again, he got a ultra, not a GT.
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It WAS 480, but they changed it to 350 after. Get with the times.
 
Right off their website:

This Graphics Card Requires:

1. A minimum 480W system power supply
2. An AGP 2.0 (or higher) compliant motherboard. Some motherboards violate the AGP specification and therefore this card may not physically fit in some systems.
3. A vacant PCI slot adjacent to the AGP slot. This board occupies two slots: one AGP and one PCI.
4. Two available hard disk drive power dongles (smaller floppy disk drive connector is not sufficient).


http://www.bfgtech.com/6800.html

They are pushing for a 530 watt power supply by offering bundles so it makes you wonder.
 
bfg requires a 480 for their oc model, nvidia has changed the official spec for the regular ultra to 350. also the GT requires a 300, that is the same for everyone.
 
It will work fine. I overclocked my gt on a 2.53 intel to ultra speeds on a 250 watt power supply. And that system had 4 hard drivers scsi, and 2 dvdr's. Who is the maker of you PSU? That will make a difference.
 
rancor said:
It will work fine. I overclocked my gt on a 2.53 intel to ultra speeds on a 250 watt power supply. And that system had 4 hard drivers scsi, and 2 dvdr's. Who is the maker of you PSU? That will make a difference.
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Please see the title of this thread.

The minute the card displays problems like artifacts and such, that will be the first questions asked by tech support.
 
R1ckCa1n said:
Please see the title of this thread.
Click to expand...

lol sorry missed that, then yes you will have absolutely no problem running the card. Antec power supply's have some of the hieghest v 12 rails available. You have 20 amps on your v12 rail my emermax 480 which is what I'm using with my ultra has only 18 amps on its v12
 
The problem is why does everyone just say "it should work" or "yeah" when it's clearly stated on BFG's website the MINIMUM requirements. What is not taken into consideration is the computer hardware knowledge this person has and how he will feel if major problems arise. From the user standpoint it will reflect poorly on BFG and more so, the Hardforum for just saying "yeah it should work". This doens't take into consideration BFG tech support sends a remember to email tech support telling people the long term harm cased to NV40's by not supplying enough power.

It's always better to error on the safe side.
 
all that matters is the 12 v rail

Wattage means nothing. If you have a 1000 watts but only .5 amps you won't die. But if ya have 10 watts and 1 amp that will kill you. Volts and AMPs are what count not the wattage when it comes to electical power usage.
 
rancor said:
all that matters is the 12 v rail

Wattage means nothing. If you have a 1000 watts but only .5 amps you won't die. But if ya have 10 watts and 1 amp that will kill you. Volts and AMPs are what count not the wattage when it comes to power measurements.
Click to expand...

Why are you argueing a specification by the manufacture? Do you know more about the cause and effect of each power supply and how much current they really sustain? If so, please enlighten us as to the equipment used for such testing. I think not.

Think logically, there is a reason they are now bundling FAT power supplies with the Ultra OC........
 
Usually they take into account that not all power supplies are created equal and state the minimum requirement for a mid-to-low end psu, so with a very good one (enermax, antec, pcp&c, etc.) that meets the wattage rating, you should be fine.

Btw, I will be trying to run a 6800GT, an amd 939 3500+, 5 HD's including one WD raptor, 2 dvd drives, a tv tuner/vid capture card, an audigy2, and about 5 fans off the same Enermax CoolerGiant 480W, so if mine works I will tell you. Should be built by next weekend hopefully. :D
 
R1ckCa1n said:
Why are you argueing a specification by the manufacture? Do you know more about the cause and effect of each power supply and how much current they really sustain? If so, please enlighten us as to the equipment used for such testing. I think not.

Think logically, there is a reason they are now bundling FAT power supplies with the Ultra OC........
Click to expand...


I'm not arguing it. take a look at what system I'm using a gt at ultra levels, its working on a 250 watt power supply with 15 amps on a 12 rail. Come on you're telling me that for 25 more mhz you need 230 more watts? Doesn't that tell watts don't mean anything. Even nV said that all that matter is the amperage on the 12 v rail.

Alot of smaller PSU makers have crappy amperage. Thats why they say get the 480 to be on the safe side. He has an Antc 430, I'm presumming its a True Power. He won't have any issues with it.
 
ChizzleMan said:
so for that extra 25mhz you need a 480W psu eh? or am I missing something here?
Click to expand...

The NV40 Ultras needs a second power connection to be stable at 450mhz, therefor increasing the current they will pulled. It is required so you don't damage the GPU by pushing too hard without proper current.
 
isn't it 425mhz? The Asus also has a core of 425mhz but from what I saw, it only needs a 350W psu
 
so are there any other differences between the Asus and the Ultra OC except the 425mhz core?
 
BFG is erring on the side of saftey to cut down on the number of people complaining that it doesn't work on their craptacular el cheapo PSU's
 
why owuld a gt need only a 350w when the ultra needs a 480w? doesn't make sense to me
 
yeah and overclocking the ultra ya get another 50 mhz doesn't eat up that much more power.
 
So for an Extra 25mhz, you need another 130W. Yet for the Asus, 350W is fine. Im confused :(
 
Well I have 3 seperate sets of wires coming from the power supply. I have 1 with 3 HD connectors and 2 with 2 HD connectors.

I put the HD / CDRW on a double HD wire with a floppy connector. I'm gonna keep the other 2 sets of wires dedicated for the Ultra. I would think that's enough power. Going to find out on Friday.

Rest of system is a P4 2.4B / 1GB PC1066 which will be upgraded very soon ;)
 
lol ya don't need more, what nV said was for powersupplies that weren't name brand, like antec, emermax, thermaltek, etc.
 
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