7900GT 6-pin cable, necessary?

[PsichoDM]

Hi,

I had a quick question concerning the 7900GT and its need for a 6 pin cable in order to run. I've always had mine running with the cable plugged in and I thought connecting it was not an option, but I recently gave my card away to a friend and he says he's been able to run it without any need for that extra power.

Is that really possible? I always thought it was absolutely mandatory and the card wouldn't even send a signal to the display if it wasn't powered through that cable..

Thanks.

 

[NoxTek]

Hi,

I had a quick question concerning the 7900GT and its need for a 6 pin cable in order to run. I've always had mine running with the cable plugged in and I thought connecting it was not an option, but I recently gave my card away to a friend and he says he's been able to run it without any need for that extra power.

Is that really possible? I always thought it was absolutely mandatory and the card wouldn't even send a signal to the display if it wasn't powered through that cable..

Thanks.

The 7900GT will run in reduced power mode without using the 6-pin aux PCI-E power connection. The clock speeds will be reduced by a large amount and If his drivers are installed correctly he should get a message asking him to plug it in whenever he boots to the windows desktop.