Modern Graphics Cards aka Room Heaters

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Yeah that's why you need a big psu, power hungry cards.

The 6990 is rated for 375W which is the maximum it will ever use (and the max a PCI-E 2.0 card is allowed to use), so a proper 600W PSU should be enough, given it can provide enough current on the relevant rails.

Not if you unlock it (voids warranty), then it's 450w reported, but running voltage tweak from Asus some people have seen just over 500w being drawn.

But I will only attempt this if it has better cooling block on it, with it's stock cooler I won't even think about it.
 
Well, you should now send the repaired cards back with an added bonus (attaching the electricity bill from your son's home)... :lol:
Ahhh, gone are the times when ECS or AGA were the next best thing to being there... :)
 
Well, subject to Sardine's confirmation, the original deal that was struck with him a couple of weeks ago was that if I was able to successfully repair the GTX 480, that was the only card that he wanted returned.

As they both seem to be OK, I've asked Sardine to confirm what he wants to happen.
 
yup over the moon the 480gtx is working, as I said I have no need for the 4870x2 and Merlin is more than welcome to keep it,

on top of that he has declined payment for his time and said no charge :p

I cant thank him enough :)

THANKS .
 
You're welcome, Kevin. :thumbsup:

This is one of the reasons I earned the nickname Merlin, as my soldering iron was thought to be a magic wand.

Paint stripper gun and oven BGA reflowing takes a lot of practice, trial and error to master, but I am lucky to have figured out the techniques. My Kada rework station makes things a little easier but I do prefer the paint stripper gun to the oven for the pre-heat.

It's going to cost me big time, for a new 1200W PSU to be able to use the 4870 though!! :lol:

*Starts saving for the electricity bill*
 
I always go for the likes of the AMD HD7750 which can compete with the older nVidia GTX280 yet uses no more than 75W compared to the 280s massive power drainage. :lol:

Unless you're a huge graphics junkie wanting to completely max out every game just for the bragging rights, there's absolutely no need to have such a power hungry system. A PC capable of maxing out most games can be built for around the cost of a new console plus a few games (much less than a next gen system) and will use no more electricity if done right yet still out perform one.

When you factor in the electricity bill, its sooo not worth paying for. I'd rather save money on the elec and have a better CPU, dual or triple monitors and an SSD :D
 
I still suspect a lot of PC gaming rigs are the result of LAGS. (Latest And Greatest Syndrome.) PC game manufacturers need to make sure their titles sell to as wide a range of customers as possible, so they won't make games that need this week's cutting-edge hardware. They'll always cater for at least 12 to 18-month old hardware, so they've got a large enough customer base to sell the game to.

There's an art to buying a PC exactly on the 'sweet spot' of the price/performance curve. Best bang for your buck!

:thumbsup:
 
I still suspect a lot of PC gaming rigs are the result of LAGS. (Latest And Greatest Syndrome.) PC game manufacturers need to make sure their titles sell to as wide a range of customers as possible, so they won't make games that need this week's cutting-edge hardware. They'll always cater for at least 12 to 18-month old hardware, so they've got a large enough customer base to sell the game to.

There's an art to buying a PC exactly on the 'sweet spot' of the price/performance curve. Best bang for your buck!

:thumbsup:


That's very true Andy, though I've not looked at it that way before. After building systems for yourself for over 12 years though, you get a feel for what to buy I guess, lol.

Most systems I build sit around the middle of the sweet spot but last well for a good 2 to 3 years before needing an upgrade. I may update the graphics once over that period.
 
Just wanted to say that yes, the 7970 in the X1000 heats the room nicely :-)

I was looking at the new 7990 but didn't get any answer about it's compatiability so it stays on the shelf for the moment ;-)
 
I still suspect a lot of PC gaming rigs are the result of LAGS. (Latest And Greatest Syndrome.)

Well it's the game market of course and vice versa the pc/console industry, everything goes a bit tad faster than in the 90's.

While do enjoy having a bit more high end setup, I must admit the usage has gone down a lot.

Let's be honest, you don't have much time for it if you have a full time job.

There's an art to buying a PC exactly on the 'sweet spot' of the price/performance curve. Best bang for your buck!

Not really, most hardware review sites do that for you.
Here in the Netherlands http://www.tweakers.net/ is the only page you need, and they have monthly best buy guides.

And that's all fine if you want to be mainstream.
Me however, I just go for the bit more high-end and I select what I want, not what a guide or people on the net are telling me what to buy.

Don't get me wrong here, I do read what is good and what not, but if 5 people had a bad experience with it and 100 are happy with it I rather question the abilities of the 5 installing and using it.

I always make sure the processor is a bit above mainstream, I don't need the fastest one, but I do go all out on a single or dual video card setup.

When I bought my i7 975 EE it had a pretty basic Asus GTX-250, but that was only because the HD6990 wasn't available yet, well it was, but only from a few shops that had ridiculously high prices.

After just like 3 weeks or so of buying the system, the 980 and 990 were available, nice 6 cores, but up till now I haven't seen games make decent use of it, let a alone 4 cores.

And after a few months when the HD6990 became a bit more affordable, I got it.
I could have gone with a dual 6970 setup, but that was far more noisy than the 6990.

And by doing so I have lasted 5 years with this system and it still can play everything, although I have not yet tried any recent games.

Now however with Haswell being introduced, I'm going for a new setup around September.
Then the bit more high-end i7 Haswell's are coming.

Again the question of the single card with dual gpu or just 2 cards and a single gpu on each ?

I don't know, the 7990 is to be discontinued in September.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/AMD-Radeon-HD-7990-Malta,23430.html

So I'll probably have to wait until October and maybe I'll head back to Nvidia.
 
My little passive 5450 is the coolest thing ever after reading this thread. Mind you, shes races her little heart out given the other components I have, but still going strong :)

I want one of these though :

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1159&pid=1658&psn=&lid=1&leg=0

Just 400W PSU requirement, low profile and totally passive, not bad I reckon for a newer generation chip.

:p


Owned a 7750 and they're no slouch! Not the most powerful card on the market but they will be more than adequate for at least 80% of people who play games on their PCs. Only those that want more than necessary frame rates and maxed graphics on everything would want more. They're extremely capable cards.

I wanna build an mITX system with 1 of those in someday. It will be amazing! lol.
 
My 6850 runs at 35c idle and 42c maxxed out .. :thumbsup:
 
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