[GTALUG] Power Supplies & Video Cards

[ChrisAitken]

On 01/06/15 08:14 PM, David Thornton  <northdot9 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Some bioses (bioii?) will tell you about consumption, if that's any help.
> 


I'd go with the Italian 'biosi'. 

> 
> 
> 
> 
> The software package lm_sensors might be able to help you see what data is made available but YMMV as there is no widespread "standard" for access to power consumption data as far as I know.
> 
> Expensive servers have polished aps for acessing that sort of data....
> 
> ha! I googled "measuring pci card power consumption" and the first hit was 
> 
> "How We Measure Graphics Card Power Consumption ..."
> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-card-performance-benchmarks,3784-3.html
> 
> 
> Very sexeh setup.
> 
> David
> 
> 
> 
> david
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jan 6, 2015 at 2:18 AM, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh at mimosa.com> wrote:
> 
> > | From: Kevin Cozens <kevin at ve3syb.ca>
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > | Any spec for a video card as to power supply wattage would be a minimum.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Not in my (limited) experience. I have bought cards that wanted to
> > 
> > specify how big my system's power supply was because the actual
> > 
> > required arithmetic is too hard for customers. They just guessed at
> > 
> > what the rest of my system would require and left a margin for error.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > The real specs are a little tricky in theory (I don't actually know
> > 
> > what things are like now). The power supply supplies various
> > 
> > voltages, each with its own current limit. Each voltage is provided
> > 
> > on one or more "rails", each with its own limit. But sometimes a
> > 
> > maximum draw on one reduces the limit on another rail.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > You need a power supply that has enough oomph on each rail. So you
> > 
> > want a requirement specified for each voltage.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > And generally you don't know how much power the rest of your system
> > 
> > uses in aggregate.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Usually when you build your own system you buy more power supply
> > 
> > capactiy than you need. It doesn't cost too much more and you don't
> > 
> > really know what's needed.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > I imagine that common garden variety computers from big manufacturers
> > 
> > tend to size their power supplies with smaller margins.
> > 
> > ---
> > 
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> > 
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> > 
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> >  
> 
> 
>  
> 
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