NV30 to use external molex power connector like R9700?

[PreservedSwine]

I just heard that in one of Nvidia's promotional "Are You Ready" vids, they showed an NV30, but it has an external power connector like the R300? Is this true?

I assumed that with the smaller die, the NV30 would not be consuming as much power.

To me, this means the same problems (PSU's and MOBO's that fall slightly out of spec) will plague the NV30 that plague the R300 cards.

Is there any truth to this?:confused:

[DrAkO]

Yeah on the video you can see a connector...i think that's a molex connector same as the R300

"et ce qui est surprenant , elle possède, à L’instar du Radeon 9700 un connecteur d’alimentation . Celui-ci est de type Molex comme sur les Voodoo5 5500."

U can red on 3dchips-fr.com

The connector is a molex, same of R9700 and Voodoo5 5500 :)

[SlyBoots]

I mentioned this last July, guess no one beleived my source;)

[PreservedSwine]

Bummer- looks like a lot of folks will have to buy new PSU's to go w/ their new toys.....

[Dr_Colossus]

If your getting an NV30 you better have a highend system with a good power supply already or you won't see much improvement in raw speed. AA on the other hand...

[DrAkO]

A good PowerSupply like what ?

300? 350? 400 watts?

[thcdru2k]

its not how many watts, its how good the ps is. they're some high quality 250w that should handle it, and they'res gonna be some crappy 400w that won't.

[DrAkO]

Ok, so a PS like Enermax, not Generic :)

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by DrAkO
Ok, so a PS like Enermax, not Generic :)

shouldn't buy generic stuff anyway ;)

[Bigus Dickus]

I can't wait to see how many people that were bad-mouthing the 9700 for it's high power requirements would brush off the same requirement for the NV30.

[netviper13]

Originally posted by Bigus Dickus
I can't wait to see how many people that were bad-mouthing the 9700 for it's high power requirements would brush off the same requirement for the NV30.

Which is exactly the reason I chose not to bad-mouth the 9700 for its external power requirements.

[Dr_Colossus]

It's not as if they have an external power supply...

[nutball]

Originally posted by DrAkO
Yeah on the video you can see a connector...i think that's a molex connector same as the R300


I don't think it's a Molex connector, it's too long. A Molex is only 4 times longer than wide, the one in the video is longer than that.

Not long now 'til we find out for sure.

:p

[MuFu]

You guys know Molex had to design more than one connector in order to remain profitable, don't you? ;)

MuFu.

[nutball]

Well OK, but what we're talking about here is a four-pin power connector doobrie.

A gold star for Mr Pedant ;)

[MuFu]

*thankyouandgoodnight...* :D

Seriously though, there are a bazillion WtB connectors nVidia could be using on that board for an external power feed. Pins aren't dense enough to be any kind of digital link, so at this time I find it hard to believe it's some magical SLI/daughtercard/cerebral cortex interface as a few over-excited gibbons have speculated. Daughtercards usually use rigid through-hole pin headers anyway. Hopefully all shall be revealed soon...

MuFu.

[SurfMonkey]

So what core speed are we looking at if the NV30 requires an external power source? 500MHz would be realistic maybe? Also what are the power requirements of DDRII?

What would be nice is if the card automagically scaled to fit the power supply. If you don't supply the juice it only runs at 400Mhz; if you supply the goods then you get 500+MHz.

[Nutty]

That would be crap. If it scaled it's speed based on the quality of your psu.

I was thinking maybe an SLI connector, but someone beat me to it. Most probably an external power supply. Those AGP buses dont carry that much power

[MuFu]

Originally posted by SurfMonkey
So what core speed are we looking at if the NV30 requires an external power source? 500MHz would be realistic maybe? Also what are the power requirements of DDRII?

A lot of people are going to be pretty suprised by the clockspeeds. I *think* are higher than the speculated numbers being chucked around. ;)

Power requirements - less than current DDR, but not really as significant in the desktop product they are in the mobile one. The high clockspeeds sort of negate any power savings anyway, hehe. Probably looking at ~1W/chip still. As for the core, I don't know, but GPU manufacturers have been at Intel to change the ~48W limit on the AGP spec for ages, so it's likely they do need an external feed to get the most out of the ASIC.

MuFu.

[StealthHawk]

Originally posted by Bigus Dickus
I can't wait to see how many people that were bad-mouthing the 9700 for it's high power requirements would brush off the same requirement for the NV30.
then i'll bad mouth both of them :p

[Megatron]

From HardOcp:


"You will also note that there is a Molex connector on this card to plug in for the extra power that's needed. The power the AGP port supplies just isn’t enough to run the card stably. Just like the Radeon 9700 Pro, you must plug in external power to the card."


Looks like extra power is no longer a rumor.

[nutball]

Yeah, maybe bad news, maybe not. I had a bad experience with the pwer connector on Voodoo 5, caused many a crash I'm convinced.

Interestingly Anandtech seems to suggest that the card will work without power supplied via the Molex connector. The card will simply run at lower clock speed, and display messages on your screen.

Something like "How it's not meant to be played" presumably.

[Megatron]

Yeah I read similar claims about the 9700 not "needing" the power connector before launch as well.....but we know how that turned out.:(


"Something like "How it's not meant to be played" presumably."

Haha:D