ATI 9800 Pros, PSUs, and you

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Servo

So what PSUs are you guys running? I'm running an Antec TrueBlue 480
watt PSU on a Gigabyte GA-7N400, AMD 2800, 1 Gigglebyte of RAM, DVD
burner, CD-ROM, 7 case fans and, yes, some cool neon lighting. This
setup runs great with my ATI 9600, but won't run with the 9800. Do you
think a 550 watt PSU will help? So far ATI has been NO help, go figger, eh?
--
Servo
"Don't press your luck, Carter"
tservo100 at
ameritech dot net
Slow, fiery death to all spammers!!!
 
So what PSUs are you guys running? I'm running an Antec TrueBlue 480
watt PSU on a Gigabyte GA-7N400, AMD 2800, 1 Gigglebyte of RAM, DVD
burner, CD-ROM, 7 case fans and, yes, some cool neon lighting. This
setup runs great with my ATI 9600, but won't run with the 9800. Do you
think a 550 watt PSU will help? So far ATI has been NO help, go figger, eh?
Click to expand...

Have four sytems in the house that have the 9800pro in them. One has
a 550 watt and the others have a 430 watt. All are Enermax PSU's.

The part about "not running" means what. Not allowing a 'bootup"?
You do have a "molex" connected to the card, I hope. If so, then I
suspect you have too many things on the 12v rail (DVD/CD-Roms, hard
drives, fans and your lighting). You could try disconnecting some and
see what happens.
 
Servo said:
So what PSUs are you guys running? I'm running an Antec TrueBlue 480
watt PSU on a Gigabyte GA-7N400, AMD 2800, 1 Gigglebyte of RAM, DVD
burner, CD-ROM, 7 case fans and, yes, some cool neon lighting. This
setup runs great with my ATI 9600, but won't run with the 9800. Do you
think a 550 watt PSU will help? So far ATI has been NO help, go figger, eh?
Click to expand...

I am running a Fortron Source (FSP Group) 300W PSU with 18A on the 12V
(website says 15A though), 28A on the 3.3 and 30A on the 5v (max 220W on
3.3 and 5v rails)

I also have a Prescott 3.0Ghz, 1Gb Crucial DDR400 RAM (Dual channel),
DVD Burner, DVD-ROM, 2 case fans and an Audigy ZS.

I did quite a bit of research on power requirements for cards and came
to the following conclusion

9600 series and lower - will run fine as they draw less than an amp on
the 12v and the 5v but about 3.2 amps on the 2.2v

9800 Pro draws similar on the 12v but really loads up the 5v and 3.3v -
needs 4 to 6 amps on each rail

9800XT and X800 series load up the 12v line much more but draw less on
the 5v and 3.3v

Most of this information I got from analysing the spreadsheet entries on
this article:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-powercons.html
This article here was also really handy:
http://www.computerbuyer.co.uk/buyer/features/66306/ive-got-the-power/page5.html

You can see towards the bottom the graphics cards in a good table which
is good to cross reference with the earlier

So you need to look at the amps for your 3.3 and 5v rails for a 9800 Pro
 
J said:
Have four sytems in the house that have the 9800pro in them. One has
a 550 watt and the others have a 430 watt. All are Enermax PSU's.

The part about "not running" means what. Not allowing a 'bootup"?
You do have a "molex" connected to the card, I hope. If so, then I
suspect you have too many things on the 12v rail (DVD/CD-Roms, hard
drives, fans and your lighting). You could try disconnecting some and
see what happens.
Click to expand...

Exactly....I push the power button, the system powers up and shuts down
immediately. I figured a 480 watt PSU would have plenty of muscle to run
a 9800, but with all the case fans and all maybe it's at its limit. The
power connnector on the card is one of the little 4-pin ones like the
ones on a floppy drive.


--
Servo
"Don't press your luck, Carter"
tservo100 at
ameritech dot net
Slow, fiery death to all spammers!!!
 
Exactly....I push the power button, the system powers up and shuts
down immediately. I figured a 480 watt PSU would have plenty of muscle
to run a 9800, but with all the case fans and all maybe it's at its
limit. The power connnector on the card is one of the little 4-pin
ones like the ones on a floppy drive.
Click to expand...
Try a different connector. The card should have a full molex connector,
like a HDD or CD-Rom drive.
Sometimes my 9800 wouldn't boot depending on what lead from the PSU I
was using.
 
Inglo said:
Try a different connector. The card should have a full molex connector,
like a HDD or CD-Rom drive.
Sometimes my 9800 wouldn't boot depending on what lead from the PSU I
was using.
Click to expand...

Most of the 9800s I've have the full molex connector, but mine has the
little one.
--
Servo
"Don't press your luck, Carter"
tservo100 at
ameritech dot net
Slow, fiery death to all spammers!!!
 
Most of the 9800s I've have the full molex connector, but mine has the
little one.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, still that was a fact with my card sometimes when I'd be dusting
the inside of my case, if I accidentally plugged in the wrong lead back
in to the 9800 Pro, when I'd push the start button it would start for
about a tenth of a second then stop.
I've got an Antec 430W. It might have something more to do with what
else might be shared on the lead your using. I've read lots of people
who suggest the card's power lead should be unshared completely.
 
Servo said:
Exactly....I push the power button, the system powers up and shuts down
immediately. I figured a 480 watt PSU would have plenty of muscle to run a
9800, but with all the case fans and all maybe it's at its limit. The
power connnector on the card is one of the little 4-pin ones like the ones
on a floppy drive.
Click to expand...

When the first 9700's came out, everyone was in a hurry to replace their PSU
with a more powerful one. Many chose the new (at that time) Antec Trueblue
and Smartpower supplies. Problem, these PSU throttle back the 12 V line
once the harddrives are up to speed. This caused the 9700s to not post,
since the 12V was not at full amperage (can get by this sometimes by
soft-reboot while still in POST). The newer Antecs should not have that
problem. Enermax supplies do not do this and run fine.

I am running a 9700 Pro with 435 Enermax and have had no power or boot
problems.
 
When the first 9700's came out, everyone was in a hurry to replace their PSU
with a more powerful one. Many chose the new (at that time) Antec Trueblue
and Smartpower supplies. Problem, these PSU throttle back the 12 V line
once the harddrives are up to speed. This caused the 9700s to not post,
since the 12V was not at full amperage (can get by this sometimes by
soft-reboot while still in POST). The newer Antecs should not have that
problem. Enermax supplies do not do this and run fine.
Click to expand...

Holy krap! That happened to me too! I could soft or warm boot and the
9800 would post just fine, but forget about cold booting! I'm pretty
much convinced that it's a power issue. I just ordered a new 550 watt
psu. I'll let you guys know what happens. thanks for all the great input!

--
Servo
"Don't press your luck, Carter"
tservo100 at
ameritech dot net
Slow, fiery death to all spammers!!!
 
Antec SmartPower 400

Soltek K8TPro
A64 3200+
DVD Burner
2x hard drives
1 Nidec 5000 rpm 80 mm case fan
9800 Pro (old-style R350 PCB)

No problems with booting whatsoever. How many amps are your case fans
drawing? The startup current on DC motors tend to be very high.
 
Servo said:
So what PSUs are you guys running? I'm running an Antec TrueBlue 480
watt PSU on a Gigabyte GA-7N400, AMD 2800, 1 Gigglebyte of RAM, DVD
burner, CD-ROM, 7 case fans and, yes, some cool neon lighting. This
setup runs great with my ATI 9600, but won't run with the 9800. Do you
think a 550 watt PSU will help? So far ATI has been NO help, go figger, eh?
Click to expand...


I have a 128MB built-by-ATI Radeon 9800 Pro which will be two years old in a
couple of months. I have a 2.8GHz P4, 1GB RAM (2x512), two hard drives, two
optical drives, floppy drive, and an SB Audigy 2 ZS Platinum all in a
Lian-Li PC-60 case which has 3 case fans. I have a 4-year-old Enermax 431W
power supply running it all.
 
So what PSUs are you guys running? I'm running an Antec TrueBlue 480
watt PSU on a Gigabyte GA-7N400, AMD 2800, 1 Gigglebyte of RAM, DVD
burner, CD-ROM, 7 case fans and, yes, some cool neon lighting. This
setup runs great with my ATI 9600, but won't run with the 9800. Do you
think a 550 watt PSU will help? So far ATI has been NO help, go figger, eh?
Click to expand...

3.0 P4 HT
Soyo Dragon II Platinum
2 gigs Corsair DDR RAM
2x DVD Burners
3x SATA HDD's
1x Case Fan
9800 Pro w/ after market cooling

420 watt Antec PSU


No problems

Villain

"A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend"- Willow Rosenberg
 
Servo said:
So what PSUs are you guys running? I'm running an Antec TrueBlue 480
watt PSU on a Gigabyte GA-7N400, AMD 2800, 1 Gigglebyte of RAM, DVD
burner, CD-ROM, 7 case fans and, yes, some cool neon lighting. This
setup runs great with my ATI 9600, but won't run with the 9800. Do you
think a 550 watt PSU will help? So far ATI has been NO help, go figger, eh?
--
Servo
"Don't press your luck, Carter"
tservo100 at
ameritech dot net
Slow, fiery death to all spammers!!!
Click to expand...

Athlon XP3000
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
2 x 512 Crucial PC3200 RAM
1 x DVD Burner
2 x 80Gb SATA HDD's
1 x 160Gb PATA HDD
1 x 120mm + 2 x 80mm Case Fans
9800 Pro with Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer

Tagan 480 watt PSU.

No problems whatsoever.
The Tagan has a dedicated single molex for Graphics Cards but it's the
larger (HDD) sized one.
Perhaps somebody makes a converter but I've never seen one (never looked
either though).

There are places like
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/ or http://takaman.jp/D/?english
on the web that have a stab at calculating your required wattage if you're
interested.


Steve P.
 
You just pinned my BS meter. How do you "throttle back" the available
amperage on a line (assuming a constant voltage), aside from increasing the
resistance? Switching power supplies are load sensitive there's no NEED to
"throttle them back". Fool.
 
Doug said:
You just pinned my BS meter.<----hehehe SWEET analog reference Doug!
Click to expand...

--
Servo
"Happy trails, Hans!"
tservo100 at
ameritech dot net
Slow, fiery death to all spammers!!!
 
enermax 365w.
amd 2500+@3200+ with vantec
2x512mb ddr400
1x160gb, 1x40gb
1 cdwr, 1dvd
radeon9800 pro, bba, oced at xt speeds with stock cooling.
2 case fans
1 tv tuner
1 sound card

No problems whatsoever.

been stable for more than 1 year now.
 
You just pinned my BS meter. How do you "throttle back" the available
amperage on a line (assuming a constant voltage), aside from increasing the
resistance? Switching power supplies are load sensitive there's no NEED to
"throttle them back". Fool.
Click to expand...

Well power supplies sure don't give you all they claim to give you
that's for sure. Just do the math on the claimed specs.

A 12 volt rail is spec'd for some incredible max value of amps.
You're only going to see it on a momentary surge such as start up.

I've never heard of this soft boot trick, but it sounds like it works
for some posters. There's all kinds of varistors and surge suppressors
that you could play with if you were a designer.
 
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