I'm just curious how big of a power supply that you think the leading enthusiast gaming systems will need come the end of 2007.
Remember that quad-core processors will be shipping and 8-core processors could easily be out near the end of the year. Also AMD might have quad-core processors on their 4x4 system so it will have 8 cores versus the four that it has today. NVIDIA's daisy chained graphics cards might mean SLI for 3 cards by the end of 2007. ATI's power hungry R600 will be released in early 2007... Physics cards might also take off in 2007... Who knows what will happen, but what power supply do you think be used in dream machines for next year?
I'll be honest... last year the highest I would have suggested was 550W. Last week I had to upgrade from 850W to 1000W on a couple test systems, so in 2006 I saw the need for 1000W PSU's... In 2007 we will see the first 1200W power supplies launch for sure... Thermaltake will have theirs out real soon and it will be model number W0133RU and has get this.... 96 Amps on the +12V rail!!!!
I'd say 1KW for the first ~9mths, then power requierments will decline. Intel will be switching to 45nm? AMD will drop the 4x4 when K8L arrives and matures. Also Nvidia and AMD will start to make more effecient gpus using smaller tech.
For the next 9mths to a year from now we will see very power hungry rigs.
kenc51 wrote:I'd say 1KW for the first ~9mths, then power requierments will decline. Intel will be switching to 45nm? AMD will drop the 4x4 when K8L arrives and matures. Also Nvidia and AMD will start to make more effecient gpus using smaller tech.
For the next 9mths to a year from now we will see very power hungry rigs.
If you look really close you'll see two unreleased products. The 1000W and 1200W power supplies! Both have how many PCIe connectors? Would it be fair to say that daisy chained graphics cards might not be more than a number of months away?
680i has three x16 graphics cards slots and 4x4 has four x 16 lanes. The power supply companies have told me that they were requested to have 6 PCIe headers by the great powers that create video cards... hummm All of a sudden 23,000 points in 3dmark06 doesn't seem that high after all.
Last edited by Apoptosis on Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Pretty interesting that i picked the popular choice.
I think that the maximum wattage of even the most power hungry rigs (i.e. 2x Overclcocked Quad Core processors, 3x 8800GTX, RAID, W/C, etc) will be slightly below this amount. Say like, 1400W actual peak usage.
And i also think it'll be like what Ken said with the die-shrinks giving reduced energy consumption.
And to everyone who thinks lights should dim with these kinda power supplies; how much electric do you think a kettle uses? Some use 3000W. Shocked?
Apoptosis wrote:
If you look really close you'll see two unreleased products. The 1000W and 1200W power supplies! Both have how many PCIe connectors? Would it be fair to say that daisy chained graphics cards might not be more than a number of months away?
Ouch. Imagine if these were less than 87% efficient!
I don't see PSUs hitting higher than 1.5K. I see parts getting more efficient. Unlike intel, the graphics card manufacturers realized they can't keep these prescott temps. And if the inq is right and the move to multiple dies makes sense. Lower the power, the heat.
I can see the need of the higher wattage supplies, i.e. 1200 plus. I'm currently runnin a 900watt for my system, and a 250watt thermaltake for my X1900's.... I can see companies like TT, and Fortron making bigger vid card only supplies, and those selling better with consumers. I know if i need to upgrade again, i'll be lookin for a bigger vid card only supply...
I plan on building my next case to handle both of my matching pair of 480watt PSU with 12cm fans. However, I can't afford a couple of video cards for my SLI motherboard just yet. Will we see monster PSU's??? Maybe, but who can afford it?
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! (it's an old New England tradition now a national holiday)
The think the Microsoft idea of taking the processing load from the CPU to the GPU will make or break PC gaming. That's what this toaster oven crap is about. If you need over 650W in SLI or Crossfire mode you need to see a doctor to get that tumor removed. The extreme system folks are a small percent of gamers (like putting Nitro in the family car!). If they keep going in this direction the gaming console will be it for all games. IF this is what DX10 bringth than DX10 will taketh away gaming. They need to find a way to reduce size (aka power consumption) of these GPU's. This is first generation of GPU's for this standard, let's hope they improve. The next two years will tell. I will hate to be correct on this but I am not hopeful.
i think it's absurd to even go beyond 1KW. From the look of the things, I think gpu will need to find a way to reduce power consuption just as cpu is dong right now. rumor has it that the next gen of gpu should be like that.
I think they will get as big and power hungry as we let them get away with. Intel took alot of "Heat" so to speak on the presshott, forcing it to come down. Consumers will dictate how far they will let them go.
As stupid as it may be, I don't see any effort by the video card makers to conserve on power, and the videocard is now taking the place of the CPU as the most power-hungry component. I already have an 850 watt as futureproofing...
I have a 700 also, and in my las rig before I went conroe I rigged a 500 for the computer itself and a antec 450 with a home made switch for all the drives and such, totalling 950W. Without it I would have frequent crashes from power droops. It will have to stop at some point because major vendors..ie dell etc wont buy into it and when the PSU is more expensive than the cpu there is an issue that needs to be fixed. No one wants to rewire their house with different breakers to support a computer. I'd bet that the next version maybe even NV's refresh of the 8XXX series will lower power consumption if only by a small amount and AMD/ATI will try to follow.
