8 Responses to “What power supply would i need for a computer with 2 NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 1GB video cards?”

1. Tactical Illusion on July 19th, 2009 4:07 am
   

   Generators Feedback: Hooking up two NVIDI cards is called an SLI.
   Hooking up two ATI cards is called crossfire.

   So since you have NVIDI you would need an SLI certified power supply.
2. kylzer on July 21st, 2009 12:43 pm
   

   Generators Feedback: Your don’t need a SLI power supply as it could only able to only SLI two 8600GT see they can catch you out that way

   anyways i go for any of theses brands

   Coolermaster,Corsair,Pc power & cooling,OZ,Thermaltake

   any of them brands 600watts or over i highly recommend
3. Holy Martyr on July 24th, 2009 3:55 am
   

   Generators Feedback: The more the better.

   Liquid cooling is about the same as having your iron working all day. :S

   Here’s a handy website that’ll help you calculate the power you need.
4. pdl756 on July 26th, 2009 11:26 am
   

   Generators Feedback: Probably around 1000W seeing how the two cards will be using around 450-500W. Then overclocking the CPU, memory and GPU’s will use more, so yeah, around 1000W to be safe.
5. writerchick3 on July 27th, 2009 11:10 pm
   

   Generators Feedback: Spec wise those GPU’s don’t appear to need any externel PCIe connectors (so the website says - which surprises me a little, I would have thought they each take a 6 pin power connector).

   That aside, if you’re using a core i7 overclocked, 2 GPUs and therefore a motherboard to accomodate all that plus the usual HDD’s and optical drives then I wouldn’t go for anything less than 600W. (probably best to get a modular PSU such as:=

   Personally, in a system equipped with those intentions I wouldn’t go for 2 9800 GT cards since they are a little dated now. In their place I would recommend 1 or if you’re open to ATI, a better card than all of them for this price is

   Happy building
6. yad on July 29th, 2009 1:18 am
   

   Generators Feedback: ?OK i got a rant ?

   Nvidia creates Geforce graphics cards and they publish the maximum power consumption for each card.The 9800GT has a maximum wattage of 105 Watts.105W/12V=8.75 Amps

   8.75 Amps on each 12V rail used for the cards
   Also when you connect SLI,the circuit that does the function requires an Amp or two.

   I don’t know how the requirement gets bloated from the original manufacturer specs to the point in time to consider power requirements when purchasing the cards.

   When it comes to Wattage you can always go higher than what is required of course, the equipment will only draw what it draws in current.

   If you have an SLI PSU with 10 Amps on 2 12V rails I say it will run the SLI setup with 9800GT’s just fine.

   15 Amps would be plenty of xtra insurance.The overall wattage of the psu is not important as long as it’s SLI ready and your 12V rails meet the amperage requirements of the cards in SLI
7. QD1956 on July 31st, 2009 7:07 pm
   

   Generators Feedback: EDIT(02/18/2009): I have refined the approximative calculations:

   For the right way of calculating the power a PSU must give out, you MUST look at the BIG picture and take many other things into account not just the graphics card.

   The real lowdown on how much power is needed for PC systems !

   For your reference, following are details that illustrates approximately* how much wattage you will need to run various normal common components in a PC system ( the components are on the left and the wattage required on the right):

   The Motherboard: 15-30
   Midrange to high-end CPU: 40-100
   RAM: about 7 per 128MB (or 56 W per GB)
   PCI add-in card: 5
   High-End graphics board: 60-100 (some take more)
   IDE/SATA hard drive: 10-30
   Optical CD/DVD drive: 10-25

   Your NVIDIA cards each take 5 W more than the norm.

   So let’s calculate a system (again, this is an approximation*) with a powerful motherboard, a (High-end) CPU, 4 Gigs of RAM, 3 PCI cards (including two (high-end) graphic cards), 1 hard drive and 1 optical drive.

   That would be 30+100+224(128MB X 8 X 4 = 4Gigs @ 7 per 128MB)+15(3 X 5)+210+30+25 = 634

   * It has to be an approximation as I’m missing details of your system.

   So compare your entire computer specs with the list and refine the math on your own, you will then know what PSU you should get.

   NOTES:

   Leave yourself a bit of slack in your calculation for future hardware - Example: As calculated above, I would consider a PSU of at least 700 Watts and get up to 800 Watts if the price difference is slight.

   Also, always compare PSUs on cost AND caliber, in other words, go for power supplies that have a “quality build” never for one where the cost is cheap (because you can be sure it’s not only the price that is that way).

   P.S.: My guide is partly based on this link:
8. Appleguy on July 31st, 2009 11:37 pm
   

   Generators Feedback: Get the OCZ GameXstream OCZ700GXSSLI
   Also check the Newegg discounts:

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