TriedIT - Software and Hardware News and Reviews

From [H]ard|OCP:

Certainly it is good to see ATI’s next-gen graphics cards showing up even if it is not pushing pixels. We have been able to confirm some other R600 news that is not good. ATI is stating that a SINGLE R600 high end configuration will require 300 watts of power (+/-9%) and a DUAL R600 “CrossFire” high end configuration will require, as you might guess, 600 watts of power (+/-9%). Compare that to a single GeForce 8800 GTX that will pull 150 to 180 watts. Add in a CPU to that mix and you overtake most power supplies’ peak ratings on the retail shelves today.

Also many have been worried about the size of the new R600 video cards. ATI is stating that 345mm / 13.6″ will be the required space to fit the cards in a case. (Yes, the retail version will be somewhat shorter, or at least that is what is told to us even though we have yet to see one.) This figure is the card’s 335mm physical length plus 10mm to properly install the card. A GeForce 8800 GTX is just under 11 inches longs while the 4 GPU 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 comes in at 11.75 inches. Certainly if you have an R600, it looks like you will be able to claim having the longest in the room….

It’s going to be a monster card. And really expensive. Being that I currently have a GeForce 7800GT 256MB (BFG’s OC’d version) I think I’ll wait another year before upgrading video cards. By then they’ll have smaller cards with much lower power consumption at a much cheaper price. It’s always good to see the hardware companies pushing the envelop again and again to help bring us better stuff. This card looks nice, but my NEO-HE 550 watt power supply would also need to be upgraded to use this thing.

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