Graphics card quandry

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Xenu
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Graphics card quandry

Postby Xenu » Mon Aug 02, 2004 1:14 am

As some of you may recall, a while back I had a severe computer meltdown at school. The end result of this catastrophe was that my video card was fried. Because of this, I recently bought an EVGA Nvidia GeForce 5700 Ultra that was on sale at Best BUy for $110, figuring that I could just bring it to school.

Thing is, Doom III just came out. As such, I thought it might be a good idea to install it in my home computer. The card requires that it be connected to a 4-pin power supply cable. As luck would have it, I still have one of them available...

...except it doesn't reach anywhere near the graphics card. In fact, none of them do.

Now, I notice that the cords are bound artificially by these plastic doo-dads...if I spent a while, I could theoretically stretch one over. Good or bad idea? And if my card is such a hog, would it be prudent to upgrade the power supply while I'm at it?
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lukpac
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Postby lukpac » Mon Aug 02, 2004 7:48 am

"Plastic doo-dads"? You mean wire ties?

What's the wattage on your power supply? And what other crap (hard drives, etc) is in there?
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Rspaight
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Postby Rspaight » Mon Aug 02, 2004 8:32 am

Taking off the wire ties is no big deal -- if you're anal about the cords, you can re-tie them afterward to take up any slack.

As far as the power supply, what Luke said. The extra power connector on the video card is most likely to power the onboard fan, which shouldn't be an enormous load.

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Postby lukpac » Mon Aug 02, 2004 9:10 am

FYI, I think some newer cards do use so much power (in processing) that they need more than the PCI slot can deliver. That said, if your power supply isn't crap, it should be fine.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

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Patrick M
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Postby Patrick M » Mon Aug 02, 2004 10:25 am

Quandry?

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Xenu
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Postby Xenu » Mon Aug 02, 2004 10:50 pm

My power supply apparently isn't too crappy. What I did was daisy chain some one-to-two CompUSA expansion cords into a bridge over to the plug. It worked! Yes. DOOM3 now actually runs.
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"Fuckin' Koreans" - Reno 911