• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

powered versus non powered

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
ztdesigninc

ztdesigninc

Member
​
Joined
May 21, 2012
Location
London
This might seem like a stupid question but i couldn't find the answer on google.

What are the benefits of an independently powered graphics card over one that is powered via the motherboard. Because I have seen cards where you would get say 2gb of ram in the non powered for the same price of a powered one with 1gb of ram.

I cannot imagine that power increases the effectiveness of a graphics card by 100% but the costs speak for themselves. Someone please tell me the benefits.
 
The motherboard can supply up to 75W of power through the PCIe slot. While power use is going down, there is only about one card out these days that can play modern games well that do not need supplemental power. You want great frame rates with high settings, chances are you need a card with a power plug. ;)

More power use = more FPS (there are plenty of exceptions but, you get the idea that more powerful cards need more power to run and a motherboard can only supply so much power.
 
I understand your reasoning and Ram doesn't mean the world, obviously the power can help support processes. The pc is mainly used for photoshop and illustrator not gaming. In your opinion would you choose the 1gb powered or 2gb unpowered?
 
Generally, a 'powered' video card will perform better. As far as your uses go, it depends on if the applications are GPU accelerated or not. If they are, I would imagine a 2GB card would be better, but that depends on the card. There are weak cards with 2GB on them...

looking at memory capacity and if its powered is not a good way to pick your videocard. ;)
 
I know there are many parameters to consider but i never got why powered always costs so much more.
 
Because they are, generally, much better performing cards than their 'non externally powered' counterparts. Pay to play bub. :)
 
EarthDog said:
Because they are, generally, much better performing cards than their 'non externally powered' counterparts. Pay to play bub. :)
Click to expand...

That should be a hashtag #paytoplay, but im sure that would get taken over by another industry........;)
 
lol right?

But think about it like this... GENERALLY, the more horsepower a car makes, the more gas it needs to run it, right? Same thing here. GENERALLY, the better a card performs the more power it needs to make it happen.
 
In other words. Stay away from the Prius and stick to the Mustang - thanks i shall continue my search and stick to powered.
 
I think its best for you to list your budget (you already listed your primary uses) and have us help you out by giving you some choices... :)
 
Well I need 2, one just for a basic office pc (because my colleague keeps moaning) realistically I wouldn't want to spend more than £40 or 60$ and then the second one is for the graphics pc that uses illustrator and photoshop mainly for brochures and things like that. Again I wouldn't want to spend more than £70 around 105$.
 
Realistically, you don't need one for a basic office PC. What does he do that a videocard would help and stop his 'moaning'?
 
Absolutely nothing, thats why i said cheap because its a placebo effect... it will stop him moaning for 6 or so months :)
 
Does he already have a discrete card or is he on integrated GPU? If integrated, just add more vram available to it in the bios (so he sees it) and then say problem solved. You don't have to spend your office's money 'faking out' someone.

That and his GPU probably has nothing to do with it anyway...so it may not even work AND you spent money!
 
It's integrated, and we boosted the ram recently, he is still not happy but what do you expect when you have 30 chrome tabs open. He also added a second screen and thinks a graphics card would help handle that.
 
As far as the PC that can actually use a GPU, I would see what pricing and availability are on something like this or this in your area. They should perform about the same for your use, so I would grab whichever is cheaper. Just make sure to grab the GDDR5 version (usually the one with less memory)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

mackerel
Booting the Core 2 era board
Replies
12
Views
315
don256us
don256us
B
"... cannot find any bootable devices" a Perplexing and Unacceptable Solution
Replies
2
Views
1K
MacClipper
M
Al_bundy
Alucryl - 3DFX - CNC - Retro pc
Replies
2
Views
375
EarthDog
EarthDog
Time-Bandit
Display cuts randomly and PC crashes but stays powered on
Replies
4
Views
675
Time-Bandit
Time-Bandit
Al_bundy
Liquid Extasy Waterblocks
2
Replies
35
Views
2K
67Elco
67Elco
Back