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Power Draw Question

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Bob_422
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Saturday, October 24, 2015 2:52 AM (permalink)
Yesterday I swapped my two EVGA GTX 780 HydroCoppers for two new EVGA GTX 980 Ti HydroCoppers. Both have a max rated load of 250 watts. I ran the Valley benchmark to see the difference and part way through the load limit of my 1500VA UPS was exceeded. It happened again today while playing Far Cry 4. This never happened with my 780s and the graphics cards were the only change.

Is it possible one of the cards is somehow faulty and pulls way too much randomly? I would think if that were the case it would fry itself or my motherboard before tripping my UPS. My specs are in my sig except I have the 980 Tis of course. I'm not sure how to test for a problem and am quite concerned about damaging something. Any advice is gratefully appreciated.

Bob


 
MSI Z170A XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM EDITION| i7 6700K | 16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws V | 2x EVGA GTX 980 Ti Hydro Copper 
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    the_Scarlet_one
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    Re: Power Draw Question Saturday, October 24, 2015 3:02 AM (permalink)
    Does you UPS show your wattage used?

    If so, and you are still on air (important for obvious reasons in a second)

    Try pulling one card, and monitor your wattage used overall.

    Then swap cards and see If it changes.

    Now, one thing to keep in mind. TDP is only for absolutely reference everything. If the card is unlocked and able to pull more wattage due to being a higher tier card, it is going to inevitably do exactly as it is designed.

    Notice that the K|ngp|n and Classified are rated at 300w, but only require a 500 w psu while the Hydrocopper is rated at 250W and requires a 600w psu. I think there are some typos in there, lol.
    post edited by Scarlet-Tech - Saturday, October 24, 2015 3:07 AM
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    ty_ger07
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    Re: Power Draw Question Saturday, October 24, 2015 3:35 AM (permalink)
    TDP stands for "Thermal Design Power" and is not an indication of the maximum amount of power the card will necessarily consume.  According to Techpowerup's measurements, each air-cooled GTX 980 Ti can consume 10 to 40 watts more than a GTX 780 under load.
    https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_980_Ti/29.html
     
    Additionally, your liquid-cooled cards will consume more power than the numbers reported above due to your cards running at lower temperatures and at higher frequencies.  Cooler cards consume more power at the same voltage, frequency, and load; it has been proven many times.  Adding in higher frequencies and higher and more consistent boost at cooler temperatures, I imagine that each of your GTX 980 Ti graphics cards could easily consume at least 30 watts more than each of your GTX 780 graphics cards.
     
    If only your computer's PSU were plugged into the UPS, and if your PSU were brand new, it would consume up to 1381 watts at max load to provide 1207 watts to your computer hardware.  It would have a power factor at max load between 98% and 99% which means that you would lose another 14 to 28 watts due to the power factor and pull up to 1409 watts from your UPS.  If you have anything else plugged into the UPS (such as a monitor, printer, modem, router, etc.), chances are that their power factors are much worse and closer to 80% to 90% and that they will draw another 50 to 100 watts from your UPS quite easily.
     
    Finally, since your PSU and UPS are used, their efficiencies, power factors, and output capabilities have decreased/degraded.  It is all adding up in my opinion.
     
    I plugged all your information into an online power supply calculator using my best guess based on the information you have provided, and it recommended that your power supply be at least 1100 watts (you got that covered) and that your UPS be at least 2000 VA (another confirmation that you are probably hitting its limit).
    post edited by ty_ger07 - Saturday, October 24, 2015 4:30 AM
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    un4givn85
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    Re: Power Draw Question Saturday, October 24, 2015 3:36 AM (permalink)
    that wont work Scarlet
    hes got hydrocoppers
    that being said, im with ST, does your UPS show wattage, and if not, do you have a way of testing how much draw you are pulling at max load?
    is there a chance the UPS is going bad?
    have you tried testing while plugged into a wall socket or power strip?

    Folding equipment - 3080 FTW3, 2070, 1660S, 1060 6G, 1050ti, 980 - All EVGA


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    the_Scarlet_one
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    Re: Power Draw Question Saturday, October 24, 2015 3:43 AM (permalink)
    I noticed that after I typed it, and forgot to update it when I edited it. I thought he had hybrids at first, and realized it after.
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    Bob_422
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    Re: Power Draw Question Saturday, October 24, 2015 4:36 PM (permalink)
    Thanks for the replies. You guys have given me some things to try.
     
    My APC BR1500G UPS does not give accurate wattage used unless it's connected via USB and their parachute software is installed. I don't have a USB cable that can reach the way my desk is setup currently. It does have a load meter on the display made up of 5 bars. Right now as I'm typing, pretty much idle, only one bar is lit. When I ran Valley the other day it went to four bars and would bounce between 3 and 5. This morning I moved everything except my PC and monitor to a separate power strip and ran Valley again for 30 minutes. This time it stayed mostly on 3 to 4 bars and never lit the 5th. My UPS can only handle 865 Watts.
     
    More info. My primary card (top slot) boosts to 1531 MHz! That seems pretty darn good for a stock non overclocked card. The second card boosts to 1493 MHz. Not too bad either in my opinion. Could those boost clocks explain the extra power draw? To be honest, I never monitored how close I was to hitting full load with my 780s. For all I know it could have been close and now the 980 Ti cards have pushed it to the limit. I'm guilty of running too much extra stuff on the UPS such as my router, 8 port switch, modem and speaker phone. That stuff has been moved off the UPS to a power strip now. But it still seems odd that I'm close to maxing out an 865 Watt UPS. My brother-in-law says he has something I can plug into the wall then plug my PC directly into it and it will show how much power I'm using. He just has to find it. Once I get my hands on that I should have more accurate numbers.
     
    If I may ask, do any of you guys even use a UPS? I see a lot of you are running much more powerful rigs than mine and would think they would require a server grade UPS of at least 2200VA or more and those are very pricey.
     
    Again, thanks for the input from all of you. I will update when I am able to do some actual power draw tests with real numbers.


     
    MSI Z170A XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM EDITION| i7 6700K | 16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws V | 2x EVGA GTX 980 Ti Hydro Copper 
    Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD Boot Drive | Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD Game Drive| Plextor PX-755SA DVD Burner
    Antec HCP 1200 | Windows 7 Pro 64 | Caselabs Magnum STH10 | Acer XB270HU
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    un4givn85
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    Re: Power Draw Question Saturday, October 24, 2015 4:51 PM (permalink)
    I personally do not run a UPS.
    So you said you removed the pc from the UPS or other stuff and its ok now?

    Folding equipment - 3080 FTW3, 2070, 1660S, 1060 6G, 1050ti, 980 - All EVGA


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    Bob_422
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    Re: Power Draw Question Saturday, October 24, 2015 5:31 PM (permalink)
    un4givn85
    I personally do not run a UPS.
    So you said you removed the pc from the UPS or other stuff and its ok now?

    PC and monitor are on the UPS, everything else has been moved to a separate power strip. I hope it's ok. Valley didn't trip it this morning. Only some extended play in demanding games will tell, but today is Borderlands 2 day with some friends and that's not too demanding.


     
    MSI Z170A XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM EDITION| i7 6700K | 16 GB G.Skill Ripjaws V | 2x EVGA GTX 980 Ti Hydro Copper 
    Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD Boot Drive | Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD Game Drive| Plextor PX-755SA DVD Burner
    Antec HCP 1200 | Windows 7 Pro 64 | Caselabs Magnum STH10 | Acer XB270HU
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