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GTX 480 Undervolt with Mid-range Power Supply

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TwoShedz
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2010/05/24 19:41:21 (permalink)
I have been searching around for some information about this for a while but was surprised to not really find anything.

My question/concern is: Has anyone been able to successfully undervolt a GTX 480 and run it on a system under or around the minimum power requirements? I have a 610W PC Power & Cooling Silencer PSU with 49A on a single +12V rail and I am looking to get a single GTX 480. On the EVGA product sheet for the card it says that the minimum power requirements are a 600W PSU with 42A. That would be enough for me but I have seen other numbers elsewhere, BFGTech says you need a 680W with 46A and I have seen review websites who recommend 750W PSUs. So I am hoping that by undervolting the card a bit I would be able to sneak by with my power supply. Your thoughts and experiences with this are appreciated.
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    BranC85
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    Re:GTX 480 Undervolt with Mid-range Power Supply 2010/05/25 13:32:59 (permalink)
    I have not looked at my actual power consumption, but I have been able to run dual 480's at stock on an 850W Corsair supply without any issue. However, when I undervolted(just to .95V), my temps decreased about 8c. In fact, I typically top out in-game at about 70c with significantly quieter fans than under stock voltage, although my user-defined fan curves in afterburner also have something to do with that). When I ran stock with the nvidia fan profile, I would hit the mid 90's C relatively easily. I am sure that these temps equate to a relatively significant reduction in power. I have heard of undervolts resulting in up to 50W less power, although you would need a more aggressive undervolt than mine. I think Nvidia gives these cards a very sizeable surplus of voltage so that they can be overclocked easily out of the box. i hope this helps!
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    TwoShedz
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    Re:GTX 480 Undervolt with Mid-range Power Supply 2010/05/25 18:26:56 (permalink)
    That does indeed help, thanks. If you can run 2 GTX 480s on a good 850W PSU then I would expect to be able to run 1 GTX 480 on a good 610W PSU. If I have any trouble under heavy load, a bit of an undervolt should do the trick. Now the only thing keeping me from getting a GTX 480 straight away is to see if EVGA releases a high-flow bracket & backplate version soon.
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    kram36
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    Re:GTX 480 Undervolt with Mid-range Power Supply 2010/05/25 21:18:38 (permalink)
    Just buy one of these and leave the pci slot cover off right under it.

    http://www.evga.com/produ...ssories%20-%20Hardware
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