Thursday, April 16th 2009
Triplex Designs Radeon HD 4830 Without Auxiliary Power Connector
A relatively unknown company, Triplex, has designed a Radeon HD 4830 graphics accelerator that does not require the 6-pin PCI-Express power connector. This is especially interesting for two reasons: that it is RV770, and that it runs at reference clock speeds despite shedding its traditional power design. Spotted on XtremeSystems, this engineering sample PCB features a 2+1 phase power design, that draws all its power from the PCI-Express slot.
Also featured are 512 MB of 256-bit GDDR3 memory, DVI-D, HDMI and D-Sub outputs, and a seemingly two-slot cooler design that is yet to be pictured. The card lacks CrossFireX fingers. The GPU has 640 stream processors, DirectX 10.1 compliance, and a 256-bit memory interface. It has AMD reference clock speeds of 575/900 MHz (core/memory). For reference the third picture shows a Radeon HD 4670 accelerator of the same make, and PCB length.
Source:
XtremeSystems
Also featured are 512 MB of 256-bit GDDR3 memory, DVI-D, HDMI and D-Sub outputs, and a seemingly two-slot cooler design that is yet to be pictured. The card lacks CrossFireX fingers. The GPU has 640 stream processors, DirectX 10.1 compliance, and a 256-bit memory interface. It has AMD reference clock speeds of 575/900 MHz (core/memory). For reference the third picture shows a Radeon HD 4670 accelerator of the same make, and PCB length.
42 Comments on Triplex Designs Radeon HD 4830 Without Auxiliary Power Connector
Surely the 75w cap on PCI-E 1.1 would choke it?
The testing above was done with a reference sample HD4830. It used the same PCB design and power circuitry as an HD4850.
The power consumption is just a bit over the amount supplied by the 75W cap. Shedding the complex power circuitry, as Triplex obviously has done, could possibly lower this amount to just under 75W at 3D LOAD. They also might be undervolting it during load, supplying just enough to keep the card stable.
Their HD4830 certainly won't win any OC'ing contests, but should be great for users looking for a low powered card that doesn't need any additional PCI-E connectors...
lol
Sorry for the offhand post earlier on LemonadeSoda, thought you were having a stupid morning (I know i have them) since it seemed an obvious question.
secondly for advanced features like crossfire, i think you would need AUX power to keep the juice going
The 4830 is a more optimal combination of TMU/ROP/Shader than the 4850/70/90, according to the analysis here: forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=76280
The conclusions are based on existing typical software design/demand. Your milage may vary on other tests. It would be interesting to see the stats on the latest games. The best performance per $ is a 4830. The best CF performance per $ is a CF 4830. It is the best performance for circa EUR/$200 you can get.
If you have a larger budget, then the best performance is a CF 4890 of course! But that costs mucho $$.
That's from what I've read though, may just be reading ATI loving sites.