[SOLVED] what does it mean to have a 50 watt graphics card slotther

[oscarwilliams34]

I have a dell OptiPlex 7010 dt and the graphics card slot is officially rated at 50 watts. except I am told 75 watts is standard and am currently running a 60 watt gtx 750 ti on I. also other people suggest they have run 75 watt gpus on it. Is it actually a 50 watt max or is that just the recommended maximum due to the low power supply (250 watts). I want to buy a new power supply so I can add a 1050 ti or a 1650 but I am wondering will I also need a new motherboard.

 

[Barty1884]

Some OEM's (Dell, HP etc) artificially limited some PCIe slots to 50W or less in some cases.
I'm not sure of the rationale behind it.

PCIe spec stated 75W, max. Not that it has to be implemented to provide 75W in all situations.

The DT and SFF variants, as per Dell's spec sheet, are limited to 50W and the MT is not

I'd be curious to know what happens if you stress the 60W card to 100% load and whether it can remain powered.

With a card that takes supplemental power from the PSU via PCIe cables... I would suspect you'd be ok, and the PCIe slot limitation wouldn't matter.... but I can't say with certainty.

 

[oscarwilliams34]

Some OEM's (Dell, HP etc) artificially limited some PCIe slots to 50W or less in some cases.
I'm not sure of the rationale behind it.

PCIe spec stated 75W, max. Not that it has to be implemented to provide 75W in all situations.

The DT and SFF variants, as per Dell's spec sheet, are limited to 50W and the MT is not

I'd be curious to know what happens if you stress the 60W card to 100% load and whether it can remain powered.

With a card that takes supplemental power from the PSU via PCIe cables... I would suspect you'd be ok, and the PCIe slot limitation wouldn't matter.... but I can't say with certainty.

Are you saying that they are 75 watt slots whih have been purposefully changed to 50 watt slots because im not very good with computer stuff. Also I have pushed my 60 watt 750 ti to its limit regularly and only really see quite high temps as a side affect, and that could be just due to the small case and lack of fans. for the psu cable thing wouldn't I need a 6 pin power connector.

 

[Barty1884]

No, I'm saying Dell elected to kit that motherboard out with a PCIe slot so that a device/GPU can only (officially) draw 50W from it. I don't know if there's overprovisioning and that it could do more - just that their official spec states 50W max.

Yes, I was talking 6 or 8 pin cards, they should be ok.