Quote Originally Posted by kadozer View Post
I always wondered this too, but I suppose it was important to AMD for the 5970 since they purposely crippled the speeds to avoid going over 300w. There were even reports of delays specifically for that reason. Its gotta be a big deal no?
It depends. Basically, the second you go over 300W you're no longer backwards-compatible with PCI-E 1.x which can only deliver 75W through the PCI-E slot while PCI-E 2.0 can deliver up to 150W. So, if you make a 300W card you have one of two options: add two 8-pin PCI-E connectors or risk alienating everyone with PCI-E 1.x mobos in addition to confusing the heck out of potential customers who don't know any better.