Thats a sweet article. However, the problem with their testing is that they are using it on a more modern specification for ATX and AGP using 8x slot, on a Athlon 64 board that relies heavily on 12 Volt to power everything on the motherboard, knocking it down when needed, so you cant totally trust whether or not your 3.3 and 5v leading to certain components is even coming off the psu +5/+3 rails, or if its being knocked down from the +12 on the motherboard. This was a time when AGP standards dropped dropped from relying heavy on putting power towards the 3.3V pins in the slot and opted to swap over to doing 1.5V and to 0.8V. So +12v dependence is heavy there and the system in that test was built with that in mind, with a power supply built to that ATX requirement.
So while that chart will apply greatly for something from that generation, it wont help so much for older Socket A, 370, and Slot boards that dont act that way since it wont be as cut and dry for them, which is why you end up with a lot of modern supplies getting bent out of shape with some FX and 6800 cards paired with old boards. What is needed is someone willing to take a wide selection of older boards, and also a wider selection of the FX cards other then just a few, because manufactures didnt always stick with stock designs. That chart they did kind is kind of scary when they are having one card, the weaker FX 5900 ultra, pull much heavier on the 12volt rail then the 5950 one does.
EDIT cause I hate double posting: Also if you look at the testing they do, they find the Galaxy 6800 pulling more amps off the AGP slot then the 6800 Ultra. This seems to fall in line with my current Apogee 6800 AGP, which hates to work with my EVGA 400 and 500 watt supplies in my older Via Slot 1 build in my closet, but does fine with a older PowerMan 350 watt in there. I think that board is a Trinity or Apollo Pro, I forget which because I have not messed with it in a tad over a year. Unlike my Intel brand 440 BX2 boards, It supports 4x AGP though if anyone cares to know. The only way I found I can get some stability on my EVGA supplies with that card and board is if I pull a hard drive and two of my 256mb ram sticks out of it. Its a pain to mess with that board in general though. I really did not like the Via support for 370 and Slot 1 based on their chips. Driver installation is more hands on then with Intel and you have to tinker a lot.
Also, though Im not willing to try it at the moment cause Id have to dig the thing out of my closet, I wonder if pulling my AWE64 out of it would help things. Not really sure how much power it uses, but I imagine its somewhat more then what the Aureal Vortex and SB Live does. And per the above, that brings you to another issue, 440 BX2 being 2x AGP, you cant even use the stock reference design GF 6800 on them because those cards wont support that older AGP slot volt wise. And I mean physically you cant even stick one in with without modding the motherboards slot to remove the notch anyway.
Found better links to that article you referenced, and also one to their ATI Radeon one.
https://web.archive.org/web/20040914084333/ht … s-nv-power.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20110716224645/ht … -powercons.html