500W PSU Enough For GTX 970?

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TheModernKilla

TheModernKilla

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Sep 18, 2014
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Will a 500w PSU(CougarA500) be sufficient enough for the Gigabyte GTX 970(OC or G1 Gaming) or will i have to buy a 600w>? ~even if i can't overclock anything it would still beat getting another PSU.

PSU- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817553022&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
other info:
CPU- i7-4790k @4.2GHz
MOBO- Gigabyte G1 Gaming 7
Current GPU- Gigabyte GTX 660 OC
 
Solution
R


Fair enough... see my correction and apology above!

OP -> if you're in the US there's a pretty crazy special on a (very solid quality) XFX 550W PSU for $37 after MIR with free shipping: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013&cm_re=xfx_550w-_-17-207-013-_-Product

If you can make use of the mail-in-rebate, $37 for a PSU of that quality is a really excellent buy. 550W is a perfect fit for your system, even with a decent OC on your CPU and GPU. You wouldn't want to go seeking massive OCs on 550W, but it's plenty enough for any sort of normal overclocking.

Given how much you've put into your system I'd be spending the $37 to allow for...
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Yes its enough power , no overclocking.
 
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That Cougar A series is in Tier 5 on this list: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html
As in - throw in the bin immediately - not suitable for any system no matter the purpose.

SR-71 is a long standing expert here, so I'll defer to his wisdow.... but SR-71, are you sure you'd be happy with that system in one of your rigs? I sure as hell wouldn't if it was in a junky old HTPC rig, let alone my gaming rig with a Devil's Canyon CPU and decent mid range GPU.

EDIT -> SORRY! My bad. Misread the list. It's in the yet-to-be-reviewed section.

Disregard my comments above. However I'd still want a decent review or two before being sure.

Apologies for the confusion!
 
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Fair enough... see my correction and apology above!

OP -> if you're in the US there's a pretty crazy special on a (very solid quality) XFX 550W PSU for $37 after MIR with free shipping: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013&cm_re=xfx_550w-_-17-207-013-_-Product

If you can make use of the mail-in-rebate, $37 for a PSU of that quality is a really excellent buy. 550W is a perfect fit for your system, even with a decent OC on your CPU and GPU. You wouldn't want to go seeking massive OCs on 550W, but it's plenty enough for any sort of normal overclocking.

Given how much you've put into your system I'd be spending the $37 to allow for some overclocking and (more importantly!) piece of mind if I were you.
 
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Solution
If I were you, I would get a 700-watt PSU to be on the safe side. Get a decent 700-watt PSU and make sure it's a decent tier. My GTX 560 (Different than 970, but yeah) that I recently purchase stopped working after it was on for a little while (a few hours if that.) My PSU is a 500-watt and I read that some people even had problems with 600-watt PSU's for my card that required only 450-watt. The fans spun, but it wouldn't work and I am out of luck since I had a CPU that required a GPU for the system to work. A 700-watt (decent tier) would be a safe choice and the best choice. It's better to be safe than sorry with this trust me lol
 
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Yup, that's the PSU I linked. Didn't know you could get a further $10 off... that's just crazy for a PSU of that quality.

OP - you really don't need 700W for that system, not anywhere near it. With respect to Craig M, I'm guessing his PSU was a cheap "500W" PSU which, if you actually checked the specs, probably provided less than 300W on the 12V rail (which is where the power is actually needed). Heaps of cheaper models do this, claiming "500W" when they're probably 250-330W units in reality.

That XFX unit on the other hand is a genuine 550W PSU. It provides a full 45A on the 12V rail (540W), which is more than enough for your system.
 
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I have had this PSU for almost a year now and it has worked as described...Suppose i were to get this PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182340 Total: 44.99 with MIR And Neweggs new sale today that gets $20 off do you know if this PSU is better/more reliable, i know i can definitely OC with this as the wattage is higher...
 
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It is NOT a higher wattage... you need to check the detailed specs. That Rosewell provides 45A on the 12V rail, exactly the same as the XFX does. That capstone is a decent PSU too, but they've just decided to market it more aggressively... they're the same power output (where it counts).

I didn't mean to make you concerned about overclocking, I was really just covering my backside as some people here on the forums get paranoid about power draw. It's extremely hard to get a Intel quad core CPU to pull more than 200W, extremely hard. Plus your GPU is 120W... even if you somehow managed to pull 200W from the CPU (which you won't!) and double the rated power from your GPU (which you also won't ) you'd still have 100W left for the rest of the system (which is enough).

That bargain priced XFX 550W is perfect for you system with overclocking.
 
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may be its a psu manufacturer fault bcoz i have gtx 560 superclocked too running on 500w since 2012, never having problem with that, and also saw other setups with 970 running on 500w, and working fine
 
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