ATI Radeon HD 5850 with a Corsair HX450w PSU

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tpi2007

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Hi everyone!

I have a slight doubt and I wonder if you guys have any experiencing on this:

I have a Corsair HX450w 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (Professional Series, 7 year warranty), and currently I'm using a Gigabyte 8800GT 512MB Turboforce Editon graphics card (factory overclocked from 600Mhz to 700 Mhz, shaders from 1500 to 1715Mhz, memory only up to 1840Mhz from 1800) and I am thinking of upgrading to a Radeon HD 5850.

I know that ATI recommends a minimum of a 500w power supply for this card, but then again they take into account that people may have lots of add-on cards and peripherals connected or factor in those who buy cheaper, lower quality PSU's.

My PSU has a single 12v rail with a 33A rating and 2 PCie 8Pin/6Pin connectors, so I think it can do it, but I haven't found what Amperage the Radeon needs, so I'm not entirely sure.

The stock clocked 8800GT has a TDP of 110w, since mine has a very decent GPU overclock, I would figure it is probably somewhat higher (tweaktown review confirms, not more than 10w). That is not a huge difference to the HD5850's 151w, but again, the Amperage is the only thing that I'm left thinking about.

What do you guys think ?

The rest of the system is frugal:

MB: gigabyte EP45-UD3LR
Ram: 4GB Corsair XMS2 DHX DDR2 800 DC (stock clocks)
CPU: Core 2 Duo E8400 (E0 revision) (stock clocks)
HDD: WD Caviar Black 500GB
Sony Opticarc DVD-RW Lightscribe drive
Multi card reader
Floppy Drive (yes, indeed, have a lot of oldies to backup heheh)
Avermedia TV tuner


Thanks!
 
xyzionz

xyzionz

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You will do fine, corsair usually under rate their PSU

And if you're willing to overclock, overclock your CPU to around 3.6GHz, E8400 at stock will bottleneck your 5850.
 
flyinfinni

flyinfinni

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You should be ok with that PSU. Corsair makes some great ones and the 5850 is remarkably low on power usage for how much graphics power its got. I would be a little careful about OCing the crap out of the CPU and/or GPU though.
 
Pailin

Pailin

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Won't be a problem unless you OC everything to the nines and try and run Prime95 and Furmark at the same time LOL

and even then it might sail through...

Games will never push your system that far.
 
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tpi2007

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Thank you guys!

I won't be doing any overclocking of either CPU or GPU, so I should be fine then :D

xyzionz, as for the E8400 bottlenecking, yes, I figure it might a little, if it really needs to be overclocked I might try, but my current monitor is a 3 year old LG 20" widescreen which has a resolution of 1680x1050, so I guess it should be fine.

I guess I will be able to max out almost every game on the market with this rig, which is exactly the goal. What do you guys think ?

In about a year I'll probably buy a Core 2 Quad Q9550 if the price is right before building a completely new rig a year after that.

P.S.: I just went to the Corsair site and realized they had a Power Supply search feature on their main page, so I inserted the required data (what kind of CPU, how many GPU's, how many HDD's ) and they had a few recommendations.

And there were two problems I thought important to share just in case someone has the same idea as me: the HX 450 is not in the recommendations, but I guess that is because it is not currently available in North and South America as is noted on the HX 450 page.

But despite this, the VX 450 and VX 550 are listed. The 550 doesn't present any problem, but the VX 450w, despite also having a single 12v rail, the same 396w on that rail and the same 33A rating, it only has a single 6 Pin PCIe connector, instead of the HX 450's two 6/8 Pin connectors.

Given that the Radeon HD 5850 requires two 6 pin PCIe connectors (and the 5870 one 6 pin and one 8 pin), that power supply should not be in the recommendations.

I just sent an email to Corsair giving them feedback on these two problems:

- not listing the HX 450, when they should, even if they had to put a reminder where it is available;

- listing the VX 450w, when they shouldn't.
 
Pailin

Pailin

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Put it this way, I run:

Q6600 @ 3GHz
Asus 5850
Lots HDD's
Seasonic 500w PSU

I have my main box plugged through a Voltage / Amp meter...

5850 @ Stock - 725/4000 1.087v
3DMark 2006 - Avg245w Max283
FarCry2 Benchmarking 1920x1080 Very High 0xAA - Avg275w Max282w

5850 @ OC - 913/4800 1.2v
FarCry2 Benchmarking 1920x1080 Very High 0xAA - Avg315w Max328w

Not too bad for the whole system, you should be fine even with OCing.
Prime95 and Furmark running at the same time will draw a large amount more power than you would ever find in almost any real world situation.
 
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tpi2007

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That looks very good! I will be safe then. When I bought my E8400 back in September 2008 I had a difficult time deciding between the E8400 and the 4 core goodness of the Q6600. I don't regret it, but I have to say it's nice to see the Q6600 still soldiering on at 3Ghz.

I've been thinking of buying a Voltage / Amp meter to see how much it consumes (with the 8800GT and the Radeon 5850 for example), can you recommend me something good and not too expensive ? Thanks!
 
EXT64

EXT64

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I use the kill-a-watt inline meter (which should be pretty cheap). The type I really would like is what I have seen at work: the ones that just clamp around the wire. Those would be convenient.
 
guanyu210379

guanyu210379

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http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp
This will help ye!

I agree also that Corsair has always underrated their PSU.

My PC specs is Q6600 (@3GHz if I need it such as for games, but If I use it only for internet or movies, it will be runnning on stock speed), 4GB RAM, currently with HD3850...I am planning also to get one but I will wait a bit untill the price of HD5850 has dropped a bit. HD5850 is still too expensive for me right now. I have put also a new PSU into the budget just in case it is necessary.

Thank you for everyone on this thread for giving all the information, because I am also looking an answer to this question/thread.
 
Pailin

Pailin

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My system has been running at 3.6GHz initially and mostly 3GHz as cooler since 20/12/2007 flawlessly ^^

Just for curiosity I just ran with 5850 @ 725/4000 1.087v:

My system Idles at 167w

Prime95 Blend
Furmark @ 1920x1080 4xMSAA

Avg 485w
Max 525w

According to Furmark, my 5850 was running at 149w during the test techPowerUp also confirms their stock 5850 Furmark tests drew 150watts + they made physical measurements and didn't use software...

My system running only Prime95 draws about 230 - 300w

149 + 300 = 449

Which shows that Furmark pushes your CPU a lot. I used to think it focused more on the GPU.

Furmark on its own draws 430 – 475w.

Have to say I am impressed my 500watt Seasonic handled loads up to 525 without a sweat :D
 
Pailin

Pailin

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oh, as to which power meter...

any cheap digital one should do. I have used 3 different ones now and they are all within a very small margin of each other. A few watts or so at most.

Currently I am using on made by Nikkai power - never heard of them before, but is a nice little unit :)

as EXT64 mentioned that Kill A Watt thing is exactly the kinda thing I use too:


Kill A Watt $21.50 with free shipping.
 
flyinfinni

flyinfinni

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I would suggest you don't try running both Prime95 and Furmark at the same time- just to be safe. Your PSU would probably handle it ok, but its not worth pushing it past reasonable limits on purpose:)
 
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tpi2007

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A quick follow-up on the Corsair VX 450w:

I just received the reply from Corsair concerning me e-mail, here it is:

"The VX450 does not have the cables, you're right, but with an adapter it could easily power that solution. The processor you have is very efficient from a power perspective, so you won't need any huge wattage unit for that processor.

I'd say that the HX450 is more than enough for a 5850 and a Core 2 Duo E8400. Your system should see a nice increase in performance during games or other 3D apps."

And he's right, I had just forgotten about molex adaptors when I wrote the e-mail. So there you have it, if you own a Corsair VX 450w with a system similar to mine, you won0't have problem with a Radeon HD 5850. Just be sure if your GPU vendor bundles an adapter or make sure you buy one.
 
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tpi2007

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I know they are not the same, ff you read the comment I wrote before my last one, you'll understand what I'm talking about.

A small recap: the HX 450 (the one I own) can handle the load, and so can the VX 450, as long as you have a molex adapter to power the GPU, that's what Corsair is telling me.

 
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tpi2007

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Thanks! I'll probably buy one of those kill-a-watt meters.




Thanks for the link! As for your Seasonic PSU - and the ones from Corsair, which I believe are all made by Seasonic, I learned that, like many of you said before, they underrate their PSU's not just to be safe, but because that is almost a necessity to make them 80 Plus or 80 Plus Bronze or upwards certified. My Corsair 450w apparently could be rated at 550w but would lose the 80Plus certification. It would work faultlessly, just not that efficiently. That's probably why your PSU is working just fine with those high wattages (Ouch, by the way! Those two programs at the same time really drive the system to very demanding levels)



I surely won't. Unless it's winter time and my heater is broken, that is hehehe.
 
obsidian86

obsidian86

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not all made by seasonic

seasonic makes all from 650watts down cept the vx550 made by CWT and cwt makes all the power supplies from 750 watts and up

but here is some power charts

power_peak-2.gif


power_maximum-3.gif
 
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tpi2007

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That PSU Calculator is very neat indeed! Thanks!
 
T

tpi2007

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Another quick follow-up directly from Corsair:

They just explained to me why the HX 450w is not listed in the recommendations, but the VX 450w is.

Although the HX 450 is still listed on the website, despite the note that says it is not available in North or South America, in fact it has just recently been discontinued due to poor sales. That's why they removed it from the recommendations. The reason it is still listed is because there is still stock left in Europe.

It's a pity, but I understand why it didn't sell well: it's a bit expensive for what people generally think of such a moderately low wattage PSU, that it won't handle the latest GPU, especially because the GPU manufacturers like to stay on the safe side on their recommendations.

They have to live with the fact that there are a lot of lower quality PSU’s around that don’t provide the advertised wattage, let alone necessary amperage, and GPU vendors generally adjust their recommendations up a notch because of that. They prefer to be on the safe side, which is understandable.

Anyway, that brings up a distortion in that a higher wattage PSU won’t do so brilliantly when the computer is idling, more so with today’s CPUs and GPUs that idle at fantastically low values.

That’s the reason I bought the HX 450, because it manages to excel across the board, and will in fact, in my opinion, suffice for 85%+ of gamers.
 
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