can this power supply run a reference radeon 6970 ?

[jbrown156]

i have a evga 500b and the rest of my specs is in the description .. can you tell me if my power supply can run this card .. i have seen comments where people say that a 500 watt could run it no problems so is this true .. i have no experience with this card..

 

[utgotye]

That EVGA isn't the best but it should run a 6970 with no issues.

 

[blazorthon]

Yes, it should run fine.

 

[jbrown156]

That EVGA isn't the best but it should run a 6970 with no issues.

i know its not the best but are u sure it will run with my i3 and 2 harddrives and 3 case fan ?

 

[HEXiT]

recommended minimum is 550w but you should be able to get away with a 500w till you can upgrade the psu as the rest of the system is pretty low power(consuming).

 

[utgotye]

It should run but I'd be looking at an upgrade to a quality 650W+ unit.

 

[jbrown156]

recommended minimum is 550w but you should be able to get away with a 500w till you can upgrade the psu as the rest of the system is pretty low power(consuming).

that pretty much answers my question about the power .. one last question on average what kind of idle temps should i be expecting with the 6970 ?

 

[blazorthon]

650W is a little excessive. The 6970 will never pull over about 200W at gaming load unless you overclock it and the rest of the system doesn't pull enough to justify spending extra on a 650W. If you find a good one at a good price, sure, why not, but I wouldn't pay extra for it in this situation.

 

[utgotye]

Obviously. Given the choice of a 600W PSU and a 750W, quality and price being equal, go for the 750W regardless if you need it (now) or not.

 

[HEXiT]

@uygotye mate i have seen you post a similar answer in a few topics now. while i applaud your enthusiasm and willingness to help.
but you seem to be overstating whats needed for power in pretty much every post thats asking for help on psu requirments. and not just by a little either.
its an utter waste to put 750w into a pc that draws a max of 350w a 500-550w is more than enough and would have all the headroom a user would need.
at 350-to 450w typical usage then 600-650w is still more than you should ever need. recomending more will often incure a significant increase in cost to the end user, a cost he/she may not be able to afford and as a result may not get the perfomance there paying for because they have to scrimp elsewhere to make up the shortfall in the budgets to cover the higher end power unit.

in reality unless your doing a high end sli/crossfire build there should be no reason to put more that a 650w unit in any build even 1 rocking a a custom water loop. even with an oc.

amd recommended 550w for that gpu but it is also playing safe with them numbers to allow the end user to oc the card, the motherboard, the ram and the gpu. and thats for a non typical build of with a 140w cpu.

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine build a few different rigs and you will see what i mean.
i hope this helps.

 

[utgotye]

I use that calculator regularly as a baseline. It's useful but not all. I'm in no way saying you are wrong, but I'll take the 750W XFX for $50 over the CX600M for $50 any day of the week regardless of how much power I think I may need. It's not wasted in the least since I'm getting a higher quality unit for the same price.

More or less every time I have recommended an overkill PSU is because it's a better quality unit and/or at a lower price. In the example above, there's no reason to buy the Corsair unless you think you need/want modularity, in which case there's certain to be units of better quality for the same or marginally more.

 

[HEXiT]

thing is mate theres no such thing as a $50 xfx 750w psu a typical price is more like $80+ unless your very very lucky. personally id rather recommend a $50 550w unit if thats all the build needs. yeah its nice to have the extra overhead, but if it costs significantly more and your never gonna use it then its wasted money. is the point im making.

 

[blazorthon]

Overkill PSUs running at 25% or 30% load are running less efficiently. PSUs are designed to run at load around 50%. A 350W load on a 550W PSU will run more efficiently than a 350W load on a 750W PSU in the same typical efficiency bracket. Sure, it's not going to be a huge difference, but it does matter. Unless you plan on using more of the PSU later, like with SLI/Crossfire, it is not the best idea. Get the right tool for the job.

 

[jbrown156]

wow you guys are still at it... i have decided to get the 6970 with the psu i have which is the evga 500b hopefully it wont crash or anything like that because i cant afford any repairs at this moment....

 

[HEXiT]

nope not still at it. just giving some advice to a member who's earning his place here. no malice or ill intent. he's putting the effort in so im trying to improve his chances of earning best answers.

 

[Dragos Manea]

wow you guys are still at it... i have decided to get the 6970 with the psu i have which is the evga 500b hopefully it wont crash or anything like that because i cant afford any repairs at this moment....

Dont worry look at my configuration, i dont have problems, my PSU has 40A on the 12v line same as you, so dont worry, you dont need to change your psu not even for an i5 (only in the case u want to overclock, then you need a new more powerful PSU).

 

[jbrown156]

nope not still at it. just giving some advice to a member who's earning his place here. no malice or ill intent. he's putting the effort in so im trying to improve his chances of earning best answers.

ok .. thats a good thing you doing ..