Card decisions. Only 500W PSU. R9 280x, GTX 770 or GTX 960.

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Will my 500W PSU (Raidmax Cobra 500AE 80 plus gold be enough) to run any of these cards? My specs are: I5 4440, 2 3.5 HDD, 2 sticks of DDR3 8gb total. I did some research, you need a 42 amps on the +12V rail to use the Evga GTX 770. I can get the 280x for $300, the 770 for $320 and the 960 for $360. I am from New Zealand and these prices are for second hand cards. I really want the best performance for price and I'm wondering if my power supply is holding me back. Both the 770 and the 280x asks for 600W power supply but I am wondering if that is because some people use really bad power supply and they are trying to compensate for that. Thanks for any answers.

 

[rhysiam]

While I would consider running some of those cards on a decent 500W PSU, the problem you have is that your PSU is just not good quality.

The PSU tier list has it all the way down in Tier 4: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

I can't find any reviews on that exact unit, but HardOCP tested the 500W-AF-B model and it failed: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/03/18/raidmax_cobra_power_500w_supply_review/9#.VcQb9PmqpBc
It's possibly quite a different model, I don't know for sure, but they're both (in theory) Gold rated and made by Andyson.

Unfortunately I wouldn't really want to use this PSU at all, and if I had to, I certainly wouldn't want to load it with any sort of vaguely power hungry video card.

In theory you have 34A on the 12V rail, which even on a good PSU with your nice-and-efficient Haswell CPU, would be starting to cut it a little fine fine for a 230W 770 or 250(+)W 280X. But not on that PSU I'm afraid.

A 960 on the other hand would be well within spec, but I couldn't recommend you putting expensive hardware on the PSU.

Can you link some local online stores and we might be able to find a decent PSU upgrade for you?

 

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This is very similar to my power supply http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/psu_reports/RAIDMAX%20TECHNOLOGIES_RX-500AE_ECOS%203206.1_500W_Report.pdf

If you recommend I upgrade the power supply you can use the New Zealand priceSpy.co.nz. Thanks for the quick response and Information.

 

[17seconds]

The GTX 960 is your only choice out of that group.

This is Guru3D's power supply recommendation:
AMD R9 280X - On your average system the card requires you to have a 550 Watt power supply unit.
GeForce GTX 960 - On your average system the card requires you to have a 400 ~ 450 Watt power supply unit.

If you are going to overclock GPU or processor, then we do recommend you purchase something with some more stamina.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/asus_radeon_r9_280x_top_review,8.html
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_gtx_960_gaming_oc_review,7.html

 

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So I want to go for the 280x the most because it gives me the option to CF and seems like the most powerful and is the cheapest. Should I upgrade my power supply or will I be alright if I don't overclock. Or is it a possibility that my Power Supply could break and damage expensive components and I don't want to risk that?

 

[rhysiam]

So I want to go for the 280x the most because it gives me the option to CF and seems like the most powerful and is the cheapest. Should I upgrade my power supply or will I be alright if I don't overclock. Or is it a possibility that my Power Supply could break and damage expensive components and I don't want to risk that?

I agree that power-supply aside, the 280X is the pick of those cards, especially given its price.

But it's a really bad idea to run that card on your powersupply. You might be okay, but it will be a poor quality PSU pushed hard... it might be fine or it might catastrophically fail and take components with it.

Invest in a good PSU is money well spent. But those NZ prices are nasty.
- There are a bunch of decent 520-620W models around the $110-120 NZ mark, but it's hard to find the ones that are in stock. I'll leave that to you. The models I'd suggest looking at are any of the XFX or Seasonic units, or the Antec HCG units (don't go the Antec VP ones).

OR - if you want to buy a PSU now that will handle crossfire 280X down the track, this semi-modular EVGA B2 unit is by far the best option on the pricespy website at $165: http://techworld.co.nz/evga-0850-supernova-850w-semi-modular-80plus-bronze-p-53210.html

Someone with more knowledge than me might be able to find a gem amongst those piles of cheaper $70-100 units. There probably are some reasonable models in there, but there's none that I know to be good units and if it was my money, I'd just spend that little extra to get something that I know to be solid.

I wish I had better news or ideas for you.

 

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Thanks for these options and the research. I will defiantly upgrade my power supply before getting a new graphics card. I don't want to break other components because of a shitty $50 power supply. Thanks for your help.

 

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So do you think 850W is the minimum for CF?

 

[rhysiam]

So do you think 850W is the minimum for CF?

With your locked CPU, a good 750W is probably okay, but overclocked, or even some of those aftermarket 280Xs can pull huge amounts of power under certain situations. Anandtech got 469W at the wall under Furmark from a Sapphire toxic at it's factory settings - that's with a close to idle CPU - meaning the (single) 280X is almost certainly exceeding 300W and by a fair margin: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7406/the-sapphire-r9-280x-toxic-review/4
Gaming loads are far less, and that card is about as power-hungry as the 280Xs will come, so it's very much a worst-case scenario.

I'd suggest an 850W, but if you're not interested in overclocking and you're not getting any heavily OC'd factory cards, and don't intend to do anything other than gaming, a quality 750W will do the job.
The 750W B2 is $149, but seems to be out of stock: http://techworld.co.nz/evga-0750-supernova-750w-semi-modular-80plus-bronze-p-47857.html
I wouldn't recommend the B1 models because they're poorer quality and only slightly cheaper anyway.

 

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Thanks. It seems like if I try to look for a 600W card it almost gets into the realm of 750-800W so I don't see the point in saving $30 now when I can get a power supply that gives me expandability. I will probably go with the semi modular EVGA B2 if they e-mail me back about stock and there is stock. Or might dish out a little bit extra and get the G1 http://techworld.co.nz/evga-0750-supernova-750w-modular-80plus-gold-p-48065.html because it is in stock. Thanks for all your help.

Sorry to bug but would this be a good option if I wanted to go single card
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=2606026

 

[rhysiam]

Thanks. It seems like if I try to look for a 600W card it almost gets into the realm of 750-800W so I don't see the point in saving $30 now when I can get a power supply that gives me expandability. I will probably go with the semi modular EVGA B2 if they e-mail me back about stock and there is stock. Or might dish out a little bit extra and get the G1 http://techworld.co.nz/evga-0750-supernova-750w-modular-80plus-gold-p-48065.html because it is in stock. Thanks for all your help.

Sorry to bug but would this be a good option if I wanted to go single card
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=2606026

Unfortunately those Antec VP series aren't the best. They're a step up from your current model, but not worth it when you have Seasonic and XFX units priced with $10-15.

I could have sworn the 850W B2 was in stock last time I looked... that sucks. Hopefully they'll get them back in soon.

FYI, the G1 units aren't great either... better to wait for the B2 units to get back in stock.

This list is helpful for determining PSU quality: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
Try and stick to tier 1 or 2.