GTX 970 SLi - What PSU?

[educalifa]

So here's my predicament, I began to slowly gather parts for my build and so far I have:

CPU: 4790K
RAM: 16Gb(2133)
MoBo: AsRock Extreme6 Z97
HDD: 1Tb WD Black Caviar
SSD: SanDisk Extreme II 240GB
PSU: Seasonic SS660XP2 - 660W

I didn't buy a GPU 'cause I wanted to wait and see what this new series from Nvidia would be like and sure enough, I like what I see. Especially the GTX 970 since I can buy one now and save money to buy another down the track and try my hand at SLi.

On top of what I have listed it will also have the regular stuff like blu ray player, case fans and etc and I hope to add a decent CPU cooler at some stage too but I have no idea if the PSU I bought will be able to take it all.

Is this a case of rookie mistake or beginner's luck? Should I return the PSU and go for the 760W instead?

I know it's early days on that GPU but I'll appreciate any input you may have!

Thank you!

 

[Popa2caps]

Full system load should be ~500W with SLI 970 and oc'ed 4790K. You could try running on that 660W PSU and see if the system is stable. For an upgrade, in case 660W is not enough, I would skip ~750W and go straight to 850W to be on the safe side for any future upgrades (not like your system will be eating more power just because the PSU can supply more).

I think 750W is a bare minimum. Personally, I would also go with 850W or above.

Here's a power supply calculator for accessing one's power supply needs:

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

I was running I7-4770k a couple HDDs and SSDs each, plus a CD drive and 3-4 fans with basic intel liquid cooler(forget the actual manufacture); with the 970. It worked fine, the hardest load I put on it was running was running BF4 at full setting 21:9 ratio screen while also running a half dozen programs on 2 other monitors. This ended up push the CPU to 50-70% utilization and the GPU to ~ 96%. The system was very stable (i.e. no issue runs thus seval hour straight) with ***450W power supply***.
I just up graded to I7-5830k( an extra 50-60w demand) setup . So I looked up a couple different PSU calculators, thinking I would need a new one... To my surprise the high recommend minum wattage was 449W(with aggressive CPU OC) and an apsolute min of 388.
So recommend some go and waste their money when they already have 500W+ PSU is kind of a dick move. The guy wanted to start with one. you could recommend more power if you want to future proof the PSU now, to hand on over-clock CPU plus over clock SLI 970's; but unless you over clock them all it is unlike his current PSU couldn't handle them just fine. Me on the other hand, I am restricted to a mild over clock of one or the other.

Thank god someone has a brain, All these people say get more power you will need it. It's funny people don't understand TDP yet, yet they buy into 1000W PSU's and only use 400W, It's like buying a sports car and driving 30MPH WTF.

 

[Popa2caps]

So here's my predicament, I began to slowly gather parts for my build and so far I have:

CPU: 4790K
RAM: 16Gb(2133)
MoBo: AsRock Extreme6 Z97
HDD: 1Tb WD Black Caviar
SSD: SanDisk Extreme II 240GB
PSU: Seasonic SS660XP2 - 660W

I didn't buy a GPU 'cause I wanted to wait and see what this new series from Nvidia would be like and sure enough, I like what I see. Especially the GTX 970 since I can buy one now and save money to buy another down the track and try my hand at SLi.

On top of what I have listed it will also have the regular stuff like blu ray player, case fans and etc and I hope to add a decent CPU cooler at some stage too but I have no idea if the PSU I bought will be able to take it all.

Is this a case of rookie mistake or beginner's luck? Should I return the PSU and go for the 760W instead?

I know it's early days on that GPU but I'll appreciate any input you may have!

Thank you!

The Seasonic XP2 660 PSU is a great PSU for Nvidia 970's in SLI. you have to remember most people go by what there friends get, are because of some ad. Some people might really need a high watt power supply because they have AMD and went cheap and now pay more for it.

 

[dralwi]

ok then
my story is:
I have asus strix 970 sli with gigabyte odin pro 800 w
every thing is fine with booting and normal pc use till I play heavy games suddenly the pc restart with it self after 2-5 min gaming...
I used every solution with upgrade the bios and driver but still same problem even temp of two card below 60...
so ithink the problem is psu !!!
when I play with single card every thing smooth...
whats your idea guys!!!

 

[Popa2caps]

ok then
my story is:
I have asus strix 970 sli with gigabyte odin pro 800 w
every thing is fine with booting and normal pc use till I play heavy games suddenly the pc restart with it self after 2-5 min gaming...
I used every solution with upgrade the bios and driver but still same problem even temp of two card below 60...
so ithink the problem is psu !!!
when I play with single card every thing smooth...
whats your idea guys!!!

That PSU is made by Channel Well, they make all of E161451 Power Supplies for Gigabyte Odin Pro Series. Too me sounds like the PSU not giving the power or amps to the cards it needs. but i'll look around for ya
After looking up the PSU you named, I'm seeing that it has 4 +12v rails 2 at 18 Amps and 2 more at 25 Amps.

Now i have to find out what type of amps Your Asus 970's use in amps. I'm new to this so anyone could cut in and help me but i think i'm on the right track.

I'm guessing because the Asus cards have low power start but once it kicks in and shuts the PC down because of amps? Well anyway you have a total of 62A on 4 rails spilt, and newer Power supplies have 1 main rail with total amps. i'll do more digging


Updated, Back before ATX 12 2.0 there where PSU's like yours that had your +12 divied on rails, but if you use only 8 on a 18 amp rail you where left with amps you could not use, and overclockers didn't like that so then came out a single +12 rail PSU, Just like a pool the parts take what they need and nothing is wasted.


Please if anyone reads this, just stop me tell me i'm wrong i learned all of this in 5 mins. But if i'm right you will need a newer power supply


Link for info i was reading ..
http://www.silverstonetek.com/techtalk_cont.php?tid=wh_single12&area=en

 

[dralwi]

ok then
my story is:
I have asus strix 970 sli with gigabyte odin pro 800 w
every thing is fine with booting and normal pc use till I play heavy games suddenly the pc restart with it self after 2-5 min gaming...
I used every solution with upgrade the bios and driver but still same problem even temp of two card below 60...
so ithink the problem is psu !!!
when I play with single card every thing smooth...
whats your idea guys!!!

That PSU is made by Channel Well, they make all of E161451 Power Supplies for Gigabyte Odin Pro Series. Too me sounds like the PSU not giving the power or amps to the cards it needs. but i'll look around for ya
After looking up the PSU you named, I'm seeing that it has 4 +12v rails 2 at 18 Amps and 2 more at 25 Amps.

Now i have to find out what type of amps Your Asus 970's use in amps. I'm new to this so anyone could cut in and help me but i think i'm on the right track.

I'm guessing because the Asus cards have low power start but once it kicks in and shuts the PC down because of amps? Well anyway you have a total of 62A on 4 rails spilt, and newer Power supplies have 1 main rail with total amps. i'll do more digging


Updated, Back before ATX 12 2.0 there where PSU's like yours that had your +12 divied on rails, but if you use only 8 on a 18 amp rail you where left with amps you could not use, and overclockers didn't like that so then came out a single +12 rail PSU, Just like a pool the parts take what they need and nothing is wasted.


Please if anyone reads this, just stop me tell me i'm wrong i learned all of this in 5 mins. But if i'm right you will need a newer power supply


Link for info i was reading ..
http://www.silverstonetek.com/techtalk_cont.php?tid=wh_single12&area=en

so better to change my psu right....

 

[Totallysuperman]

Hi there,
I am typing this from a GTX 970 SLI PC. I have a 650w PSU. Only problem I get is that if i run AC5 on max graphics, my pc will shut down and not power on for an hour or two.

But apart from that (I'm serious), no problems as of yet.

 

[truegenius]

Full system load should be ~500W with SLI 970 and oc'ed 4790K. You could try running on that 660W PSU and see if the system is stable. For an upgrade, in case 660W is not enough, I would skip ~750W and go straight to 850W to be on the safe side for any future upgrades (not like your system will be eating more power just because the PSU can supply more).

I think 750W is a bare minimum. Personally, I would also go with 850W or above.

Here's a power supply calculator for accessing one's power supply needs:

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

I was running I7-4770k a couple HDDs and SSDs each, plus a CD drive and 3-4 fans with basic intel liquid cooler(forget the actual manufacture); with the 970. It worked fine, the hardest load I put on it was running was running BF4 at full setting 21:9 ratio screen while also running a half dozen programs on 2 other monitors. This ended up push the CPU to 50-70% utilization and the GPU to ~ 96%. The system was very stable (i.e. no issue runs thus seval hour straight) with ***450W power supply***.
I just up graded to I7-5830k( an extra 50-60w demand) setup . So I looked up a couple different PSU calculators, thinking I would need a new one... To my surprise the high recommend minum wattage was 449W(with aggressive CPU OC) and an apsolute min of 388.
So recommend some go and waste their money when they already have 500W+ PSU is kind of a dick move. The guy wanted to start with one. you could recommend more power if you want to future proof the PSU now, to hand on over-clock CPU plus over clock SLI 970's; but unless you over clock them all it is unlike his current PSU couldn't handle them just fine. Me on the other hand, I am restricted to a mild over clock of one or the other.

Thank god someone has a brain, All these people say get more power you will need it. It's funny people don't understand TDP yet, yet they buy into 1000W PSU's and only use 400W, It's like buying a sports car and driving 30MPH WTF.

i hope someone start using brain
960/970/980 are based on maxwell whose tdp is way higher than nvidia specified, indeed nvidia specified 190w for 980 is more like SDP means you will need to use powerful psu and specially tier1 psu because tdp of 980 is way higher than you think (depending on vendor)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-970-maxwell,3941-13.html

Hi there,
I am typing this from a GTX 970 SLI PC. I have a 650w PSU. Only problem I get is that if i run AC5 on max graphics, my pc will shut down and not power on for an hour or two.

But apart from that (I'm serious), no problems as of yet.

well it looks like above image will solve your problem
in short, upgrade you smps to atleast 750w tier 1

 

[philmoeslim1]

I have a antecedents 660 psu and I am running two 970 in sli....I have 3 2 tb hard drives and haswell 4770k and a Samsung ssd...it seems to be running them just fine. I know I am on the edge of maxing it out but it is running...I do not have an optical drive I am not sure how much that matters but it seems to do well I scored 15680 on fire strike

 

[Stratis123]

For SLI I recommend the EVGA supernova g2 850 w it is gold certificated and I thing that it will be ok.

 

[mab724]

So here's my predicament, I began to slowly gather parts for my build and so far I have:

CPU: 4790K
RAM: 16Gb(2133)
MoBo: AsRock Extreme6 Z97
HDD: 1Tb WD Black Caviar
SSD: SanDisk Extreme II 240GB
PSU: Seasonic SS660XP2 - 660W

I didn't buy a GPU 'cause I wanted to wait and see what this new series from Nvidia would be like and sure enough, I like what I see. Especially the GTX 970 since I can buy one now and save money to buy another down the track and try my hand at SLi.

On top of what I have listed it will also have the regular stuff like blu ray player, case fans and etc and I hope to add a decent CPU cooler at some stage too but I have no idea if the PSU I bought will be able to take it all.

Is this a case of rookie mistake or beginner's luck? Should I return the PSU and go for the 760W instead?

I know it's early days on that GPU but I'll appreciate any input you may have!

Thank you!

660W isn't enough for SLI. It won't be able to handle 2 of 'em, for one its more than fine, cooler and all other stuff included. I'd actually get a 850W PSU for SLI 770/780/970.

No doubt your current PSU is like the best ~600W PSU, Platinum rating making it even more promising for ANY single GPU. But IMHO, I'd not SLI those cards on anything below 750W.
The recommended minimum for a single card is 30A, and 2 of them will have atleast 60A recommended, your PSU has 55A.

Dude sorry for the very extremely late response, but you really don't understand how this works do you lol?
First letme say this, a GPU can't run above 75-80% or even under that, of its full amperage. The reason why is because, every time you OC, the TDP goes up, therefor increasing the power consumption of the GPU and requiring a better cooling system which requires a higher amount of wattage for that.
And not to mention the system would be so freaking hot, that the card wouldn't even be able to throttle itself anymore to cool down, which means, restarting pc 100 times so your GPU doesn't blow out... and possibly losing a fan on your GPU or it blowing smoke, making it completely useless now.
Also, the manufacturer's all tell you your requirements are about 100-200 watts higher than required, because they figure your running duel monitors, or say your running extra hard drives or all your system parts are overclocked lol.
If you really wanna know, you can SLI freaking quad titans, an i7 4770k, and 32gb of ram along with 10 case fans under 800watts, yet your telling this guy, he needs a 750watt PSU for a setup that requires around 600watts peek if not less with full optimization.
Again sorry if I'm rude, but I havn't even done computer research for the last 3months and I can still tell that you have no idea what your talking about, and if you don't know something, you shouldn't respond to answers about technical computer questions. I probably wont be on this page again or yet find it ever again, so to make it very clear, most the ppl on here saying he needs a 750-850watt PSU for the setup he described are all wrong. That is a total waste of an electric bill in the future even if its not by much. So if everyone could stop making stuff up, and if someone who doesn't work for geek squad and have no certs plz respond to these questions, it would be nice

 

[CarpeOminous]

So here's my predicament, I began to slowly gather parts for my build and so far I have:

CPU: 4790K
RAM: 16Gb(2133)
MoBo: AsRock Extreme6 Z97
HDD: 1Tb WD Black Caviar
SSD: SanDisk Extreme II 240GB
PSU: Seasonic SS660XP2 - 660W

I didn't buy a GPU 'cause I wanted to wait and see what this new series from Nvidia would be like and sure enough, I like what I see. Especially the GTX 970 since I can buy one now and save money to buy another down the track and try my hand at SLi.

On top of what I have listed it will also have the regular stuff like blu ray player, case fans and etc and I hope to add a decent CPU cooler at some stage too but I have no idea if the PSU I bought will be able to take it all.

Is this a case of rookie mistake or beginner's luck? Should I return the PSU and go for the 760W instead?

I know it's early days on that GPU but I'll appreciate any input you may have!

Thank you!

660W isn't enough for SLI. It won't be able to handle 2 of 'em, for one its more than fine, cooler and all other stuff included. I'd actually get a 850W PSU for SLI 770/780/970.

No doubt your current PSU is like the best ~600W PSU, Platinum rating making it even more promising for ANY single GPU. But IMHO, I'd not SLI those cards on anything below 750W.
The recommended minimum for a single card is 30A, and 2 of them will have atleast 60A recommended, your PSU has 55A.

Dude sorry for the very extremely late response, but you really don't understand how this works do you lol?
First letme say this, a GPU can't run above 75-80% or even under that, of its full amperage. The reason why is because, every time you OC, the TDP goes up, therefor increasing the power consumption of the GPU and requiring a better cooling system which requires a higher amount of wattage for that.
And not to mention the system would be so freaking hot, that the card wouldn't even be able to throttle itself anymore to cool down, which means, restarting pc 100 times so your GPU doesn't blow out... and possibly losing a fan on your GPU or it blowing smoke, making it completely useless now.
Also, the manufacturer's all tell you your requirements are about 100-200 watts higher than required, because they figure your running duel monitors, or say your running extra hard drives or all your system parts are overclocked lol.
If you really wanna know, you can SLI freaking quad titans, an i7 4770k, and 32gb of ram along with 10 case fans under 800watts, yet your telling this guy, he needs a 750watt PSU for a setup that requires around 600watts peek if not less with full optimization.
Again sorry if I'm rude, but I havn't even done computer research for the last 3months and I can still tell that you have no idea what your talking about, and if you don't know something, you shouldn't respond to answers about technical computer questions. I probably wont be on this page again or yet find it ever again, so to make it very clear, most the ppl on here saying he needs a 750-850watt PSU for the setup he described are all wrong. That is a total waste of an electric bill in the future even if its not by much. So if everyone could stop making stuff up, and if someone who doesn't work for geek squad and have no certs plz respond to these questions, it would be nice

I am currently running two Gigabyte gtx 970 G1s OC'd with a 4790k OC'd, on a Seasonic X-650. It has been working for several months. I am an electrical engineer. I have measured power consumption while the system was loaded as much as I could manage for 3-5 hours. Furmark burn in with CPU burner simultaneously. I never measured over 580 watts at the wall outlet. The system has been stable other the usual windows garbage. During gaming it never consumes that much. The Psu fan only runs part-time when gaming.

 

[educalifa]

Well, just a little update on this. Ended up getting a good deal on Seasonic XP760 and since it was less than the 660 I went with it... but as CarpeOminous stated above, the 660 would have been enough. I know it for a fact as someone I know is running that exact same setup (bought my old parts now that I upgraded to Skylake).

 

[Popa2caps]

I'm still using my Seasonic XP2 on a Dual Xeon build \o/ 2016