HD 4870 PSU

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1) That's a good suggestion but I've yet to see the specs from ATI or Sapphire, HIS, or Visiontek where they give more info than:

500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)
Click to expand...
 
And keep in mind if you ever want to crossfire 2 4870's later on you'll need a 650W power supply with 4 6-pin PCI-E connectors.
 
When you hook up the adapter are you connecting it to the rail that supplies your CPU? or your motherboard? would you end up connecting it to the rail that supplies your hard drives and if so would it overload that rail leading to possible drive failure and data loss? which molex is connected to which rail? and how do you determine which rail has enough current left over to run the adapter?

Your always better off having enough connectors rather than using adapters. There is a reason the PSU was only built with one.
 

I would totally agree with this if the card really drew the full amount of power from both PEG connectors, but the TDP is only 160W. 75W from the PCIe slot + 150W from the two PEG connectors = 225W, so there's plenty of room to spare. I bet an adapter would work.

But if you're overclocking and you want to be absolutely sure your PSU is strong enough a Corsair VX550 would be a good choice.
 
I doubt it. Cooler master hides the importan info, but that PSU has 2 16 amp 12v rails. From what I have heard it's short on 12v power and in this PSU's case don't expect that to equal 32 amps. It may be a total of 22 amps, or somewhere in between.

If it had been the Antec Earthwatts 500W (on sale $50), with a max combined 12v of 34 amps, and dual PCI-e power connectors, I'd say you would be fine. Your's I guess is probably not. (but that's just my opinion). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007

That sucker consumes as much as 8800GT SLI. I'd probably buy one with 40+ amps if it were me.
 
I just went through and looked at the detailed specs of the 4870 from every manufacturer and not one of them gave a amp rating for the card. In fact a couple actually had the specs for the 4850 under the 4870 like a 450w PSU with 1 6-pin PCI-E connector. As pauldh wrote you would be much better off with a new PSU, don't take a chance on not having enough power.
 
Hmm that specific Cooler Master model does appear to be a bit on the shady side. That earthwatts EA500 for $50 looks like a sweet deal.

@ausch30: 160W / 12V = 13.3333333...3333333andsoonandsoforth Amps :)
But you probably already knew this...were you looking for the 12V amp recommendation for the entire system? Because that will vary greatly depending on the system.
 


Usually they post a minimum total amp rating for the system using a particular card and yes I agree that it varies greatly depending on the system. You could be running a E2180 at stock or an overclocked QX9770 and a 4870 and the total amp ratings don't tell you how much you will actually need for the card but I was just surprised at the lack of information and the wrong information on the manufacturers sites. They spend so much time, effort and money trying to sell the card they forget to tell you what can actually run the card.
 
u would probably be fine with ur current psu + n adapter bcoz 160W is da max draw.......but jus 2 b on the safe side i think u should get a new psu with 2 connector......u don wanna burn ur system coz it is risky using a adaptor. better to take precaution rather than risk toasting everything
 
I have also been looking at the 4870. At one review site(don't remember where), they recommended 32a on the 12v rails.

On the side of your psu should be a spec diagram. Look for the amps on the 12v rails, and sum them up. If that is not there, see if you can deduce the total watts on the 12v rails, and divide by 12. Can you post a pic of the unit?

The cards will come with an adapter which should be ok, assuming that the psu is strong enough.

If in doubt, it's time to get a quality psu.
 



That is not exactly the case. What I think is that you need 2 6pin ONLY if your MB is PCI-E 1.0

If you have PCI-E 2.0 I think 1 6pin will do you ok

Here are the calculations behind these thoughts. 4870 stated power draw is 180W

PCI-E 1.0 = 75W + 6pin 75W + 6pin 75W = 225 W (enough) (only 1 6pin = 150 - not enough)
PCI-E 2.0 = 150 + 6pin 75W = 225W (enough)

I think even if you OC you wont get over 225W. But if you are extreme OC you better get PCI-E 2.0 MB as you would be able to feed that baby with 300W.

Just my 2 c
 

Might be, but I think it depends on how the architecture is designed. If the card is designed to draw power from the second connecter and it's not there, then you'll run into problems even if there's more power available from the PCI slot.
 

As pauldh mentioned, most of the time the maximum combined +12V output is considerably less than the sum of the individual +12V rails. That's because most PSUs don't really have multiple +12V rails, but one big one split up into a few smaller ones by OCP.

Edit: qwen, that PSU really looks like it might not cut it. I really recommend you invest in something along the lines of the Antec earthwatts EA500.
 
OOPS! the link to the specs did not have the info, but I found it under the features tab. Go figure.

The psu is marginal. It will likely work, but over time a poor quality unit could deteriorate.
The unit is likely a tier 5(not recommended) unit on this list:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088

You do not have any other unusual power hungry parts.
You could try it, and just keep a lookout for flaky performance.

For the investment you will be making in a fine vga card, I think it would be prudent to pick a tier3 or better unit from the list.
 
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