Is 850W psu enough for an OC'd 5970?

[b9er]

I have vista 64
i7 920 OC'd to 3.6ghz
2 sata drives
6gb ram
dvd player/burner
On Board sound card
and a ASUS ATI Radeon 5970

Have an 850W PSU

But I'm trying to OC the Radeon and I get lock ups pretty bad and I'm wondering if my PSU is not big enough to handle all that other stuff plus an OC'd 5970

 

[JofaMang]

I theory you should be fine, i believe the recommended PSU for a single 5970 is 650w, and 850w for 5970x2. Unless, you actually have a piss-poor non-branded PSU you picked up for $30 at a flea market, which I doubt since you have invested in other valuable parts. I have to assume you know better than that, heh.

Perhaps you have a lower binned 5970 that doesn't take well to OC?
Perhaps it is a heat issue? GPU-Z is a free download for easy temp monitoring.
Have you installed the newest drivers from ATI, or running off the drivers included with the card?

Barring all other problems, if it is performing well at stock, but fails with OC, getting an RMA on the card could be problematic short of lieing, but might be the best option if OC'ing the card is essential to you.

 

[b9er]

I have the 10.1 catalyst installed, but I look at the driver version and what ATI has on their site it seems like its old drivers. November 11th drivers? 8.66 hemlock beta5.. doesn't sound good. I'm not sure where else I could find updated drivers since that is what is listed on ATIs site. I'm sure its a heat problem more than anything. Just wanted to rule that one out.

 

[JofaMang]

The newest driver set for everyone else may not have included the 5970. perhaps reverting to the best 5970 driver they offer will alleviate the issues. Do a heat test first though, as that is the easiest problem to pinpoint or rule out.

 

[OvrClkr]

The lockups have nothing to do with the PSU unless it is faulty which I doubt, the 5970 is having driver issues since it came out...

 

[b9er]

Ok. I'll work on keeping it cool maybe that will help with my problems, but if it's driver issues I suppose it doesn't matter how cool I keep it i'll still get crashes

 

[OvrClkr]

Just be on the lookout for any new "hotfix" that AMD releases and you should be good...you can try and revert to a previous driver in the meantime just like jofamang suggested =)