Sapphire R9 Fury Power Requirements

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PClAus

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Apr 15, 2015
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Hi all,

So I recently bought the Sapphire R9 Fury Tri-x (Air).

After unlocking cores, the shaders are at 3840, and the card seems stable overall, 3D Mark runs without a hitch, and games run smoothly.

However, the few times I've tried overclocking, even a low overclock will cause the whole pc to reset randomly while playing high GPU usage games (like Ark).

Running the game with no overclock is fine.

I was hoping to potentially buy a second R9 Fury in the near future for Crossfire, but if my PSU can't even handle one OC Fury then it'll probably need to be replaced before I can consider that.

The PSU has a 'boost mode' where it adds an extra 100W of power, haven't tried running an overclock with this mode on yet but even if it works, it's a hassle to enable as its a button on the back of the PSU (my case sits on the floor under the desk), and turns off every time the computer is powered down.

So, is my PSU ok to handle R9 Fury crossfire (no OC), or even a single R9 Fury with OC, or should I look at replacing it before anything else?

Specs:
Intel i5-4670 (non-K) 3.5/3.8 Turbo
MSI B85-G43 Gaming Mobo
G.Skill Ripjaws 1600Mhz 16gb (2x8) DDR3
Sapphire R9 Fury Tri-x (Unlocked 3840 Shaders)
Samsung 840 120gb SSD
WD Blue 500gb HDD
NZXT Sentry 3 Fan Controller
Thermaltake Frio Silent 12 CPU Cooler
4x 120mm Blue LED Fans
Blue LED Strip
Corsair Carbide Spec-01 Mid Tower

PSU:
Thermaltake Evo Blue 2.0 850w Gold 80+
 
Solution
N3rdR4ge
i always run my gpu cables separately. a 6+2 connector is limited to 150w standard based on wire guage. a lot of power supplies split them to trick the card and use less wiring. splitting it off will still only output 150w.

switching to skylake wont be worth it for you. you will end up spending an extra $80 on ram and waste your old set which is perfectly good. also, you will spend more because it is the new thing out. get a haswell 4690k. skylake provides very little benefit over haswell. skylake will probably end up costing you an extra $150+ and give you maybe ~5% difference.

for two fury cards and overclocking you want a z97 board with two pcie 3.0 x16 lanes running in x8+x8 mode.
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r9 290 crossfire recommends a minimum of 950w not including overclocking. for overclocking you probably want 1050w minimum. also your psu is low quality and should be upgraded for a high power system like that. please refer to the tier list so you can purchase the right psu.

Power requirements for graphics cards:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

PSU Tier Lists:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html
https://community.newegg.com/eggxpert/computer_hardware/f/135081/t/45344.aspx

Decent psu contenders:
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-220gs1050v1
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-120g21300xr
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-x1050
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p11050befx
 
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Thanks for the reply,

Isn't the R9 Fury more efficient than the 290?

After the PSU would the next logical upgrade be CPU/mobo/ram (before crossfire)?

Edit: The current connection to the GPU is 2x8 pin, but they are on the same cable (shared). Is this OK or is it better to use 2 separate cables for each 8-pin connection?
 
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It's an older PSU design that uses some gimmicks to sell itself such as a 'turbo' mode to give additional power and a led fan that changes color from blue to red when in turbo mode. It also runs the fan after shutdown for a few seconds to cool the unit. They also gave it a fancy paint job. IMO, if they spent the money on better components inside the unit instead of all the fancy gimmick stuff it might be a better power supply. If you want to crossfire Fury's you'll need a 1KW or higher PSU from a much better company. The EVGA G2 and P2 series are some of the very best. Consider an upgrade.
 
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yes,
-r9 290 cf recommends 1000w.
-r9 fury cf recommends 950w.

the next logical upgrade would be cpu/mobo. Ram change wont give you much of a benefit at all. Unless you change to a platform with ddr4, I would not recommend changing your ram.

your current mobo may hold back the fury card slightly with the pcie 2.0 x16 lane.
if you'd like to stick with the non-overclocking route i'd recommend a xeon e3-1231 v3 and a h97 mobo. then you can keep your ram.
 
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Thanks for that.

Few more questions;

Currently running the GPU on a single PCIe cable that is split into 2 x 8 pin connectors. Would it make any difference to run a second PCIe cable for the second 8-pin slot, or is 1 split cable enough to provide the GPU power?

Is it worth getting the Skylake i5 6600k? I don't mind splashing a bit on DDR4 is it's going to future proof my build for a while.

When choosing a mobo, what kind of PCIe lane should I be looking for?
 
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i always run my gpu cables separately. a 6+2 connector is limited to 150w standard based on wire guage. a lot of power supplies split them to trick the card and use less wiring. splitting it off will still only output 150w.

switching to skylake wont be worth it for you. you will end up spending an extra $80 on ram and waste your old set which is perfectly good. also, you will spend more because it is the new thing out. get a haswell 4690k. skylake provides very little benefit over haswell. skylake will probably end up costing you an extra $150+ and give you maybe ~5% difference.

for two fury cards and overclocking you want a z97 board with two pcie 3.0 x16 lanes running in x8+x8 mode.
 
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Solution


I see, had a feeling that one cable wasn't feeding enough power to the card.

In terms of future proofing (dx12 and beyond) does skylake/DDR4 provide any advantages over haswell, or will it not matter? Like I said, I don't mind spending a bit extra if it's likely to last a few more years. Isn't skylake a bit better for overclocking as well?

Last questions, thanks again for the help so far.
 
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yea skylake is a little better with overclocking but again, not enough at all to warrant $150+. haswell will last just as long as skylake. there are only a few minor changes with skylake.


https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Z170-vs-Z97-What-is-the-Difference-636/


-some newer z170 boards have usb 3.1, but you can just buy an add in card for a z97 cheap.
-both z97 and z170 will have the same speed lanes for your graphics cards and wont effect gaming in any way.
-z170 has an upgrade to ddr4 which will provide almost no advantage in-game. your looking at a few fps.
-z170 has newer lanes for m.2 sata and sata express which would provide no advantage in-game. it will only let you take advantage of faster solid state drives. in my opinion they are too expensive and a standard ssd is very affordable and lightning fast as it is.
-z170 may have more usb 3.0 depending on the board.

some z170 boards can support standard ddr3 but that would take some research on your part. i wouldn't want to advise getting something i think would support it and have you end up needing to get the ram anyway.
 
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I know, I looked everywhere for a Hyper 212 after reading so many positive reviews, but it seems like they're all discontinued over here in Aus, and near impossible to find. 🙁
 
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noticed that, thats why i deleted it off my recommendation. im not seeing any decent air coolers for under 100.
 
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Managed to find a Hyper 212 Evo in the local pc parts trading group, he's offered it for $35 AU including postage.

Is it best to use the stock fan or is there another compatible fan which will have better airflow?
 
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