Question Will RX580 Nitro+ 8gb work with Corsair VS450 psu?

Jun 12, 2018
4
0
10
I got a good deal on an RX580 and I'm wondering if my VS450 is capable of powering it atleast for a short period of time(until I save up enough for a better PSU).
These are my full system specs:

CPU- Ryzen 3 2200g(stock cooler)
RAM- 1x8gb 2400mhz
STORAGE- 2x2TB HDD
Cooling- 6x120mm LED Fans
KB- Redragon Kala K557
Mouse- Steelseries Rival300

I've tried several psu calculators and mostly come up with around 350W needed but the box on GPU says 500W recommended. Thank you! =)
 
No. You need a VERY GOOD 650w unit. Technically the manufacturers recommend 550w, but that was at release time of that card model. Since then we've learned that these cards can easily spike higher than 550w and trip the protections. Plus, the VS series power supplies are poor quality in any case. Look to much better models if you want to run a top shelf graphics card. Click the spoiler for recommended models.

Let's start with the biggest misconception out there, which is that if a unit has high watts it will be ok or is good. No. Just, no.

There are plenty of 750-1000w units out there that I wouldn't trust to power a light bulb and might in fact be more dangerous due to their supposedly high capacity due to poor or non-existent protections inside the unit.

If the platform isn't good to begin with, how many watts or amps it says it can support is irrelevant.

Higher 80plus certification doesn't mean anything, UNLESS it's on an already known to be high quality PSU platform. For example, a Seasonic Prime platinum unit is going to be a better product than a Seasonic Prime Gold unit, because we already know the Prime platform is very good, and platinum efficiency along with it shows there are some improvements internally to account for the higher efficiency.

In a case like that, it might be worth it. It's likely the unit will create less heat, it will probably have better performance in regard to ripple, noise and voltage regulation. It might shave a few pennies, or dollars, off the electric bill over the course of a year.

Other than that, it is not going to perform any better than the same platform with Gold efficiency. On the other hand, just because a unit has Titanium 80plus ratings doesn't mean the unit is any good at all. For example, there are Raidmax units with Titanium efficiency and I wouldn't trust one of those to power a light bulb. There are a lot of units like this out there.

If the platform isn't good to begin with, whether or not it has an 80plus certification or not is irrelevant.

Whatever you do, don't EVER buy a power supply based on whether it has RGB or lighting, or looks like it might be a quality unit. Some of the biggest hunks of junk out there look just as good as a Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium, but I assure you, they are not. So far as I've seen there are really no excellent units out there that have RGB built in. Maybe one or two models, but rest assured you'll be be paying for the lighting, not for the quality of the power supply.

I don't know what country you reside in, and I know that sometimes it's hard to come by good units in some regions, but when possible, when it comes time to get that PSU, I'd stick to the following if you can.

Seasonic. Seasonic isn't just a brand, they are a PSU manufacturer, unlike many of the PSU brands you see they make their own power supply platforms AND a great many of the very good PSU models out there from other brands like Antec, Corsair and older XFX are made by Seasonic.

Just about anything made by Seasonic is good quality for the most part. There are really no bad Seasonic units and only a very few that are even somewhat mediocre. They do make a few less-good quality OEM style units, but mostly those are not going to be units you come across at most vendors, and they are still not bad. Also, the S12II and M12II 520 and 620w units are older, group regulated models. At one time they were among the best units you could buy. Now, they are outdated and not as good as almost any other Seasonic models. They are however still better than a LOT of newer designs by other manufacturers.

The Seasonic 520w and 620w S12II/M12II units CAN be used on newer Intel platforms, if you turn off C6/C7 in the bios, but I'd really recommend a newer platform whenever possible. Prices are usually pretty good on those though, so sometimes it's worth accepting the lack of DC-DC on the internal platform. Higher capacity versions of the High current gamer are not based on that platform, so they are fine. Those being the 750w and higher versions.

Most common currently, in order of preference, would be the Seasonic Focus series, then Focus plus, then Prime, then Prime ultra. It's worth mentioning that there are generally Gold, Platinum and Titanium versions within each, or most, of those series, but that does not necessarily mean that a Focus plus Platinum is necessarily better than a Prime Gold. It only means that it scored better in the 80plus efficiency testing, not that the platform is better.

Again, don't let yourself get tangled up in the idea that a higher 80plus rating specifically means that it is a better unit than another one with a lower rating, unless you know that it is a good platform from the start. All these Focus and Prime units are pretty good so you can somewhat focus on the 80plus rating when deciding which of them to choose.

Super Flower Super Flower is another PSU manufacturer. They also make most of the good units sold by EVGA like the G2, G3, P2 and T2 models.

Super Flower doesn't have a very broad availability for the units with their own brand name on them, and are not available in a lot of countries but for those where there is availability you want to look at the Leadex and Leadex II models. The Golden green platform is fairly decent too but is getting rather long in the tooth as a platform AND I've seen some reviews indicating a few shortcomings on units based on this platform.

Even so, it's a great deal better than a lot of other platforms out there so you could certainly do worse than a Golden green model. Units based on the Leadex and Leadex II platforms are much better though.

Corsair. The CX and CXm units are ok as a budget option, but I do not recommend pairing them with gaming cards. The newer 2017 models of CX and CXm are better than the older ones, but still not what we'd call terrific, so if it specifically says 2017 model, or it has a capacity other than an even 100, like 550w, 650w, 750w, etc., then it's likely at least better than those older ones. Aside from that, any of the TX, RMx, RMi, HX, HXi, AX or AXi units are good. Those are listed from best to worst, with the best being the AX and AXi units.

Antec. The True power classic units are made by Seasonic, and are very good, but are not modular. The High current gamer 520w and 620w, or any other PSU you see on the market that is 520w or 620w, are also made by Seasonic, based on the S12II and M12II platform for modern versions, and are pretty good units but again they are an older platform that is group regulated so if you go with a Haswell or newer Intel configuration you will want to avoid those because they do not support the C6/C7 Intel low power states.

The Antec High current gamer 750w and 850w units are very good and are not the older design, which came in 520w and 620w capacities and were good for back then but again, are an aging Seasonic platform that is not the best choice most of the time these days. Occasionally, these older units MIGHT be the best unit available and you could do worse than one of them, but a newer DC-DC platform is desirable when possible if it doesn't mean sacrificing quality elsewhere in the platform. There are however older and newer HCG models, so exact model number will likely be a factor if choosing one of these however both the older models and the newer models are good.

Antec Edge units are ok too, but reviews indicate that they have noisy fan profiles. I'd only choose this model if it is on sale or the aesthetics match up with your color scheme or design. Still a good power supply but maybe a little aggressive on the fan profile. This may have been cured on newer Edge models so reading professional tear down reviews is still the best idea.

Antec Earthwatts Gold units are very good also.

BeQuiet. BeQuiet does have a few decent models, BUT, you must be VERY selective about which of their models you put your trust in. From model to model their are huge differences in both quality and performance, even with the same series. If you cannot find a review for a BeQuiet unit on HardOCP, JonnyGuru or Tom's hardware that SPECIFICALLY says it is a very good unit, and does not have any significant issues in the "cons" category, I would avoid it. In fact, I'd probably avoid it anyhow unless there is a very great sale on one that has good reviews, because their units are generally more expensive than MUCH better units from Antec, Seasonic, EVGA and Corsair.

Super Flower. They are like Seasonic and they make power supplies for a variety of other companies, like EVGA. Super Flower units are usually pretty good. I'd stick to the Leadex, Leadex II and Golden Green models.

EVGA. They have BOTH good and not very good models.

Not very good are the W1, N1, B1, B3 (All models except the 650w model), BQ, BR, BT and G1 NEX models.

Good models are the B2, B3 650w, G2, G2L, G3, GQ, P2 and T2 models.

FSP. They used to be very mediocre, and are a PSU manufacturer like Seasonic and Super Flower, although not as well trusted based on historical performance. Currently the FSP Hydro G and Hydro X units are pretty good.

I would avoid Thermaltake and Cooler Master. They do have a few good units, but most of the models they sell are either poor or mediocre, and the ones they have that ARE good are usually way overpriced.

This is just ONE example of why I say that. Very new and modern CM unit. One of the worst scores ever seen on JonnyGuru for a well known brand name product. Doesn't look to be much better than a Raidmax unit. Sad.


And most of the models I have linked to the reviews of at the following link are at least good, with most of them being fantastic.


Certainly there ARE some good units out there that you won't see above among those I've listed, but they are few and far between, much as a hidden nugget of gold you find in a crevice among otherwise ordinary rocks and don't EVER assume a unit is good just because of the brand.

If you cannot find an IN DEPTH, REPUTABLE review on Tom's hardware, JonnyGuru, HardOCP, Hardware secrets (Old reviews by Gabe Torres), Kitguru (Only Aris reviews), TechPowerUP, SilentPC crew or a similar site that does much more than simply a review of the unboxing and basic tests that don't include reliable results for ripple, noise, voltage regulation and a complete teardown of the unit including identification of the internal platform, then the unit is a big fat question mark.

I recommend not trusting such units as companies generally always send out review samples of any unit they feel is going to get a good review, and don't send them out if they know they are going to get hammered by the reviewer. No review usually equals poor quality. Usually.

Other models that should never be trusted OR USED AT ALL, under any circumstances, include A-Top, AK Power, Alpine, Apevia, Apex (Supercase/Allied), Artic, Ace, Aerocool (There might be one model worth using, but I'd still avoid them.), Aspire (Turbocase), Atadc, Atrix, Broadway com corp, Chieftech, Circle, CIT, Coolmax, Deer, Diablotek, Dynapower, Dynex, Eagletech, Enlight, Eurotech, Evo labs, EZ cool, Feedtek, Foxconn, G7, HEC/Compucase Orion, HEDY, High power, iBall, iStar computer co., Jeantec, JPac, Just PC, Kolink, LC Power, Linkworld electronics, Logisys, Macron, MSI, NmediaPC, Norwood Micro (CompUSA), Okia, Powercool, Powmax, Pulsepower, Q-tec, Raidmax, RaveRocketfish, Segotep, SFC, Sharkoon, Shuttle, Skyhawk, Spire, Startech, Storm, Sumvision, Tesla, Trust, Ultra, Wintech, Winpower, Xilence (Until I see a reputable review of a model showing different), xTreme (Cyberpower), Youngbear and Zebronics.
 

Claudiu324

Reputable
Mar 6, 2015
15
0
4,510
Yes i have a superflower 450w gold edition 4 years old and still rocks quite and no problems with my rx 580 nitro+ , and ryzen 5 1600x 16gb ram ddr4 3000 mhz max consumption of system while gaming is around 300-350w in games like pubg, bf 5 gta 5 etc... plus i have 3 fans with rgb and mouse and keybord rgb too. In games like league of legends the card is drawing 50-70W on max settings 1080p and fans dont even start .
 

tmehrl

Honorable
Aug 16, 2017
8
1
10,515
I am using a 400W platinum supply to run a 2550K @ 4.5 GHz and overclocked rx 580 (1450GHz GPU, 2175 GHz DDR5) with no problem. Power meter shows max draw from outlet is about 350W during heavy gaming, so my 400W supply is only providing about 300W to the system (assuming 90% efficiency at 75% load).

Voltmeter at the PCIe power wires show the 12 volt line drops about 0.25 volt under full load, so I feel that the supply is doing the job.
 
You can tell that to Rogue leader, who also has an RX 580 and did have a 550w Seasonic Prime Titanium ultra power supply, in perfectly good condition, nothing wrong with it at all, but had to upgrade to the same unit in a 650w model because the RX 580 was tripping the protections. And I've seen five or six other users with identical problems over the last half year or so. Upgrading to the 650w unit completely resolved the issue and I assume the 550w is being used elsewhere but it's worth emphasizing that the problem was not due to anything being "wrong" with the power supply.

These cards simply can spike far beyond what the original test results indicate whether due to aging or changes in the driver configuration, I assure you it happens. The VERY least I'd go with on an RX 580 is a VERY good 550w unit, and you would be wise to instead give yourself a little breathing room and go with a 650w unit.

Go with what you think but if you have issues don't say you weren't warned ahead of time.
 

TJ Hooker

Titan
Ambassador
You can tell that to Rogue leader, who also has an RX 580 and did have a 550w Seasonic Prime Titanium ultra power supply, in perfectly good condition, nothing wrong with it at all, but had to upgrade to the same unit in a 650w model because the RX 580 was tripping the protections.
Err, he had a 650W to start and had to upgrade to a 750W, and it was a Vega 64 rather than an RX 580. https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...nt-cpu-not-set-up-right.3459723/post-20924614
 
Last edited:

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
By itself, the Sapphire Nitro+ Rx580 is quite capable of pulling a consistent @ 240w before any user OC. My i7-3770K is pulling @ 200w OC. The motherboard, ram, drives etc add upto @ 100w. That's somewhere around 550w before any spikes, and if you think amd cards don't spike, better go back to the history lessons. AMD cards have been known to spike over 100w higher than standard consumption.

The cards, as shown, will work on a very good 400w psu, just like marines can play basketball in combat boots. But sometimes you really just need the right tools for the job and that includes a good 550w for a stock system or better yet a 650w if there's any OC involved.

Oh, and heavy gaming only runs about 70% loads overall, so if that 70% is 75% of the psu, you'd be very strongly advised never to try a full pc torture test or guaranteed you'll overdrive that tiny 400w psu and you'll get to see exactly what happens when an AMD card spikes an undersized power supply.
 
Last edited:

TJ Hooker

Titan
Ambassador
@Karadjgne how are you measuring power? My total system power consumption with a 6700K @4.6GHz + 580 Nito+ (stock) only draws ~340W at the wall while running P95 (non-AVX) + Unigine Valley, as measured by a kill-a-watt. Admittedly I'm using the 1340 MHz core clock BIOS rather than the 1411 MHz one, but that shouldn't make a huge difference.
 
Last edited:
I stand corrected, it was a Vega 64. However, I have seen a handful of users with RX 580s also tripping their protections on pretty decent 550w units. Honestly I can't tell you the exact reason, especially since a few of us have seen a fairly high failure rate on RX 580s this year for a while there. The Tom's hardware review of the RX 580 shows it pulling 224w under gaming loads, closer to 240w under full load conditions.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-rx-580-review,5020-6.html


And we know, historically, that pretty much all of these cards have a tendency to increase their power demand over time from changes to drivers. I don't think I've seen a generation yet where that didn't happen to some degree. Amd and pretty much all of the card manufacturers recommend a minimum of a 500w unit for these cards. RealHardTechX recommends a minimum of a 550w. I guess it's really a matter of how loud do you want the PSU to be and how long do you want it to last?
 
If your RAM, Mobo, hdds are pulling 100W on their own, you've got a problem. Also, 240W for a stock RX580 seems a bit high. I agree, I think you've got a problem with your power draw measurement.

My RX480 @ 1305MHz & manual voltage curve draws 125W max as reported by GPUz & AMD Overlay.

At least we're all in agreement that a good quality 550W PSU is recommended. And since you can get nice 80+ gold units like the Seasonic Focus+ for $50, I see little reason to risk it.
 
Last edited:
I don't think those numbers are unrealistic at all based on the reviews AND the fact that changes in firmware and drivers have likely increased those figures since release, because they pretty much always do especially on AMD cards and that's NOT including any spikes that go beyond normal parameters. And that ABSOLUTELY happens. And when it does, if you have a borderline sufficient capacity power supply, you are probably going to trip protections or on a very mediocre unit, maybe even cause damage or failure if you didn't account for a reasonable amount of overhead in your PSU selection.

15obcpw.jpg
 

TJ Hooker

Titan
Ambassador
My RX480 @ 1305MHz & manual voltage curve draws 125W max as reported by GPUz & AMD Overlay.
I don't trust software measurement. It seems either it's inaccurate in general or it's only looking at GPU core power or something rather than total card power draw. Testing with my kill a watt meter and comparing to what GPU-Z said, actual power draw was significantly higher.
 

TJ Hooker

Titan
Ambassador
Kill-a-Watt measures SYSTEM power, with PSU inefficiencies included though. Not an apples to apples comparison. Also, GPUz will read both the core power and the core+vram (this is the one I use).
I tested my system with and without the graphics card and took the delta. And I have a 80+ Gold PSU, so efficiency should be around 90%. The difference between kill-a-watt and GPU-Z was much greater than that. I can't remember exactly anymore, but I want to say that the power delta measured at the wall was at least 50% higher than GPU-Z was reporting.

You can easily see an example of this by reverting your card to stock settings and then compare what GPU-Z says to the values listed in reviews that use dedicated power measurement hardware. I'd be very surprised if they're the same. I'm curious now so I'll double check when I get home, but I seem to remember GPU-Z saying my 580 Nitro draws ~150W, whereas Tom's measured it drawing 210 W while gaming (using the "silent" BIOS).
 
This indeed sounds like a fun experiment. However, my free time is limited because...kids. IF, you end up testing again, will you be comparing system idle power draw to system GPU-load power draw? Does the GPU benchmark actually load/ramp up your CPU off idle frequency? Might need to pull down the CPU multiplier to keep it at idle frequency regardless.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TJ Hooker
Besides which, SYSTEM power draw is the ONLY thing anybody is concerned with, including any inefficiencies that exist, because THAT is what is going to determine what size unit and how much headroom potentially you want to have. Nobody really cares how much the graphics card pulls by itself, because you're never going to be ONLY using that anyhow. What the whole system needs in terms of ALL hardware AND factoring in potential wasted BUT pulled from the socket power, as well as some overhead for safety and landing in the percentage of capacity that allows the unit to run with the least amount of ripple and voltage fluctuation, is.

Nobody ever said, at least nobody with a brain, my graphics card only pulls 140w so that's what I need. Instead they said the system pulls 350w from the wall so I actually want a 550-650w unit so I land in the 50-60% of capacity zone at full load. At worst, you'd want to target a minimum of 40% overhead, if it was totally necessary to do so.
 
Nobody ever said, at least nobody with a brain, my graphics card only pulls 140w so that's what I need.
Nobody here ever said that. We're adding up component power draw to estimate this particular/unique system's power draw.

I was offering my particular GPU's power draw as an example of what you can achieve by taking things into your own hands. You can do a lot to "fit" a system's power consumption into whatever envelope you want. Undervolt your CPU and/or GPU at stock frequencies. Underclock one or both components at even lower voltages. Etc etc.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: TJ Hooker

King_V

Illustrious
Ambassador
Ran an R9 285 (190W) since January 2015 on a stock Dell 460W PSU (385W on the 12V rail), and moved it to a different Dell machine, same rated PSU, in February 2018. Have since upgraded that second Dell machine to an RX 580 (185W), running off the same power supply. CPU is a Skylake i5. Dell specifically states these systems can handle up to a 225W rated GPU. However, the RX 580 I have is a PowerColor Red Dragon (requires only a single 8-pin connector), which does not push the clocks as high as the Sapphire Nitro+ does.

No problems whatsoever at all.

Now the Nitro+ pushes higher clocks, and this will increase power draw, naturally. Further, DB's link shows that under torture, it pulls about 238W.

Then again, how often is the card going to hit those peaks unless you're running a continuous torture test?

I'm given to understand that the VS series is NOT a high-quality unit. I would say normally that a 450W or higher OF GOOD QUALITY would be fine. I'd personally recommend 550W if you're going to push the card hard (ie: games that the card struggle with, or higher resolutions/refresh rates than the card can easily handle).

While you've still got the old PSU, I'd say take it easy and keep it to simple stuff until you get a new PSU.
 
Also, worth mentioning is the fact, as we always say, that just because you CAN do something, doesn't necessarily mean you SHOULD. If you have a system that is technically only actually pulling 445w and you have a 450w power supply, then technically you are within the capacity capabilities of that unit (IF it is a unit that can actually sustain that capacity) but you are also probably into a use case where you are straining the unit's performance which is going to result in elevated levels of ripple, noise and potentially widen any voltage regulation fluctuations.

All of that might be ok, on the surface, but it might also be shortening the life of your motherboard, graphics card and other hardware as all of those things tend to take a toll on capacitor life. Even if it doesn't, because perhaps you have an outstanding unit that is still however toeing the line, it's an unnecessary risk when the cost of a power supply with good quality and an acceptable amount of headroom is usually only a fraction of the cost of the rest of the hardware.

It's like running a modern vehicle on leaded gas or pure alcohol. Sure, it will combust, and it will run, for a while.
 
System power draw taken on my Kill-a-Watt meter.

My system:
i5-3570K 4.0GHz/1.1V
RX480 8GB 1305MHz/1.02V (2000MHz/0.92V VRAM) - Boost freq. of a reference RX580 is 1340MHz.
EVGA G2 550W (90% efficient @ 250W)
120mm AIO (pump)
4x120mm fans @ 1200-1500rpm
Crucial BX100 500GB
Samsung Spinpoint F4 2TB
PCIex1 WiFi adapter

Max observed wattage on the meter:
Prime95 (large FFTs) only = 140W
Prime95 + FurMark = 260W
Shadow of the Tomb Raider = 260W
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (w/ Auto GPU voltages @1305MHz) = 290W

Max system power draw omitting PSU efficiency losses = 260W*0.9 = 235W

GPU idle power draw is apparently ~20W.
GPUz reports GPU only power draw in FurMark as 105W. That's pretty close to the delta in power draw, so GPUz may be up to 20W shy of the actual GPU power draw.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: TJ Hooker

TJ Hooker

Titan
Ambassador
Very nice, seems that GPU-Z may be closer than I remembered. Out of curiosity, what version of GPU-Z are you using that it gives you total GPU core+VRAM power together? Or are you just adding up the various individual power draws (in the latest version there's core-only, VDDC, and VDDCI power draws listed)?
 
Last edited: