XFX R9 390 8GB with 650W PSU

Hello guys. The question is quite simple. They recommend a 750W PSU for the R9 390 in general. While I know that they put some kind of head room when recommending power supplies, I would like to be sure I'm will not push my PSU to it's grave. I have the EVGA Supernova GS 650W. It is a tier1 power supply but you never know......Should I go to buy the R9 390? or should I consider to get a bigger power supply or a weaker GPU ?

Case :Aerocool Aero 800 with 2x 120 Corsair AF series in front and 1 Aerocool 120mm at back
PSU: EVGA GS 650W
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z97 D3H
CPU: i5 4690k
RAM: 8 GB Corsair Vengeance
GPU: none
Storage : 1 Samsung SSD 120GB+1 WDB 1TB
 
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I would have no problem using that GS 650 with a 390, the system under full load would likely not use more than 500watts give or take a little depending on the rest of your specs and if your overclocked. It doesn't need 750watts even with an overclock, most company's drum up those power specs to make up for people who use crap power supplies that either dont do their rated wattage or have an insufficient 12v rail or something neither of which does your GS 650 suffer from.

firefoxx04

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Its hard to tell without knowing the rest of your system. An Intel system will probably be fine. a 200 watt AMD 5ghz system will not be.

That said, The 8GB card is intended for Crossfire users. You might consider the 4GB version to save some money. 8GB wont really get used by anything unless its 4k, and at that point the card is not strong enough to drive 4k decently by itself.
 

Dunlop0078

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I would have no problem using that GS 650 with a 390, the system under full load would likely not use more than 500watts give or take a little depending on the rest of your specs and if your overclocked. It doesn't need 750watts even with an overclock, most company's drum up those power specs to make up for people who use crap power supplies that either dont do their rated wattage or have an insufficient 12v rail or something neither of which does your GS 650 suffer from.
 
Solution
I have updated my first post with my PC specs ( sorry for that )

I was considering a GTX 970 as well, knowing that Nvidia will be a lot more efficient but there is a price gap plus the 970s do not have a back plate which is unacceptable in 2016.
 

Dunlop0078

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I dont believe they make a 4gb version of the 390. It only comes in 8gb.
 
Perfectly fine, even with OC CPU and GPU. R9 390 well-overclocked 350W max, CPU OC let's say 150W. Rest of system, on a majorly heavily overclocked system you're looking at 550W max draw. On a mildly or non-overclocked system, you're looking at 450W, and while gaming, something more like 400W load, which makes 650W perfectly fine. 750W/800W would be ideal for efficiency IMO, but 650W GS is more than enough.
 

RCFProd

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This is inaccurate though. Half of the GTX 970's do have a backplate, including my Asus Strix. Also Gigabyte G1, look:

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And the GTX 970's were released in 2014. They're typically not 2016 technology.
 

Dunlop0078

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What do you mean it doesn't allow you to overclock? You have the Gigabyte Z97 D3H correct? It most certainly does allow overcloking. You should be able to go futher than 4.0ghz the guys below got 4.4ghz at 1.2v in a 4770k on that board. Not all cpu's will overclok the same but you should be able to get more than 4.0ghz out of that 4690k.

http://www.modders-inc.com/gigabyte-z97-d3h-motherboard-review/4/
 


Sorry, I was mainly refering at that price range. I can get the XFX R9 390 at £240 while the GTX 970 Asus Strix and the Gigabyte G1 Gaming are both £280+. I'm am not prepared to pay that much extra for a back plate and 5-10 FPS when the R9 390 will still get me very good FPS on 1080p gaming.
 


I was looking at the same link before I bought the motherboard. My main concern is the weak power phase of the motherboard and not very good heat sinks on the VRMs.
 

Dunlop0078

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You dont really need a high end motherboard to get the most out of haswell chips. Here is a quote from the same article I linked in my other post.

"This means that overclocking is HEAVILY CPU lottery dependent rather than motherboard power delivery dependent. It will take more effort from motherboard manufacturers to create a Z97 motherboard incapable of delivering power for Haswell Air OC up to 4.5GHz than to create one that does not."
 


Thanks, it's good to know. I was on a very tight budget so this motherboard was great for what I needed. At the moment I see no reason to OC hence the games that I play are not even pushing my stock I5 4690k.....
 


the strix 970 is 284 quid but with both farcry primal & the division - if these 2 games interest you then it actually works out cheaper than that 390 youre looking at.
http://
 


I usually buy from Scan Computers in Bolton since I live on Middleton/ Manchester. They give The Division there as well but the problem is....I'm a married man and getting expensive things is a pain haha.
 
On overclocking:
1. Check for motherboard bios updates that might address overclocking.
But, DO NOT update just on speculation unless you see a fix that impacts you.

2. I have become a bit jaded on the subject of haswell cooling for overclocking.
How high you can OC is firstly determined by your luck in the bin lottery.
I had high expectations from the Devil's canyon parts and their better thermals.
I found out that the thermals really do not matter unless, perhaps, you are a competitive overclocker.
Haswell runs quite cool, that is, until you raise the voltage past 1.25v or so.
Once you go past 1.3v, then you really do need very good cooling to keep stress loads under say 85c.
But, the consensus is that voltages higher than 1.30 are not a good thing for 24/7 usage.
I have been unable to find any official Intel recommendation on what is a safe vcore limit.
 

RCFProd

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With the Strix you can also get the new Tomb Raider if you're lucky. Three games. But that's just for information because the R9 390 is also very good. It actually performs better than the GTX 970 in The Division and the new Tomb Raider.