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PSU for GTX 760/770 or R9 280x (single and crossfire)

Tags:
  • Power Supplies
  • Graphics Cards
  • Components
  • R9
  • Crossfire
  • Gtx
  • 280x
  • MSI
Last response: in Components
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October 20, 2013 3:35:26 AM

Hi everybody,
I'm looking forward to play Battlefield 4 and I'm considering upgrades of my system. I'm really charmed by the Msi GTX 770, but also the Msi GTX 760 seems a good deal. However I'm actually concerned that my PSU can actually manage this upgrade. Could you please advice me?

If the answer, as I expect, is no, could you please suggest me some good PSU for less than 80/100$?
Please keep in mind that I live in Italy, so some exotic PSU could be difficult to find and somewhat more expensive (for computer componens 1$=1€, despite the official change). And I cannot order it from USA because there is a 22% import tax to pay :( 

These are my computer specs:

Intel Core i5-2500K
Asus P8P67 PRO Rev3.1
Corsair XMS3 DDR3 2x2Gb
Ati Sapphire HD 5770
Kingston SSD 64Gb
WesternDigital HD 300Gb
LC Power LC6550 Green Power 550W
LG Flatron W2253V 23'' 1920x1080

Thanks in advance!

More about : psu gtx 760 770 280x single crossfire

October 20, 2013 3:43:03 AM

Nvidia recommend's 650W PSU for 760,770 & 780.... I went through the same question and got a solution... can you strech to the corsair enthusiast series 750W? that is a great PSU and you would be able to easily overclock your entire system ;) 
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a c 152 ) Power supply
a c 94 U Graphics card
October 20, 2013 3:43:31 AM

It is an awkward time to buy an nVidia graphics card right now as we are expecting their pricing to change soon. You can get the R9 280x for much cheaper, same'ish' performance. Question is, how long before the price drop... could be this week, might not be until a month, but as it stands right now, a 770 doesn't make sense.

You will need a new power supply. Look for brands like XFX, Seasonic, Corsair, Antec
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a b ) Power supply
a c 86 U Graphics card
October 20, 2013 3:45:24 AM

Your current PSU is crap, so an upgrade is in order.

The XFX Core Edition 650W would be fine, but the 550W version would actually be sufficient. Don't be fooled by the numbers, these PSUs can deliver a lot more power than your LC Power unit.
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October 26, 2013 8:28:20 AM

jimthenagual said:
It is an awkward time to buy an nVidia graphics card right now as we are expecting their pricing to change soon. You can get the R9 280x for much cheaper, same'ish' performance. Question is, how long before the price drop... could be this week, might not be until a month, but as it stands right now, a 770 doesn't make sense.

You will need a new power supply. Look for brands like XFX, Seasonic, Corsair, Antec


After some thoughts, your post is actually convincing me to get an R9 280x, maybe the Toxic edition. However, as any good engineer, and of course as a great dreamer geek, I'd like to think about future upgrades of my system.

Such as:
1) A good gaming monitor with a 120-144Hz refresh rate. This would imply a further upgrade of the graphic card to use that extra frequency and I was thinking about another R9 280x in Crossfire (benchmarks seem promising).
2) A couple of SSDs in Raid 0

Taking these dreams into account, what PSU should I aim to?
Please note that these upgrades are not granted, so I'd consider a PSU which is actually good for those upgrades, but since it will definitely be overscaled for my current plan, I wouldn't overscale it also for the dreaming configuration.

The message is: if my dreams become true, I'd prefer not to change again the PSU, however I don't want to exaggerate just for a possible future configuration.

Thanks again for your help!
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a b ) Power supply
a c 86 U Graphics card
October 26, 2013 8:33:04 AM

1. Crossfire should work reasonably well there, as long as you're only using a single monitor. The frame pacing feature (which eliminates stuttering problems) is currently not supported on multiple monitors or in DirectX 9 games. But support for each should arrive within the next few months.

2. SSDs in RAID0 are superfluous for gaming or any regular usage. They only make a difference for heavy database or server usage. In any case, SSDs only use a few watts at most (and are idling at lower power draw most of the time, since they get their work done so fast).

For a pair of 280Xs I'd go with at least 750W, and 850W would be nice to have plenty of overclocking headroom.

Pcpartpicker doesn't have the greatest coverage for Italy, but here are a pair of suitable PSUs:

XFX Core Edition 750W

XFX XXX Edition 850W
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October 26, 2013 8:48:41 AM

Yes I'm not planning to play games in a multimonitor configuration, however I'd keep my current monitor as a side monitor, will it have an impact on gaming performance?

I'm figuring out that XFX is one of the best brand with these wattage, isn't it? Is a Bronze certification enough for my case?

What about a R9 280x Toxic Crossfire? Will it require much more power?

Could you tell me something more about the huge debate between single and multi rail PSUs? I see that both of your suggestion are single rail and I'm curious to know if there is a particular reason :D 

Thanks again!
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Best solution

a b ) Power supply
a c 86 U Graphics card
October 26, 2013 9:14:18 AM

As long as the second monitor is just showing your desktop, browser etc. it won't really matter for gaming performance.

All XFX power supplies are made by Seasonic (one of the most reliable manufacturers around), and they tend to have very competitive pricing. So yeah, they get recommended a lot. 80 Plus Bronze is fine. You can pay more to get Silver, Gold, Platinum etc. but the difference isn't all that noticeable for a regular gaming system.

The 850W PSU would be plenty no matter what version of the 280X you pick. It has room for overclocking it too, though you most likely won't need to.

Single rail vs. multi rail is a pointless religious war started, AFAIK, by excessive marketing efforts. Jonnyguru, one of the top PSU reviewers, went kinda ballistic about it in one review of an XFX PSU. Turns out they sell good PSUs at good prices, but they tend to go overboard on the marketing fluff. Anyhow, single or multi rail doesn't really matter as long as you pick a well-design unit.
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