Is a 750w PSU enough for 7970 xfired with a 280x?

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Joe_Marangos

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Jul 30, 2013
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Hey there folks.
Just wondering if a 750w 80+ PSU would be enough for a Xfire between a 7970 and 280x. I have 6 120mm case fans, a saber tooth mother board, 8350 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, a 120gb SSD, 1 TB 7200rpm HDD and a DVD/DVD write drive. I also have a mechanical Keyboard, corsair Mx65 mouse and a turtle beach plugged in at all times.
Is 750w enough to cater for all this at full load? A PSU calculator calculated the max power consumption would be 730W. Whats your guys opinion? Do I need to upgrade?
Much thanks in advance!
 
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J

JohnPMyers

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Apr 7, 2010
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Technically it would run it, but it'd be a close call. I'd say your PSU calculator is pretty close.

The bad thing about running a PSU at/near max capacity is it lowers it's efficiency, which means it uses more than 2x the electricity from the wall to produce 750W than 375W. Hurts your power bill and puts off extra heat as well.

Over time, the capacitors in a PSU degrade, so what was once 750W, eventually drops to 725W...700W...etc. If the PSU has a year or 2 of use already on it, it may already be unable to power that setup considering how close to cap it is.

I strongly recommend an upgrade :)
 
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huilun02

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Feb 29, 2008
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That's quite a power hungry setup. Normally it would be safe with a Intel CPU and less fans, but in your case no one's going to give you insurance.

If your 750w PSU is one that you didn't personally hand pick, I strongly suggest getting a better 800-850w
 
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Joe_Marangos

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Jul 30, 2013
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The PSU is only 3 months old. Do you think it would be ok to buy the card and upgrade the PSU at a latter date?
 
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JohnPMyers

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Apr 7, 2010
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I'll say yes, as long as you don't use your DVD drive lol Seems silly but throwing a disc in it really could be the last watt the PSU had to offer. The PSU calcs i've seen usually overestimate there (which is a good thing) since most people rarely use them, and especially not during gaming.

Only thing is, if your CPU or either GPU are overclocked at all, even from the factory, it may crash the system. If not, i'll say go for it.
 
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