Should I run an HD 7950 on a 500W Rosewill?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
penn919

penn919

Distinguished
Aug 24, 2010
293
5
18,865
Hey guys, I recently stumbled across a really good deal on a used power color HD 7950 as well as a couple R9 270s (XFX and HIS). I would really like to install the 7950 into my primary system for gaming, but the problem is that I've only got a 500W Rosewill Stallion installed which only has 2 12v rails with about 15 amps on each. I asked one person on these forums and he advised against it because my PSU is poor quality; however, I did research and found out that the 7950 only has a power draw of 153 Wats during full load. That should work out to about 12.75 amps right? doesn't that mean my PSU should be able to power it?

Link to the Power Consumption test:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207-9.html

If I can't install the 7950, can I at least install one of the R9 270s?
http://goo.gl/paJMLV
http://goo.gl/oiRRzm
 
Solution
Z
Its should be able to power it, I've scene people power 780's with 550 watt PUS's, but its cutting it a bit to close in my opinion, if you want to get into those higher end, more powerful GPU's its probably a good idea if you buy a better PSU.
Sort by date Sort by votes
Z

zoog18

Reputable
Mar 29, 2014
488
0
4,810
Its should be able to power it, I've scene people power 780's with 550 watt PUS's, but its cutting it a bit to close in my opinion, if you want to get into those higher end, more powerful GPU's its probably a good idea if you buy a better PSU.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
penn919

penn919

Distinguished
Aug 24, 2010
293
5
18,865


Okay, so what if I only used it temporarily until I get a suitable replacement PSU? I don't think it'd be huge deal so long as I don't use this PSU as a permanent solution. Maybe just a couple months.

And what do you think about those R9 270s I posted in the OP. My PSU should be able to handle those too, right?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Z

zoog18

Reputable
Mar 29, 2014
488
0
4,810
You will be able to run both, the R9 270 is around 8-10% worse performance wise than the HD 7950, it also consumes only slightly less power (5-7 watts less if I recall correctly) so yes, you can run all of the cards, but you should still upgrade your PSU.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
penn919

penn919

Distinguished
Aug 24, 2010
293
5
18,865


I installed the GPU and took a look at the specs via GPU-Z and oddly enough, it's being detected as an R9 200 series card although the specs are pretty much the same as an HD 7950 just with a slightly higher core clock. The seller did mention something about his old card breaking and being sent a replacement from powercolor so I guess the decided to give him a newer model.

R9+200+GPU.jpg

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
coozie7

coozie7

Champion
Jun 2, 2007
10,015
10
59,215
Yep, looks like they swapped his 7950 for a R9 280-it's the same core with a few tweaks to the PCB parts and a little adjustment to the stock clocks.
And yes, you should try to replace the current PSU, according to Newegg it provides only dual 6 pin PCI-E leads and I'm fairly sure your card needs 1x6 and 1x8, so you're running it off some sort of 'Y' splitter somewhere-which is not a good thing to do with a low quality PSU.
Of course, I could be wrong. ;)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
penn919

penn919

Distinguished
Aug 24, 2010
293
5
18,865


Actually, it only has dual 6-pin PCI-E connectors which is, as you pointed out, exactly what my PSU has. Yeah, I guess I should consider getting a better PSU ASAP but everything seems to be working fine for the time being.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
coozie7

coozie7

Champion
Jun 2, 2007
10,015
10
59,215
It's an old design (you can tell because it has a voltage switch instead of being universally sensed for input voltage), no active PFC and very low efficiency by current (pun intended) standards and it was made when Rosewill were not exactly selling top-of-the-line stuff so yes, ASAP.
About the same wattage (or a little more) from: Corsair (preferably not the 'CX', 'VX' or 'VS' series), Seasonic, Silverstone, Rosewill (Capstone series), FSP (Aurium series), Antec, Fractal Design or XFX (Pro series) with the dual 6 pin connectors will do nicely.
Not sure exactly why but, like the 7950 the R9 280 comes in two flavours: 2x6 or 1x6 and 1x8 connectors, and they're not always factory overclocked, my XFX DD card runs stock 800/1250 clocks-well, used to ;)- yet has the 8 pin power plug...Go figure.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom