Will my power supply be sufficient once I start overclocking?

RAZDx · Jan 18, 2015

I am currently running an AMD FX-6300 and an AMD R9-280X in my system.
At stock speeds this configuration is easily handled by my Corsair CX-430 power supply.
Since these appear to be reasonable settings, I thought of increasing the core voltage to about 1.4V to achieve 4.5Ghz. The thing I don't know is how much this increased voltage would raise the power consumption. Would you guys say it is safe to try those settings or should I not risk frying my PC?

(I did use the psu calculator by beQuiet, which told me I would need about 425W for my system if I would be overclocking. Are those results credible?)

Thank you for taking your time and answering me!

Darkbreeze · Jan 18, 2015

To start with, the R9-280x calls for a 550w PSU, minimum. What you have right now is a Tier 3 unit, not of a quality deemed good for gaming cards, and so you're grossly underpowered plus you have a unit, namely the Corsair CX series, known to have problems. I'd say you've been very lucky so far.

That alone can cause performance issues if not outright failure of hardware under the right conditions. If you plan to also overclock the CPU or GPU, I'd recommend a 550-650w, preferably 620w or more, unit of Tier 2B or higher quality on the PSU tier list:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

Just for your knowledge, here are the power recommendations for all popular graphics cards:

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

BrandonYoung · Jan 18, 2015

PSU Calculators often are worst case scenario and should not be trusted as fact. Corsair CX series is not a high quality PSU however. I don't think you would "fry" your setup trying to overclock. Worse case, you run into stability issues, or brownouts while overclocking, which you could always revert your settings to normal or down a few notches.

That said, I would not recommend running your PSU to its breaking point as it is a budget oriented PSU. But if it can handle it without running into instability issues, I would think this would be ok.

Then again, its not my investment. Try at your own risk. I've had PSU failure lead to multiple component destruction (CPU/Motherboard/Ram) granted this was a no-name cheap PSU that came with a case (crappy way to learn that lesson). Tread lightly, and good luck!

RAZDx · Jan 18, 2015

Darkbreeze :

Okay, that is what I thought would be the issue. I guess I won't overclock until I get a more powerful psu.
But I don't think my system is "grossly underpowerd" as you said, since it pulls about 350W from the wall while running Prime95 and FurMark, which is barely over 80% usage? But still I might have missed something important, if so, please enlighten me.

madmatt30 · Jan 18, 2015

^ is this with a power meter mate - if so how reliable is it??

What your running pulls far in excess of 350w from the wall trust me.
A 280x pulls 240w, an oc model 260
A stock 6300 -80-90w under load
60-70w overhead for your mb & other devices.
What your doing will be pulling between 460-500w from the plug no doubt at all.
I'm not a hater ox the CX - they're decent PSU's IMO.
But that 430 will be over its stated limit for the 12v now - fairly sure it only has a. 27a rail??
Fair testament to it that its standing up to your abuse;-)

Darkbreeze · Jan 18, 2015

How do you know how much it pulls from the wall? Do you have a Kill-a-watt connected for the purpose of measuring? That's really about the only way to accurately determine how much juice is actually being pulled from the socket. Calculators and estimation applications are notoriously inaccurate, which is why there are recommended specs which have been determined by using actual measurement devices.

That being said, it's your hardware, but it would be in YOUR best interest to invest in a better, higher capacity unit, even if you don't overclock.

BrandonYoung · Jan 18, 2015

Often the "recommend PSU requirements" are taking into account of the unknown draw from every possible component. These are often "Safe values" that will account for power users that have 12 HDDS, florescent lighting, 26 case fans, and very high wattage CPUs. If you know the draw of your system (Kill-a-watt), you can compare that with the maximum output of your PSU and proceed accordingly. Overclocking (specifically over volting) will absolutely increase your total power draw, but to what amount all depends on your system.

Darkbreeze · Jan 18, 2015

And the amount of the overclock, whether there's been a voltage increase involved in the overclock rather than a simple multiplier change and what components are overclocked.

madmatt30 · Jan 18, 2015

stock fx8320
-------------------
idle load 120w
full load cpu 242w
turboduo 280x oc full load gpu 380w
whole system stressed 560w

Results from my 8320 setup at stock - that CPU draw will be relative to a 6300 at 4ghz.

These are 'at the plug' so based on 80% efficiency more like 450w total draw.

A good 500w will do the job,a 600 will be better.

Also mate to reliably stress test GPU/CPU at the same time you need to set core affinities in task manager.
Cores 0-4 for CPU test
Core 5 for GPU

Otherwise you won't get a reliable result - furmark requires a core free to push the GPU to its max.
Otherwise you'll only get 60-80% GPU usage while testing both simultaneously.

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