Is EarthWatts 500W strong enough for HD4870?

[etrnl]

I currently have an Antec EarthWatts 500W, its probably a year old already so I believe that has an effect on the overall efficiency of the PSU... the rest of my machine is as so...

Intel Core2Quad Q6700
Asus Maximus Formula
Corsair Dominator TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF
EVGA GeForce 7900GT
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
Seagate ST3250823AS [250GB, 7200RPM] SATA
Seagate ST3500320AS [500GB, 7200RPM] SATA
Samsung WriteMaster SH-S203N SATA
Gateway FPD2185W [21'' LCD]
Windows Vista 64-bit

As the title of the thread states, would my PSU be enough for my machine if I place a HD4870 inside it. I would probably be safer with a 4850, but in the future I would like to eventually get a 24'' monitor so the extra power that the 4870 gives would be appreciated. I'll probably wait till the 4870x2 reviews are out to actually purchase the card since it may or may not affect the price, though its really tempting now since they are like $280 or so on newegg... =/

 

[geofelt]

I think you are ok. The earthwatts500 advertises 408w(34a) on the 12v rails. I think the 4870 wants 32a for a typical system.

 

[einstein4pres]

Anand's review claims 279W total power consumption for its 4870.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=22

Their test setup is pretty beefy, so I would not be concerned with your EA500 not sufficing.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=12
ntel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 @ 3.20GHz

 

[invisik]

no ur fine im running pretty much the same setup but with a 9800gx2 and i plan to use my eathwatt 500 for 2 gtx 260 which is risky but in ur case ur fine.
ea500 is amazing.
http://www.sysopt.com/features/cases/article.php/12024_3660031_3

 

[FrozenGpu]

the capacitor aging at the most increase at the very highest 5% which is being overly generous in high quality PSU's