Will an Antec Basiq (500w) power a single Ati radeon 4870 hd?

[Amer_92]

HELLO EVERYONE! !
Guys i would really like to know if my power supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as... Antec Basiq, with 500w 2 12v. rails with 18amps on each. I know that the 4870, requires 2 pci-e connectors, but mine has 1, so if i used the two molex to pci-e, would it allow the 4870 to function properly? My system is, Asus M3N78-VM, 4gigs of ram, Amd Athlon x2 4800+, (2.5ghz), 1hdd, 1optical drive, and 1 Sound blaster card. So could you guys please let me know, i have saved up around 200$, and i would really like to start playing games, with reasonable Fram Rates, (FPS),because i dont have a graphics card

So sorry for the long post, but i am trying to decide, if this psu will power the 4870, i was planing to buy a 4850, but i decided extra 20-30$ is worth it. So can you guys please let me know if this psu has enough amps to run the graphics card? THANKS SOO MUCH IN ADVANCE!



THANK YOU!!

 

[rwayne]

You could probably get by with it. Ideally it would be better to have a more heavy duty PSU, but I think it would work.
Per XFX here are the requirements:

ATI Radeon HD 4870 System Requirements

* PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
* 500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)"
* Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSU for a list of Certified products
* Minimum 1GB of system memory
* Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
* DVD playblack requires DVD drive
* Blu-ray™ playback requires Blu-ray drive
* For a complete ATI CrossFireX™ system, a second ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 graphics card, an ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard and one ATI CrossFireX Bridge Interconnect cable per graphics card (included) are required.

 

[Amer_92]

Do you think so? I was thinking about getting the 4850, but then if i have to spend extra 30 buxs, its worth it, anything under 200, it would seem stupid to get the 4850, when i have the extra cash, and if i upgrade my system, 1280 by 1024 is my screen resolution. i might move up to 1080. What do you recommend? Stick with the 4850 or go up to the 4870 ? Thanks for your quick reply!!

 

[doormatderek]

I would say it might work.. for awhile. Eventually you're goin to get lockups and the dreaded BSOD. You can try it for now, but a new Power supply is definitely in your future. (with a 4870)

 

[Amer_92]

[Oh i see, but what about the 4850? It uses segnifant less power, what do you have to say for the 4850? Would it be a better bet if i stick with the 4850, rather then 4870, since of my power supply limits?

 

[doormatderek]

I very happy with my 4850. But if you have the money I'd say step up to the 4870

 

[febisfebi]

Just so you know, i dont know how much it applies, but I am running a gtx 260 55nm on a psu with the exact same specs as far as amps/rails go. it seems to run just fine even after a few hours of gaming.
also I was going to buy a 4870 but decided to get a gtx 260 when the price dropped, and am really happy i did. they are now very competitively priced, and the nvidia has 896 mb memory vs 512 with entry level 4870's and 4850's. as far as the 1gb 4870, I still like the gtx 260 better. I am getting excellent performance. better than that of a 4870 according to the gaming charts. and those charts were made when the gtx 260 core 192 was standard, and the 216 has significant improvements. it really depends what games you play, but what I found was that there are many games where nvidia dominates clearly, but even on the ones where it dosent (the ones not designed specifically for nvidia) the 4870 did not outperform the 260. Just something to think about. not trying to win you over to the nvidia side or anything, just sharing my experience. I was very seriously considering a 4870 this time, especially because my motherboard is crossfire, but one gtx 260 is all i need for the forseeable future. I really dont see that huge of an improvement with crossfire and sli on the gaming charts, except for when you add AA and AF, and use extremely high resolutions only available to the 30" monitor people.