500W sufficient?

[Ating]

I cannot remember the make of my PSU, but would like to ask a quick question.

I have a 500w PSU. Currently, it is powering a 7900GTX, C2E x6800 OC @ 3.3 Ghz, 2 sata drives, and works fine.

I am planning to buy a GTX 570 for a new PC, but will be sticking it into my current PC while waiting.


Would the current 500W PSU be able to power my old system, with the new GTX 570?

Edit--


I also want to know the wattage I should get for my new PSU.

My new system would be like this

Proc: i5-2500k
Mobo: Asus z68
RAM: 2x4GB KVR
Gfx: GTX 570 or HD 6970. --- Which I will SLI or Crossfire eventually.
SSD: 1x 120GB SSD
HDD: 2x Raptor X

I will also watercool it in the future.

Please give me suggestions to the PSU's I should be looking at. Would 850W be enough?

 

[lilotimz]

I would recommend you get a new 500W + psu unless you already have a fairly decent one (post what model/make it is).

If you don't have a decent one , look for Corsair / XFX / Antec / Seasonic and other well known manufacturers and look at the reviews for the specific units you might want to buy. (johnyguru etc)

 

[iam2thecrowe]

maybe, but it will be pretty borderline. i would suggest a good 600w unit. You really need to tell us the make and model of the PSU. If it were a 500w antec, i might say yes, if its a 500w Diablotek id say hell no. There is a HUGE difference between the way different brands rate the wattage of their PSU's. I would just get a new 600w+ unit from antec, seasonic, corsair, xfx or ocz. then you know you wont blow anything up.

 

[Ating]

I will open my side case up to check.

--

Its an Enermax.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194003

 

[kajabla]

850 would be way overkill. 600 would be fine, and 500 will probably hold you over. However, it's not the wattage that's the most important: check amperage.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

well thats actually a good quality unit. http://www.techspot.com/review/346-gigabyte-geforce-gtx-570/page11.html < this power consumption test is about the highest one i have seen for that card at 371 watts. so judging by that, a quality 500w unit like your enermax should be ample.

 

[willtriv]

Most devices that require a lot of power use (almost) exclusively 12v. That supply is rated for 384w of 12v power. It only has two 12v rails and they are both under 30a. As much as enermax makes really high quality stuff, I would recommend something new for a gtx 570, burning out PSUs can cause a world of damage to other devices.

 

[photonboy]

Some good points, above, a little confusion.

1) That 500W power supply looks adequate. In your case it was the Amp's (current) supplying the graphics card you're getting that's important. The basic specs look okay at first glance. *NOTE that an older PSU can always fail under a larger load even if it's specs say it should be fine.

2) NEW PSU:
Again, if you intend to SLI or Crossfire you need to pay special attention to the Amp's available. Basically you want to get between 850W and 1000W for something like 2x570.

You should spend some time reading, but glancing at a great online store, NCIX here's some quick recommends:
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=45896&vpn=RS-A00-AMBA-J3&manufacture=COOLERMASTER

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=58862&vpn=OCZ-ZX1000W&manufacture=OCZ%20Technology

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=47753&vpn=ST1000-P&manufacture=Silverstone%20Technology

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=57846&vpn=PPCS910&manufacture=PC%20Power%20%26%20Cooling

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=53719&vpn=CMPSU-850AX%20A&manufacture=Corsair

http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=47587&vpn=CP-1000&manufacture=Antec#CustomerReviews

OTHER POINTS:
1) There's a small window of opportunity to add a second card, after which the card disappears or becomes too expensive (sometimes only six months).

2) most people find they either get SLI/Crossfire right away or else they end up waiting and replacing the current card in two to four years

3) 2xGTX 570 in my opinion is a waste of money. Most games can run at maximum quality at 60FPS with a GTX 560Ti.

4) If you wish to spend the money and want NVidia, I strongly recommend getting a 2x560Ti setup.

5) carefully measure your power supply and graphics card to make sure they fit your case.

6) The graphics card in a well-designed system is the loudest component. A second card makes a HUGE difference in noise.

7) don't consider dual-GPU cards. They run very hot even in idle and are louder than two separate cards (and more expensive).

8) when looking at BENCHMARKS keep in mind that most monitors can only display 60 Frames Per Second.

9) The most important, alterable graphics settings (arguably) are:
- VSYNC (locks screen rate to graphics card, prevents tearing and running the computer hotter and louder than needed. Why run a game at 130FPS when the screen only displays 60FPS?)
- Anti-Aliasing. I hate the "jaggies" 4xAA is often a good setting. There are tools to FORCE AA if it's not available
- 1920x1080 (the optimal resolution if supported)

10) FYI, "The Witcher Enhanced Edition" looks like crap if VSync is not enabled. I have an AMD card (HD5870) and I was able to force VSYNC with "ATITraytools" but not "RadeonPro"; NVidia has a different solution.

11) in general, you're trying to have a game run at a solid 60FPS with the best quality settings. You can monitor frame rate with tools like FRAPS.

Summary:
- read reviews for the links of PSU's I gave. Look for a sale, but don't buy a PSU you haven't researched.
- make sure all components fit
- a second card is NOISY and many games area already maxed out
- graphics card disappears from the market in as little as six months (at a reasonable price)
- high-end setup for reasonable price is 2xGTX560Ti
- if needed, investigate how to force VSYNC if not natively supported in-game, and how to optimize the game overall.

I hope you find this information useful.

 

[oby20]

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=012-P3-1570-AR&family=GeForce%20500%20Series%20Family&sw=

no your enermax 500w cannot power up your future gpu the gtx 570. gtx 570 says that its minimum ampere is 38A and minimum watt is 550w
your enermax has only 22A on the 12v rail, it has 2 rails each has 22a, the +12v1 usually powers the cpu and the +12v2 powers the gpu so 22A on it is not enough,
and its total watt is only 500. that says you also have to buy a new psu if you want to use it in your old cpu. i suggest you wait for your new cpu and buy your new cpu a better power supply. usually if you will be using a high end single graphics card, it has a high ampere requirement, usually the psu with dual rail or the single rail design is the best choice because it will have more ampere rating on the 12v rail, unlike the quad rail it will be divided in 4 rail so the ampere rating on each rail will be lower, quad rail design is best for mid range gpu, but it is much safer to use and it is better for sli/crossfire, because your gpu card will be powered by each dedicated rails, unlike the dual rail if you have 2 graphic card it will share power on the the 12v2 because the 12v1 is for the cpu only and for single rail it will all share power on one-12v rail which is dangerous and unsafe according to the law.
i suggest you buy your new cpu a branded psu, a dual rail 700w or a quad rail 800w. FSP is always been my best choice for psu.

 

[Ating]

Thanks for taking the time to reply guys, much appreciated.

 

[Ating]

Best answer selected by Ating.

 

[photonboy]

I agree that your PSU will not work.

The GTX570 requires up to 38Amps. Your COMBINED 12V rails are 32Amps.

Basically your system would likely start just fine but then crash when playing a game.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey