GTX 580

[edifice]

Hello,


A very quick question. What size PSU is needed to run a 580? Would the 800 watt PSU I have be enough?


Thanks.

 

[monsta]

A good 800 Watt PSU will work well with a 580 , whats the PSU?

 

[edifice]

To be honest I am not exactly sure? I know it's a BFG and I currently have a 2gb AMD 5870 attached, but feel that this card has served it's purpose!? And I want an upgrade LOL!!

 

[Helltech]

Well I had a 650W BFG that couldn't power a single GTX 260. I'm not going to say all BFG PSU are junk, but the one I had was. 800w IS MORE than enough for a GTX 580, but if the quality of the PSU is really poor it may not even be able to supply 800w of power.

Here is Guru3D's power supply recommendation:

GeForce GTX 580

On your average system the card requires you to have a 650 Watt power supply unit

What resolution do you game at? Unless you need more RAM, usually a 6970 or a 570 is a much better purchase for price. Even better yet is a 6950 2GB is that is capable of being unlocked to a 6970.

However with all of that said nothing is much of a leap from a 5870. According to Tom's hardware you want at least a 3-4 "tier" leap in power, and there is nothing that high except for 590/6990.

 

[kajabla]

One card will do fine on a good 600W PSU and two will take 850W, but as they've said, the quality of the PSU matters far more than the number on the side.

 

[edifice]

I game at 1920 x 1080 and have 6gb of triple channel RAM. I use Win 7 64 and have a gigabyte X58 UD3R motherboard with a core i7 930, all running at stock speeds. And I want the 580 rather than another AND card, as I honestly think their better!

Cheers!

 

[Helltech]

Well the increase in performance from a 5870 to 580 is only 20-25 percent. I couldn't see spending 500 dollars for a 20 percent increase.

 

[kajabla]

True. You could get another 5870, if your mobo can handle it.

 

[Ninja Pants]

Your PSU should be fine, what model is it? And do listen to some of the advice, a 580 is about the worst bang for you buck card you could buy, the options given are worth consideration, a 570 is ~ 15% less performance for 40% less $$. But if your set on a 580 you certainly wont be disappointed, would recommend the EVGA.

 

[kajabla]

Hey, 6990's worse

 

[edifice]

Hey Guys,

I really appreciate all the excellent advice I have been given! Just one last question? Now I know my PSU will handle a GTX580, what is in all your own opinions the best bang for buck card other given what I am upgrading from, and if you were me, which card would you choose?

So two questions really LOL!

Thanks!

 

[edifice]

Hey Guys,

I really appreciate all the excellent advice I have been given! Just one last question? Now I know my PSU will handle a GTX580, what is in all your own opinions the best bang for buck card other given what I am upgrading from, and if you were me, which card would you choose?

So two questions really LOL!

Thanks!

 

[edifice]

Hey Guys,

I really appreciate all the excellent advice I have been given! Just one last question? Now I know my PSU will handle a GTX580, what is in all your own opinions the best bang for buck card other given what I am upgrading from, and if you were me, which card would you choose?

So two questions really LOL!

Thanks!

 

[Ninja Pants]

If your wanting to go Nvidia then look at a 570 or 560ti OC'd, the second of which is arguably better imo. There are plenty of threads discussing that exact comparison that are worth reading.

Hey, 6990's worse

Not quite, 2 580's in SLI will only get you around 5-10% FPS (game dependent) more than a single 6990 and costs 30% more... And on bigger resolutions (multi-monitor) the 2GB VRAM on the 6990 is definitely preferable. Don't take this as an endorsement of the 6990, it has its applications but in general your right its not great value and no one will argue that I'm sure but the 580's are still unfortunately worse.

 

[edifice]

Thanks again to everyone who offered me some advice, I am going to now spend the next few days weighing up what I think are the pro's and cons of all the cards mentioned (not the 590 or the 6990 though) and see what floats my boat as it were?!

Many thanks once again for all your contributions!!

 

[kajabla]

What about one 580 vs a 6990? Just wondering actually

 

[Ninja Pants]

They are not really comparable but if they were the only two options you have, the 6990 is only less than $200 more for roughly twice the performance. That said its also more power hungry, allot louder and puts out a huge amount of heat (worst of all is half of that it exhausted back into the case) but that is to be expected to some degree with that much processing power on one card.

 

[kajabla]

No way it's twice the performance.

 

[monsta]

Apples and oranges , a 6990 is comparible to a 590

 

[kajabla]

I know the performance isn't comparable, but I'm talking bang for the buck.

 

[Ninja Pants]

See above, bang for the buck the 580 still looses. And I said roughly twice, FPS, game dependant obviously, at a single monitor resolution it is more like 70-80% better (here are some benches: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/03/21/amd_radeon_hd_6990_video_card_followup_review/3).
So for only $200 more, its still better value, 17.8% better value based on FPS numbers from above benchmarks and Australian prices if you wanted something more mathematical (this was considering the cheapest 580 as well, so it can get worse).

 

[jjtober1]

You should also consider just holding off on your video card purchase, supposedly AMD's new cards will be coming out in Jan. As Helltech pointed out, the premium cards out right aren't really a gigantic leap from something like a 5870, and I wouldn't spend the extra money on anything beyond that myself either at this point. I have every intention of snagging up one of AMD's next gen cards though.