6970 Power consumption

masscrazy · 9 Jan 2012 at 22:58

To conclude the matter. 4890 can not be replaced by the 6970 wth my current power supply. I must admit (though I cant be bothered to look again) all things pointed to the 4890 using more power.

Surveyor · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:03

masscrazy said:
To conclude the matter. 4890 can not be replaced by the 6970 wth my current power supply. I must admit (though I cant be bothered to look again) all things pointed to the 4890 using more power.

Did you miss my post?

Power consumption looks virtually identical.

If you're that worried get a HD 6950.

Power consumption is around 40W less than a HD 6970 and you get around 90% of the performance.

masscrazy · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:12

Surveyor said:
Did you miss my post?

Power consumption looks virtually identical.

If you're that worried get a HD 6950.

Power consumption is around 40W less than a HD 6970 and you get around 90% of the performance.

Sorry I did miss it, but others are still not convinced.

I need a card that will play games almost full quality on 2560x1440. Infact anything that will give me an equivalent amount of performance as my 4890 on 1920x1200 on a 2560x1440 screen. My 4890 runs pretty much everything not always full on details but at native res and good enough detail.

I've got my sights on the 6970 which will give me solid performance on a 27" monitor.

Davefran · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:14

From AMD Technical Data.
THEY say the 6970 requires MORE power than a 4890

ATI Radeon™ HD 4890 Graphics 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://support.amd.com/us/certified/power-supplies/Pages/listing.aspx for a list of Certified products
Minimum 1GB of system memory
Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
DVD playback requires DVD drive
Blu-ray™ playback requires Blu-ray drive
For a complete ATI CrossFireX™ system, a second ATI Radeon™ HD 4890 graphics card, an ATI CrossFireX Ready motherboard and one ATI CrossFireX Bridge Interconnect cable per graphics card (included) are required

Suggested AMD Radeon™ HD 6970 System Requirements

PCI Express® based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
550 Watt or greater power supply with one 150W 8-pin PCI Express® power connector and one 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connector recommended
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, a keyboard, a mouse, and a display
DVD playback requires DVD drive and a DVD
Blu-ray™ playback requires Blu-ray drive and a Blu-ray disc
For an AMD CrossFireX™ system, a second AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 Series Graphics card, an AMD CrossFireX™ Ready motherboard and one AMD CrossFireX™ Bridge Interconnect cable is required
Use of 3 or more displays with AMD Eyefinity technology requires a DisplayPort-capable panel or an AMD Eyefinity validated dongle. See http://www.amd.com/EyefinityDongles for a list of validated DisplayPort dongles.

Surveyor · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:20

Davefran said:
From AMD Technical Data.
THEY say the 6970 requires MORE power than a 4890

skip the rest.

That's all well and good but the real world actual power usage tests I quoted are surely a better indication.

Davefran · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:25

To answer the OP original question, regardless of what anybody has said above.
The Corsair HX520W (520W) PSU is on the recommended PSU list for both the HD 4890 and HD 6970.

d_brennen · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:29

It's not far off. The 6970 draws 60w more that the 4870 according to Anandtech, the 4890 was a thirstier card so ~50w more sounds right

Tealc · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:33

My System pulls 365W from the wall with 100% CPU and GPU load (P95&Furmark) and around 300-320 in game.

It's a overclocked i7 920 (3.6, 4Ghz actually draws an extra 30W) with 6950 with 3 HDD, many LEDs and a few low speed fans. These figures include the 10% loss to heat from the PSU.

So I don't know how Q6600 compares but surely it can't be dramatically more. The 6970 will draw a few more watts. You might be actually looking at 400W power conversion with maybe 460W drawn from the wall.

So should be fine, I reckon.

Davefran · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:34

Surveyor said:
That's all well and good but the real world actual power usage tests I quoted are surely a better indication.

You can't base facts on one single review, or everyone would believe the Asrock board has substandard sata 3 performance. Which I know by personally testing that it doesn't.

Surveyor · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:34

Davefran said:
To answer the OP original question, regardless of what anybody has said above.
The Corsair HX520W (520W) PSU is on the recommended PSU list for both the HD 4890 and HD 6970.

You realise that it's the same list of PSU's for both the HD 4890 and the HD 6970?

It's even the same list for the HD 6990 and a lot of those PSU's would be useless for running one of those.

It's a recommended list but not for specific graphics cards.

Surveyor · 9 Jan 2012 at 23:40

Davefran said:
You can't base facts one on single review, or everyone would believe the Asrock board has substandard sata 3 performance. Which I know by personally testing that it doesn't.

A review done with a faulty board or the wrong drivers if I remember correctly (something like that).

Unless you're saying the Guru3D reviews were 'faulty' in some way then your point is pointless.

Feel free to find other reviews showing real world power consumption of the HD 4890 and the HD 6970.

Sasahara · 10 Jan 2012 at 00:24

Closest direct is 4870 v 6970
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/304?vs=292

But if you find the old chart 2010 which is the same setup as the 2011 chart
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/175?vs=162

The HD 4890 - 310 W for Crysis and 300 W for Furmark
The HD 6970 - 340 W for Crysis and 360 W for Furmark

(Only using as a rough guide, his HD 4890 could use more)

Edit, missed the 520W Corsair in his sig, 480W +12V he should be ok.

Surveyor · 10 Jan 2012 at 00:44

Sasahara said:
Closest direct is 4870 v 6970
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/304?vs=292

But if you find the old chart 2010 which is the same setup as the 2011 chart
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/175?vs=162

The HD 4890 - 310 W for Crysis and 300 W for Furmark
The HD 6970 - 340 W for Crysis and 360 W for Furmark

(Only using as a rough guide, his HD 4890 could use more)

Edit, missed the 520W Corsair in his sig, 480W +12V he should be ok.

If it's anything to go by the PSU calculator quoted earlier gives 54W more for the HD 4890 over the HD 4870.

That would make the HD 4890 and the HD 6970 pretty close.

Davefran · 10 Jan 2012 at 10:13

Surveyor said:
If it's anything to go by the PSU calculator quoted earlier gives 54W more for the HD 4890 over the HD 4870.

That would make the HD 4890 and the HD 6970 pretty close.

No the PSU calculator quoted earlier gives 54w more for the HD 6970 over the HD 4890

anandtech says :

The HD 4890 - 310 W for Crysis and 304 W for Furmark
The HD 6970 - 340 W for Crysis and 361 W for Furmark

Surveyor · 10 Jan 2012 at 17:30

Davefran said:
No the PSU calculator quoted earlier gives 54w more for the HD 6970 over the HD 4890

anandtech says :

The HD 4890 - 310 W for Crysis and 304 W for Furmark
The HD 6970 - 340 W for Crysis and 361 W for Furmark

For a basic Q6600 system the PSU calculator gives:

HD 4870 Minimum PSU 268W, recommended 318W

HD 4890 Minimum PSU 323W, recommended 373W

Gosh, you got me, it's a difference of 55W not 54W and I was 1W out :rolleyes:

It also gives:

HD 6970 Minimum PSU 376W, recommended 426W

That's a difference of 53W over the HD 4890 so you're 1W out the same as me

It also shows how poor the calculator is. That's a 108W difference between the HD 4870 and the HD 6970. That's just plain wrong.

And FYI the AnandTech reviews of the HD 4890 and HD 6970 were carried out using different motherboards, processors, RAM and disk drives so hardly a valid comparison.

Sasahara · 11 Jan 2012 at 00:22

Surveyor said:
For a basic system the PSU calculator gives:

HD 4870 Minimum PSU 268W, recommended 318W

HD 4890 Minimum PSU 323W, recommended 373W

Gosh, you got me, it's a difference of 55W not 54W and I was 1W out

It also gives:

HD 6970 Minimum PSU 376W, recommended 426W

That's a difference of 53W over the HD 4890 so you're 1W out the same as me

It also shows how poor the calculator is. That's a 108W difference between the HD 4870 and the HD 6970. That's just plain wrong.

And FYI the AnandTech reviews of the HD 4890 and HD 6970 were carried out using different motherboards, processors, RAM and disk drives so hardly a valid comparison.

I'm pretty sure the 2010 and 2011 systems were both i7 920 setups and the HD 4870 & HD 5870 power consumption figure were identical on both, so safe to assume an HD 4890 on the 2011 system would give pretty much the same results as the 2010. It's the 2012 system that is completely different.

It's also safe to assume the HD 6970 has the potential to use more power then the HD 4890 due to the power connectors on the cards. 2x 6-pin on most 4890s (225 W) and a 8-pin and 6-pin on the 6970 (300 W).

Though running a Q6600, I'm not sure if it's possible to max out a HD 6970 in normal gaming conditions.

Davefran · 11 Jan 2012 at 02:10

Surveyor said:
For a basic Q6600 system the PSU calculator gives:

HD 4870 Minimum PSU 268W, recommended 318W

HD 4890 Minimum PSU 323W, recommended 373W

Gosh, you got me, it's a difference of 55W not 54W and I was 1W out

It also gives:

HD 6970 Minimum PSU 376W, recommended 426W

That's a difference of 53W over the HD 4890 so you're 1W out the same as me

It also shows how poor the calculator is. That's a 108W difference between the HD 4870 and the HD 6970. That's just plain wrong.

And FYI the AnandTech reviews of the HD 4890 and HD 6970 were carried out using different motherboards, processors, RAM and disk drives so hardly a valid comparison.

Oh dear, you've got yourself a bit confused there bud.
Try re-reading the posts.

Davefran said:
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

My system with a HD4890 comes to 500w recommended, if I switch the GPU to an HD6970 it comes to 554w.
So the 6970 uses 54w more than the 4890.

Surveyor said:
If it's anything to go by the PSU calculator quoted earlier gives 54W more for the HD 4890 over the HD 4870.

That would make the HD 4890 and the HD 6970 pretty close.

Can you see where you've gone wrong

Surveyor · 11 Jan 2012 at 08:50

Davefran said:
Oh dear, you've got yourself a bit confused there bud.
Try re-reading the posts.

Afraid not bud.

Sasahara quoted a comparison between the HD 4870 and HD 6970 showing the HD 6970 requiring up to 61W more power but stated that the HD 4890 may require more power than the HD 4870.

In response to that I stated the PSU calculator showed the HD 4890 requiring 54W more than the HD 4890 and that, therefore, the HD 4890 and HD 6970 were pretty close.

You quoted me and repeated what the PSU calculator says about the HD 6970 and HD 4890, ignoring what it says about the HD 4870.

I responded showing the PSU calculator results for a Q6600 with all three cards to show how wrong it was.

There's nothing wrong with what I said.

You quoted the PSU calculator when it suited you and ignored it when it produces spurious results.

Can you see where you went wrong?

Perhaps you should re-read the posts

GTA767 · 11 Jan 2012 at 08:56

itt will be enough 520 corsair will handle it perfectly

LtMatt · 11 Jan 2012 at 08:56

MichaelM said:
If anyone wants to bother (because I cant be) my system pulls 520W from the wall peak with Crysis 2 and that's the most I've seen it pull with a real program.

Not including the monitor and speaker system obviously.

I have a similiar (ish) system to you with regards to the main components so this was helpful thanks.

One question though i always worry about the amount of power im using. As i have two 6950 unlocked and overclocked to 6970 speeds would my power usage be identical to yours or would it still be slightly lower as the 6950 uses two six pin power connectors.