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Real world power consumption measurements from triple 7970's

Stu @ MSD

Stu @ MSD

Stu @ MSD

Associate
Joined
21 Feb 2012
Posts
200
Location
Blackpool. UK
Hi,
Now my water cooled rig is up running and stable, I thought I would offer some info I have recorded thats kind of interesting.
During benching and gaming, I have been creating a spreadsheet of everything I do and that includes power draw at the mains outlet.
I was very surprised to find that most games dont stress the PSU anything like benchmarking. I thought the figures would be much closer.

The Test Rig: (For power consumption reference)
ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z
i7 2600K @ Std settings
3x AMD 7970HD in Tri-Fire @ std settings
2x 240GB OCZ SSD's
3x 1TB Velociraptors
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 @ 1866
XFX 1250W PSU
1260 & 360 Radiators fed with D5 pump
A few lovely lights... lol


Results as follows: (All settings maxed for each game, using eyefinity at 5760x1200)


Benchmarking:

  • 3D Mark 11 (Performance) – 880w
  • Heaven 2.5 – 898w
  • 3D Mark Vantage (Performance) – 906w
  • Furmark on 3 screens – 908w
  • Aida 64 stability test - 1092w

Gaming:

  • Mass Effect 3 - 565w
  • Shift 2 unleashed – 570w
  • Syndicate – 580w
  • Skyrim – 620w
  • Hawx 2 – 641w
  • Alan wake – 720w
  • Crysis 2 – 780w

There is little point to this topic, other than to show that during gaming, your PSU may not be quite as stressed as you think.
Its during benchmarking that you need the extra watts for synthetic loads.

Please Note:
These figures were taken with everything at standard clocks so its a valid benchmark. Overclocking will increase the current required.
 
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This sort of data is gold. You should add the full specs of the rig to the post including PSU type. Purely for future reference, coz once your sig goes, thats it.
 
Little update for you as it may be of use to someone...

The XFX 1250W pro that advertises itself as single rail and makes a huge song and dance about it is in fact NOT! Its Multi rail... They blatently LIE!

After being annoyed for a year with random shutdowns, I discovered this with a little help from a chap over on OCN and he sent me some links where it is dissasembled and proved, so after a bit of reconfiguring of my rail distribution I solved the problem, but I am still pretty damn annoyed!

Anyway... Pushed the system further now and got the following peak readings when benching 3DMark Fire Strike and thought folk may be interested in similar figures for a pretty heavily overclocked rig. (Same system but now on a 3770K)

1GPU -


2x GPU -


3x GPU -


Remember - these figures are at the wall and dont take into account the PSU conversion efficiency... but its still time for me to upgrade. Max Revo time. :)
 
Great info Stu.

Maybe not so much power being used in games because of scaling?

XFX in lies shocker :eek:
 
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gregster said:
XFX in lies shocker :eek:
Click to expand...

Hard to believe that I didnt just try it a year ago. Always had issues with her tripping out around 1200w and just assumed it was OCP on my GPU's as it was only ever while benching. Made a topic over on OCN about 1500w PSU's and someone casually mentioned the usual "maybe your rails are configured wrong"

When I told them it was single rail and it made no odds where I plug them in, I sent this link to XFX website to prove it.
They then sent me this one to make me look a clown. I tried it, and they are correct, its multi rail.
I love trial by internet forum so much. ROFLOL
 
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I have the XFX black 1050W and that is the very last XFX product I buy. So much negative feedback from users with RMA troubles and now this...

A little surprised, as Seasonic make the PSU's, so I would have expected better.
 
My XFX850w modular PSU has been superb. In fact it's one of the highest rated PSU's jonnyguru has ever reviewed. Their graphics cards are rubbish though.
 
gregster said:
I have the XFX black 1050W and that is the very last XFX product I buy. So much negative feedback from users with RMA troubles and now this...

A little surprised, as Seasonic make the PSU's, so I would have expected better.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't the Seasonic have the same issue then? i mean they are basically re-badged PSU. Having looked at the new Seasonic X 650KM3 and the compared it to the new XFX pro series they are like for like in everyway bar the 120mm fans.

The new XFX 750 pro black edition series appears to be very good psu for the price, since its the newer Seasonic X 750 variant
 
kamz said:
Wouldn't the Seasonic have the same issue then? i mean they are basically re-badged PSU. Having looked at the new Seasonic X 650KM3 and the compared it to the new XFX pro series they are like for like in everyway bar the 120mm fans.

The new XFX 750 pro black edition series appears to be very good psu for the price, since its the newer Seasonic X 750 variant
Click to expand...

No idea to be honest. I know very little about PSU's and after much reading up, Seasonic are generaly regarded as the better choice.

All this rails and other bits and bobs goes straight over my head.
 
Please dont missunderstand me guys, the XFX pro 1250w is an awesome PSU.

But make sure you distribute the cards around the rails correctly, otherwise you will run into problems, and that isnt actually easy to do since they are PRETENDING its single rail, so dont offer any rail layout advice in the damn manual. (Further proving its an intentional deception)

I ended up with 2 of my 30amp cards on a 45A rail, which is why it kept shutting down.
 
kamz said:
Wouldn't the Seasonic have the same issue then? i mean they are basically re-badged PSU. Having looked at the new Seasonic X 650KM3 and the compared it to the new XFX pro series they are like for like in everyway bar the 120mm fans.

The new XFX 750 pro black edition series appears to be very good psu for the price, since its the newer Seasonic X 750 variant
Click to expand...

Probably not as Seasonic will have accurate marketing info on the box unlike xfx who are using a unit which they know has four 12v rails and advertise it as having one.
 
gregster said:
All this rails and other bits and bobs goes straight over my head.
Click to expand...

In essence...
A 1200w Multi Rail PSU is literally 4x regulated 300W PSU's in one box.
(Or 4x250w & 2x 100w for example)

This is why you have to be carefull to put anything that draws massive power, usually your GPU's on seperate PSU outputs (Or rails as we call them) as if you connect 2x GPU's to one 300w rail, it will overload it. (Massively oversimplified, but accurate and understandable)

A 1200w Single Rail PSU is pretty much 1x 1200w PSU and will have all sockets connected to the same 1200w supply, so you can plug things in wherever you like.

The upside to Single rail, is no connection issues and having to balance load. The downside is, if that rail goes faulty, it will fry everything on it. LOL

Multirail will have over current protetcion on every rail, around 250-30A usually. Single rail will be right up at 125+A for obvious reasons.

Hope this helps a little.
 
Stu sorry to go off topic I was just trying to show Gregster that when people say xfx = Seasonic it is basically clone units, the new Seasonic 750 is estimated at around £160+, where as the identical clone unit re-badged by XFX is estimated at £118 its crazyyyy

However your issues with the split rails is poor, XFX should know the product they are selling inside out unless they are going off the specification Seasonic has given who may also be incorrect.
 
A great image showing someones labels on their Enermax 1500w Rail Layout diagram in the manual.

722260w.jpg


You may note that each "12V" has a number on it, between 1 and 6.
That shows this has 6x 12V rails.

This Power output chart for teh same PSU proves this to be true, and tells you what current each will supply. max 30A.

4932_02_enermax_maxrevo_1500_watt_80_plus_gold_power_supply_review.png


If you now connected 2x GPU's to rail 3, you would probably run into problems, even though you only have 2x GPU's on a 1500w PSU as they will draw more than 30A from that 12v rail.

Equally as easily you would be forgiven to pop all your 12V Drives, fans, pumps, lights etc into the sockets on the left, not realsiing that its sharing a 30A rail with your GPU.

Its a VERY easy mistake to make if you dont understand PSU's, please take care out there guys... :)
 
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Yeah with careful placement he makes sure his gfx cards are only solo rails with nothing sharing makes sense, so whats your XFX manual showing lol
 
kamz said:
Stu sorry to go off topic
Click to expand...

Hey, discuss away mate, its all relevant and interesting for anyone who doesnt understand and if it saves someone else struggling for a year with his rig then we ahve scored. I should know better as i DO understand it. very annoying... in fact, its high time I E-mailed them about it just to make me feel a bit better. :mad:
 
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