R9 390 on 550W PSU - go on, stop me!

Calo

Calo

Calo

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Hey guys, Im eyeing up the Gigabyte Radeon R9 390 which states a 600W PSU minimum, but im going to say nuts to that and use my 550W Corsair VS with its 42A 12v rail and 'gaurunteed' 550 watts at all times. 83% efficient is good right?

Go on, tell me its a bad idea...

I wont be overclocking it for this rig atm. My system spec in sig.

So, please try and convince me this is a bad idea. All benchmarks suggest my system will never go beyond ~430 Watts peak load
 
Normally a good quality 550w psu is more than enough for most single gpu systems. However, your psu is rubbish and so is the statement "guaranteed 550 watts at all times". It only has 504w on the 12v rail where it's needed. It is the cheapest and nastiest of the Corsair units and has really poor quality internals. It's not even bronze rated. We don't even recommend the CX series on here and they are a step up from the VS!!

While it may power your system because of the low power cpu, it will be close to it's limits and I would advise you to buy a decent psu which is what you should have done in the first place. Buy cheap, buy twice, especially when it comes to psu's.
 
pastymuncher said:
While it may power your system because of the low power cpu, it will be close to it's limits and I would advise you to buy a decent psu...
Click to expand...

good replies thank you. I'll admit I didnt know much about psu's at the time of buying a year ago and wish i put a 750 watt in there.

My question is, has anyone ever had the psu fail due to heavy demand from the gpu? I game for less than 3 hours a day usually.
 
I didn't know much about PSUs until recently, heck I thought Hiper were a good brand!

Personally I don't know anyone who's had a PSU fail under load, but my dad had a CiT PSU that started buzzing/crackling/smelling strongly etc under load. Bear in mind that all he was doing at the time was IE and Firefox! I made sure he changed it before it caused any issues despite him saying it was fine...

Whilst it's not as bad as some of the CiT junk out there, your PSU is a budget model. It would probably power your system OK, but as pasty says, it's going to be near it's limits. If you're entering the territory of high-end GPUs, you ideally want a PSU you can rely on to perform. Corasir do make some decent PSUs, but the VS series are their cheapest. If I was spending circa £290 on a GPU, I'd want to be confident that my PSU is going to be stable.
 
Well guys I'm almost convinced!

I've heard so many good things about EVGA that this may be a good time to get one of their components. As an upgrade, im looking at the EVGA 650 GQ - seems appropriate for a single GPU setup.
 
The higher-tier EVGA PSUs are really good. I've got a G2 750W powering my main system, a GS 550W in my HTPC and my dad's now got a G2 650W unit. The warranty is very good and the RMA centre is now UK-based.

For your particular needs, I'd recommend:

Super Flower Leadex 550W
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/supe...lus-gold-power-supply-gunmetal-ca-048-sf.html

EVGA GS 550W
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/evga...plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-023-ea.html

Antec Truepower 550W
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/antec-truepower-classic-550w-80-plus-gold-power-supply-ca-202-an.html

Antec Truepower 650W
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/antec-truepower-classic-650w-80-plus-gold-power-supply-ca-203-an.html

The EVGA and Super Flower are fully modular, it's just that the LEDs on the Super Flower PSUs put some people off. The EVGA unit is made by Seasonic.

For a non-modular PSU, the Antec TruePower series are very good. I can't remember who makes these PSUs, it's either Seasonic or Delta, both are top-tier OEMs.

The nearest Corsair unit I'd suggest is the RM550X, but it's more expensive.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cors...lar-power-supply-cp-9020090-uk-ca-208-cs.html

A good 550W PSU will power any single GPU setup at this point in time. I used to have a Seasonic 520W powering a 4670K @4.2GHz and a GTX 980Ti.
 
The EVGA GQ 650w will do you fine. While it's not as good as the Superflower built units it is still a very good psu and much better than the heap of junk you have now. It's also only £70. The OEM is FSP and it can output all of it's 650w on the 12v rail. Review here.
 
Been running a 390 and an EVGA Supernova 550w GS Gold 80+ in my sons PC since christmas and its been fine. Though its a much better PSU than the one you have. :)
 
That's the thing though, a quality 550w is more than enough for just about any single gpu set up. His though isn't quality at all and is just about a step up from a generic £15 psu.
 
Cheers I really appreciate the feedback. Doom 4 is just around the corner and I want this rig to be sound. 5 year warranty on those PSUs is great to see.
 
I ran this system without a overclock on the 3570k and 2x HD 7850's instead of the R9 290 with a 550w XFX Core Edition, needless to say after 3 months of it I had to RMA it and upgrade the PSU. (I know mine is overpowered for what I do but 10 year warranty and will be used for years in new builds)
 
in my humble opinion its one piece of kit you never regret paying over the odds for, when you skimp then realise you can't crossfire or sli, its a total boner......
 
yeah idd, was so glad i thought ahead last time i upgraded psu even though i was using a single 7950 at the time as its enabled me to crossfire my last 2 sets of cards since then.
 
ive had a vs350 and did fine in several months i had it, i didnt have choice at the time of purchase, but held up with my not so demanding gaming computer and i used to leave on more than 24hrs at times, only got rid as i knew the rep and i wanted a graphics card better than a 750, i sold it in a older gaming system with a Q6600 and heard not issues.

ive also had a cx 430 and for the month i had it was holding up fine and i chose to purchase this, only got rid of that because i sold the gaming system i built as i needed the money.

had a 500w CiT and only because it came with the CiT case i purchased and that was fine for couple months and overclcocking i did, but the system was old with a multimedia dx11 graphics card and was only built for that reason, was too weak for crysis so no gamer for sure, sold it because thats what i do.


while your 550w would be fine, i wouldnt constantly use it for such a system, i dont know how much extra power a 390 puts out over a 270x, but my 520w seasonic holds up fine.
 
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