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Budget card upto £150

30a on 12v rails = 360w
someone will correct me if im wrong ;p but iirc, the cpu and gpu runs off the 12v rails
the 3570k is rated at 77w tdp
7850 (for example) is rated at 130w

now you wont want to run a psu at full pelt, so lets say 80%
that leaves 288w
at stock ur max power draw is already 210w ish

actually running though the numbers, it should be fine. but if it isnt, the 1st place i'd look is at the psu
 
JonSmith said:
Depends if you want the best value card in that price range or the fastest card. The windforce GTX560ti is on offer and is the fastest card.

The 6870 offers the best value, and it's pretty close to the 560ti:

http://www.hwcompare.com/8890/geforce-gtx-560-ti-vs-radeon-hd-6870/
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290?vs=330

On average the stock 560ti is about 10% faster. The Windforce one posted is overclocked by around 10% however.
Click to expand...

I agree with this.

The 6870 is best value, but the 560 ti is faster.

According to Anadtech, it can be quite a bit faster in certain games.

And as has been pointed out already, this 560ti is superclocked, nice cooler and cheapest!

No brainer!

However are you sure you defo cant go for a 7850?
 
I've decided I will hold out for the 7850 so thanks for all your help!

Regarding the PSU issue, are you saying it can't run the overclock and to to stay with the stock speed? How much voltage will 3.4ghz to 4.6ghz add to the draw?
 
I think thats a wise decision (Am in the same boat but undecided), Its an upgrade in every sense (AMD or nvidia) when you go with latest breed. It could be cheaper though, the 78xx/77xx are also covering the mobile side, so have held its price till now (better yields maybe)

Edit: don`t mind me, just punching that score higher, need that free delivery soon lol
 
nono, you can run an overclock, but if it were me with that psu, i'd wouldnt up the voltage supplied too much so prolly aiming at a 4.2-4.4ghz oc rather than a 4.6+
regarding the gpu oc, well you can run it as high as u want, but when it crashes/becomes unstable, you'll know to step off the gas a bit and lower the oc ;p
 
Guys,

Thanks again for all the advice. Great to have such quick responses and expertise and opinion on tap!

Invaluable for a novice building their first pc.
 
I would agree, whilst PSU needs can be over inflated; there's nothing else that can take out a system like a poor PSU.
Sometimes you'll be lucky and get a 'good-un', but paired with high draw components they're more prone to being unstable, and can cause issues with stability etc
Plus, if they fail they can take out/damage more than just the PSU; in fact Im fairly sure a PSU dying was what contributed to a motherboard I have around here becoming highly unstable, as the system was stable as a rock before hand, and nowadays the board is only good as a spare.
 
Last edited:
Hmmm.

I could regret this, but I think I will stick with this 650W PSU for a while until I buy another... It is a risk, but I think a calculated one. These are my findings if anyone wants to continue reading, I am totally new to all this!


1. ASUS board has anti-surge protection. PSU is 80+ rated, has Short Circuit Protection (SCP), Over Voltage Protection (OVP) and Over temperature protection (OTP) and was designed for crossfire/Sli originally, but it’s a little old, but unused.​
PowerCool 650W PC-650AUBA Dual 12v V2.2 80+
2. The Over Current Protection Circuit (OCP) design provides for 2x 12v virtual rails on this PSU, therefore I could pull too much power on one rail and shut down the PSU as they are both quite low Ampage. 12V1 is 14amp and 12V2 is 16amp combined 30a and 360w.​

3. 12V1 (168w) is CPU which is more than enough 3570k run at 75w + 30w for o/c = 105w
12V2 (192w) is GPU and power consumption of the 7850 is extremely low around 107w for gaming up to 122w max for extreme stress.​

Anandtech 7850 power consumption
Atomic Graphic Card Power consumption

“For a system using a reference clocked single Radeon HD 7850 graphics card AMD specifies a minimum of a 500 Watt or greater power supply. The power supply should also have a combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 24 Amps or greater and have at least one 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector.”

4. Taking a combined draw of CPU and GPU of 122w +105w = 227w hopefully leaving enough room for the rest of the components even at 80% of max load?​

If it runs at stock, I'll then overclock slowly and stress, if it reboots or I smell smoke, hope I’ve not fried anything and buy new PSU then!

Does anyone think this will work?
 
on paper its fine, but i dont have any experience with powecool psu, so i couldnt honestly say if they're fibbing on their specs or not
 
pastymuncher said:
A 650w psu that can only deliver 360w on the 12v rails is pathetic. I have a enermax pro82+ 385w psu that can deliver 360w of its power to the 12v rail. You should forget about any upgrades until you get that psu replaced.
Click to expand...

+1.

OP: Also you've mentioned that it's 80+. This makes no difference. This just talks about the efficiency when it draws power from the wall. i.e. 80% efficiency when you read 500W drawn is actually 625W drawn and therefore 125W "wasted". This makes no difference to its reliability... It's supposed efficiency won't be of any use if it goes and takes your expensive components with it.

As above 360W on the 12V is really quite poor and I wouldn't trust its build quality if this is all what it can deliver.
 
Thanks for your responses.

I only mentioned 80+ as a cursory comment along with other points, it is not the crux of any decision. I thought it meant that at least the components and layout of the PSU could be relied on to be half-decent quality to gain the 80+ efficiency accreditation.

I also read that graphics card manufacturers overestimate the power needed for the card, in order to keep support of them to a minimum. And that some PSUs figures are underated. But I agree this may be for a more quality name.

I am not saying that this PSU will be best for this setup, I'm just trying to say that it may work with no problems, albeit with a risk that is not present in a PSU with higher ampage from the 12v rail.

I just wanted to know if it would work, to save me £60 when I'm already spending more money on the 7850. It is what it is, but the message is loud and clear from you guys, replace the psu!
 
It will work with a significantly higher risk than normal of failing and taking the rest with it. If you're prepared to live with this risk then fine :).

Plus you're going to be close to the wattage that the PSU can actually supply. Poor power supplies are known to fail when the load on them is near to its limits...
 
Slaine_uk said:
I also read that graphics card manufacturers overestimate the power needed for the card, in order to keep support of them to a minimum.
Click to expand...

they do that because of shady psu makers that advertises peak power supply (that cannot be infinitely maintained) rather than the true continuous power rating
 
buy a cheap GTX 460 for £100 for now, should be able to run most games on high-max settings at that resolution, and save up for a GTX 660 which will be a beast (hopefully) ;D

500 series is kinda overpriced atm imo, as are 670 & 680.
 
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