Is my PSU enough for a DirectX 11 card?

CurlyWhirly · 28 Mar 2009 at 16:18

I have a 600W OCZ PSU in my PC and what I was wondering is whether I would need to upgrade it when the next generation DirectX 11 graphics cards are released later this year?

I'm currently running a factory overclocked 9800 GTX+ and a Q9650 quad core processor along with 4 GB of 800 Mhz RAM and a X-Fi sound card.
My O/S is Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

I'm not looking into running Crossfire or SLI as my motherboard doesn't do it as it only has the single PCI Express slot.

Talking of PCI Express, am I right in thinking that I don't have the fastest PCI Express interface as mine is only PCI-E x16 :confused:

Klo · 28 Mar 2009 at 16:36

The chances are that you won't, but until these cards come out, who knows?

DeathTyrant · 28 Mar 2009 at 16:38

PCI-E x16 is the max on all the boards that I know of, so no, you will be ok. Is is PCI-E 2.0?

As for DX11 GPUs, well a 600w PSU should be plenty for a single card, and even enough for an X2 card. Unless they go nuts with super massive chips.

CurlyWhirly · 28 Mar 2009 at 16:45

DeathTyrant said:
PCI-E x16 is the max on all the boards that I know of, so no, you will be ok. Is is PCI-E 2.0?

I'm not sure if PCI-E x16 is the same as PCI-E 2.0 :confused:

I'll have to google it.

DeathTyrant said:
As for DX11 GPUs, well a 600w PSU should be plenty for a single card, and even enough for an X2 card. Unless they go nuts with super massive chips.

A single card will do me fine so if that's true then I'll be okay.

CurlyWhirly · 28 Mar 2009 at 16:46

Klo said:
The chances are that you won't, but until these cards come out, who knows?

I hope you are wrong

Alexrose1uk · 28 Mar 2009 at 17:00

I'd say you should be fine, the OCZ aren't quite as strong as say Corsair, Tagan or Antec, but they're still pretty decent. It depends on how power efficient the next round is; as more powerful =! hugely higher power draw.

CurlyWhirly · 28 Mar 2009 at 17:06

Alexrose1uk said:
I'd say you should be fine, the OCZ aren't quite as strong as say Corsair, Tagan or Antec, but they're still pretty decent. It depends on how power efficient the next round is; as more powerful =! hugely higher power draw.

I'll just have to wait and see then

I was going to upgrade to a GTX 285 but was advised to wait for the next generation of graphics cards (my PSU isn't up to powering a GTX 295 as it requires a minimum 680W PSU according to Nvidia)

dangerstat · 28 Mar 2009 at 17:43

I think you'll be find with a 600W PSU, looking at what my 450W (cheapo) PSU is running right now I can say without a shadow a doubt it'd cope with a DX11 card in it's sleep

RIZZEE · 28 Mar 2009 at 17:48

so there wouldnt be much point in buying a high end gpu now then?

milkinc13 · 28 Mar 2009 at 21:15

who knows. it should be. dx10 cards didn't need much mor ethan dx 9 cards

Fledge · 28 Mar 2009 at 23:52

Klo said:
The chances are that you won't, but until these cards come out, who knows?

Agree

superflyguy · 29 Mar 2009 at 12:18

Be fine, smaller die's are more effecient than older cards.

Talrinys · 29 Mar 2009 at 12:25

That PCI-E interface is not going to be enough for the new cards

bosTRom · 29 Mar 2009 at 12:38

Talrinys said:
That PCI-E interface is not going to be enough for the new cards

So people who have just upgraded to i7 will have to upgrade again? :eek:

Malazan · 29 Mar 2009 at 14:16

Alexrose1uk said:
I'd say you should be fine, the OCZ aren't quite as strong as say Corsair, Tagan or Antec, but they're still pretty decent. It depends on how power efficient the next round is; as more powerful =! hugely higher power draw.

There's nothing good about Tagan PSU's, they're about on the same level as OCZ. PC Power and Cooling, Corsair, most Antec's (they have upped their game recently) especially the signature line, and the new Enermax revolutions (hideously expensive), Seasonic, and the Thermaltake Toughpower line are all mcuh better thn Tagan.

Malazan · 29 Mar 2009 at 14:18

"I was going to upgrade to a GTX 285 but was advised to wait for the next generation of graphics cards (my PSU isn't up to powering a GTX 295 as it requires a minimum 680W PSU according to Nvidia)"

And that's complete and utter twaddle from Nvidia too.

CurlyWhirly · 29 Mar 2009 at 19:21

dangerstat said:
I think you'll be find with a 600W PSU, looking at what my 450W (cheapo) PSU is running right now I can say without a shadow a doubt it'd cope with a DX11 card in it's sleep

Thanks that's reassuring

CurlyWhirly · 29 Mar 2009 at 19:26

Talrinys said:
That PCI-E interface is not going to be enough for the new cards

So that's what this talk about PCI-E 2.0 is about then?

CurlyWhirly · 29 Mar 2009 at 19:30

Malazan said:
"I was going to upgrade to a GTX 285 but was advised to wait for the next generation of graphics cards (my PSU isn't up to powering a GTX 295 as it requires a minimum 680W PSU according to Nvidia)"

And that's complete and utter twaddle from Nvidia too.

I was just going by the 'official' minimum requirements

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/product_geforce_gtx_295_uk.html

Talrinys · 29 Mar 2009 at 19:40

CurlyWhirly said:
So that's what this talk about PCI-E 2.0 is about then?

New boards have PCI-E 2 which doubles the bandwidth per lanes, designed for newer cards, i'm not sure how CPU-Z would show it, but i'm absolutely convinced that the current bandwidth with a PCI-E1 16x link will not be enough for the new cards. That doesn't mean you might not see an improvement, just that in some/many cases you won't see max output of the card.