Overclocker gaming PCs and PSU

tangey

tangey

tangey

Associate
Joined
30 Mar 2010
Posts
630
What's the real deal with PSU ratings for gaming graphics cards.

For example, I note that the "titan wave", high end gaming overclocker bundle, comes with a 650W PSU. The standard graphics card in that bundle is an R280X with 3G of memory.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-063-OG&groupid=43&catid=2475&subcat=2489

(some of the lesser OC gaming PCs come with 550 watt PSUs and are also configurable with the R280X)

I don't know if it's the sapphire or another brand, but the R280X sapphire I've just bought says it needs a 750W PSU in the system, and recommends 1000W PSU.

It has 2x150W 8 way plugs, plus the 75W or whatever thru the edge connector, in theory that would suggest a 350W+ max power draw. On a 650W psu, is the 300Watts that are left more than sufficient for the system as shipped (Ock-ed board/CPU, 32G memory, SSD,HDD,fans etc ?).

Are the graphics card makers just being ultra conservative with their PSU requirements ?
 
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I see someone move my query. My primary question was whether the PSU in the pre-oced gaming systems supplied by Overclockers were at odds with PSU recommendations for the graphics cards that they supply as standard/ optional within those systems. Giving the example of the titan wave system that ships with a 650watt PSU, but with a graphics card that suggests a 750watt minimum, and recommends 1000 watt.

I'm sure overclockers knows exactly what they are doing, but just wondered is it due to the graphics cards manufacturers being really conservative with their system specs, or just some other relevant fact of which I am unaware.

Why someone moved this to the generic PSU forum from the complete systems bundle forum, I don't know.
 
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Its simple.

Because the PSUs OcUK use are trusted quality units where as the ratings the GFX card people say to use has to accommodate weak PSUs that claim to output 600W+ but in fact cannot sustain that.
 
Like Stulid says, the gpu manufacturers are covering all bases because not all psu's are equal. A cheap and nasty £20 600w psu is only likely to be able to deliver 300-350w (if you are lucky) before it blows up or shuts down because the rest of the voltage is on the minor rails where it's not needed. A good modern psu should be able to deliver most, if not all, of it's power on the 12v rail. OCUK would not package a psu that could not comfortably power the pc.

Just to give you a idea of how efficient cards (especially Nvidia ones) are getting, a pair of GTX970's in Sli will have a total system power draw of around 450w.
 
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