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Power consumption figures for 4870?

Lysander

Lysander

Lysander

Capodecina
Soldato
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Gentlemen,

Could someone give me figures from their own experience of the 4870? I'm thinking of getting one but do not want to buy a new PSU. My present PSU is 400W - do you think this'll be enough?

Other specs are 3GB RAM, E6600, two SATA's.
 
If it's not a crap noname one then it's plenty.

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I actually measured mine with a Killawatt meter. Here's what I found at the socket so its around %15 less with losses

With 3 Harddrives, Q9450 @ 3ghz, 5x 120mm Fans at 7 volts, D5 Pump, Xonar, 4870 stock

Idle about 180 watts
Load about 280 watts Avg depending what your doing. 220 - 300 watts range.
 
The Asgard said:
I actually measured mine with a Killawatt meter. Here's what I found at the socket so its around %15 less with losses

With 3 Harddrives, Q9450 @ 3ghz, 5x 120mm Fans at 7 volts, D5 Pump, Xonar, 4870 stock

Idle about 180 watts
Load about 280 watts Avg depending what your doing. 220 - 300 watts range.
Click to expand...

Very nice, thanks. Seems I should be fine with 400W.
 
Lysander said:
Very nice, thanks. Seems I should be fine with 400W.
Click to expand...

Personally I think you might be pushing it a bit. Rated power from some manufactures can be a bit misleading. I suspect the Akasa will struggle. 500Watt would be the minimum I would recommend from someone like corsair.

I have seen PSU's pushed to the edge that have taken out mobos, cpu, memory. The PSU is the most important component in your PC. Skimp on it or push it and you risk everything.

Hope yours covered for fire mate :eek:
 
Well i had set my mind on the 4850 as i didn't think my psu would be up to running the 4870.

E8400 (stock)
1x Samsung 500gb hdd
1x Pioneer BD
4gb Ram
Asus P5E-VM Mobo
Antec Fusion Black Case

Antec EarthWatts EA 430 (430 Watt ATX12V v2.0)

Output Load Range Reg. Ripple Noise
Voltage Min Max
+5V 0.5A 20.0A ±5％ 50 50
+12V1 1.0A 17.0A ±5％ 120 120
+12V2 1.0A 16.0A ±5％ 120 120
-12V 0A 0.8A ±10％ 120 120
+5VSB 0A 2.5A ±5％ 50 50
+3.3V 0.5A 20.0A ±5％ 50 50

Sorry to butt in on your thread Lysander.
 
The Asgard said:
Personally I think you might be pushing it a bit. Rated power from some manufactures can be a bit misleading. I suspect the Akasa will struggle. 500Watt would be the minimum I would recommend from someone like corsair.
Click to expand...

To be honest I kind of agree - looking at my costings I might get a 24" monitor this month instead of the 22", and get the 4870 and new PSU next month.
 
Ignore the total power of the PSU, and just look at the 12V rails. If the PSU can push out a total of 30 amps (it can be split rails, or a combined rail), then it should be fine for a modern system. a lot of people way overestimate PSU requirements.

I would happily run a single 4870 from a 400W seasonic PSU for example.

A big problem with some PSUs (excluding the supplies with simply take a mass produced 300W supply, and sell it as a 650W mega supply), is that older supplies often had high output 5V rails, but low output 12V. As CPU, and Graphics cards have both moved from the 5v rail to the 12v rail, even a behemoth PSU from a reputable brand is quite likely to fail. (Say my old enermax, it was over 40 amps on 5v, but its 12v rail was less than 20amps!. Total power from the unit was considerable, but it was not suitable for a modern PC at all due to the older rail configuration.
 
adam2975 said:
Well i had set my mind on the 4850 as i didn't think my psu would be up to running the 4870.

E8400 (stock)
1x Samsung 500gb hdd
1x Pioneer BD
4gb Ram
Asus P5E-VM Mobo
Antec Fusion Black Case

Antec EarthWatts EA 430 (430 Watt ATX12V v2.0)
Click to expand...

I use the same Antec 430W on a 4870 and it works fine.
Along with a Phenom Quad core, 4GB Geil, 2 HDD's, TV card, pci wireless, VFD screen, Blu ray drive.
 
lee87 said:
I use the same Antec 430W on a 4870 and it works fine.
Along with a Phenom Quad core, 4GB Geil, 2 HDD's, TV card, pci wireless, VFD screen, Blu ray drive.
Click to expand...

Cheers lee87, glad i didn't buy the 4850 now! Just have to hold off for the release of the 4870x2 now to see if it drops the prices.
 
I've heard people using 420W PSU's with this card and had no problems at all. So If you have a 500W+ you should be fine, I wouldn't worry.

Like Corasik says though, its not the total watt you should be concerned with its the 12V rails that draw the power for the GPU so if they are strong enough you will have no worries at all.
 
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