PSU+GPU Question

Smoogels

Smoogels

Smoogels

Associate
Joined
27 Oct 2007
Posts
2,147
Hey and thanks for reading my thread.

Forgive me if I am being a noob of some sort but I have a question regarding PSU and GPUs.

I was looking at a AMD card (6870) and on there site it said the min requirement is a 500W PSU.

Now, I am confused. Do that mean that the card uses 500W or do it mean that anything over 500W it can work comfortably with the system? If I ran a quad core CPU with it, 4GB ram etc could I get away with a 600W PSU?

I have been looking all over the AMD website but couldent find any information about the cards wattage.

Thanks for all replys.
 
What it means is that they recommend that you use a 500W or greater power supply, although in reality I'm sure you could get away with much less even with an overclocked cpu.
 
+1 the 500W+ requirement means that AMD recommend a 500W PSU or larger to power your whole system including the graphics card. At maximum load the HD 6870 graphics card only draws 151W.

That said, the capacity of the PSU is only one small part of the equation, you get lots of PSUs that are 500W+ and only cost £15-35. However these units are really poor quality and likely to damage your system if you use a proper graphics card with it. Therefore, make sure you get a good quality PSU that is around 500W.

With current prices, this is the PSU I would go for with your system spec (plus a graphics card like a HD 6870).
 
Thanks for clearing that up. I was thinking 500W for a GPU was a lot!

I think I may invest a little more and get a 600W PSU, just to be safe yet give a nice room for a upgrade if required.

Thank you all again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom