Associate
Hi folks, I thought I would ask on here as well on going on my own past experiences with SLI and PSU shutdown lol.
I have no intention of going to an 8800GTX yet for 2 reasons:
1. I just spent a month making an old skool custom ghetto tower and it won't physically take a 8800GTX with the heatercores at the front of the case.
2. £500+new case no thanks lol.
Hennyway, I have been using my X1900XTX happily for some time but have always wanted faster framerates at 1920x1200 and with Crossfire cards being sold cheaper now is the time to take the plunge. However, I have an Enermax Liberty 620W PSU and using a power meter and 3Dmark 06 demo (more demanding on power than just the tests it seems) I am getting 369W full load. This doesn't put load on my second core either I believe so could poss add 15-20w again I guess. Now the Liberty is a great PSU but I just don't know how much extra draw a Crossfire being added in would place on it.
Technically if you bring PSU efficiency into the equation then the draw from the components on the PSU is approx 295W going on Enermax's approx 80% efficiency at load. Would I be wrong in factoring that in? What do you guys reckon? I don't really want to have to fork out on a new PSU if I don't have to as this one is perfect but would reahter get one in advance than get a nice shutdown surprise every time something explodes on screen lol!
Cheers,
Nick
.
/edit Hmm, having actually had a quick nosey around on Anand at least it would appear that approx 150W is added on when using Crossfire. This will give me a draw of approx 520W at the wall and approx 416W from the actual components. I haven't finished overclocking the CPU etc so I am not sure just how much more to factor in for that. Arsch. Opinions/experiences still wanted thanks.
I have no intention of going to an 8800GTX yet for 2 reasons:
1. I just spent a month making an old skool custom ghetto tower and it won't physically take a 8800GTX with the heatercores at the front of the case.
2. £500+new case no thanks lol.
Hennyway, I have been using my X1900XTX happily for some time but have always wanted faster framerates at 1920x1200 and with Crossfire cards being sold cheaper now is the time to take the plunge. However, I have an Enermax Liberty 620W PSU and using a power meter and 3Dmark 06 demo (more demanding on power than just the tests it seems) I am getting 369W full load. This doesn't put load on my second core either I believe so could poss add 15-20w again I guess. Now the Liberty is a great PSU but I just don't know how much extra draw a Crossfire being added in would place on it.
Technically if you bring PSU efficiency into the equation then the draw from the components on the PSU is approx 295W going on Enermax's approx 80% efficiency at load. Would I be wrong in factoring that in? What do you guys reckon? I don't really want to have to fork out on a new PSU if I don't have to as this one is perfect but would reahter get one in advance than get a nice shutdown surprise every time something explodes on screen lol!
Cheers,
Nick
./edit Hmm, having actually had a quick nosey around on Anand at least it would appear that approx 150W is added on when using Crossfire. This will give me a draw of approx 520W at the wall and approx 416W from the actual components. I haven't finished overclocking the CPU etc so I am not sure just how much more to factor in for that. Arsch. Opinions/experiences still wanted thanks
.
Last edited:
