4890 psu requirements

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biggles

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Anybody know what this is? My Antec power supply is 500w with 36a on the 12v rail. Apparently, my psu is too low to run the new nvidia gtx 275, so I'm considering a 4890 instead. Next game I will play is Fallout 3 at 1680x1050 (native res of lcd monitor), hoping to run 60 fps with 8xAA.
 
biggles said:
Anybody know what this is? My Antec power supply is 500w with 36a on the 12v rail. Apparently, my psu is too low to run the new nvidia gtx 275, so I'm considering a 4890 instead. Next game I will play is Fallout 3 at 1680x1050 (native res of lcd monitor), hoping to run 60 fps with 8xAA.
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Intel Core 2 Duo e6400 | MSI P6N SLI motherboard
4 gb corsair 800 mhz DDR2 RAM
BFG Geforce 8800gt oc 512mb
CHIMEI CMV 221D 22" LCD monitor
Sound Blaster X-fi ExtremeGamer | Logitech Z-680 5.1 speakers
Windows XP home SP3
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Power Requirements

+12V@36A is a little light these days, but if your Antec is less than a year old & you are not OC'ing, you "should" be able to run either, although you are "pushing it".

The bare minimum has been +12V@40A@50C for quite awhile & is steadily moving towards +12V@50A@50C.

If considering SLI, just go ahead & invest $100 in a Corsair TX850 with +12V@70A@50C & be done with it!

Best Wishes,
Dave
 
you dont need a 4890 or gtx275 for 1680. a gtx260 for 189 bucks would make much more sense at that res and with your cpu. if your e6400 is stock then even a gtx260 would be pretty held back in many games. to be honest if you arent going to oc that cpu then you might as well stick with your current card.
 
Might work. Barely.

If you go Xfire you will probably need more.


Great choice with the HD4890.
 
Assuming that power supply actually has 36A available and you're not just adding the max load of separate 12V rails together, you should be just fine (if you're not sure, just post your exact PSU model and someone can figure it out I suppose). The system being tested on TechReport is an i7 quad to begin with compared to your E6400, and with it using only 309 watts from the wall as opposed to actual DC output, I don't see any reason to be worried with what you have.
 
Trombe said:
Assuming that power supply actually has 36A available and you're not just adding the max load of separate 12V rails together, you should be just fine (if you're not sure, just post your exact PSU model and someone can figure it out I suppose). The system being tested on TechReport is an i7 quad to begin with compared to your E6400, and with it using only 309 watts from the wall as opposed to actual DC output, I don't see any reason to be worried with what you have.
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OK, here is the exact model number and specs:
Antec SP-500 500w
5v rail 35a, 12v1 rail 17a, 12v2 rail 19a
 
biggles said:
OK, here is the exact model number and specs:
Antec SP-500 500w
5v rail 35a, 12v1 rail 17a, 12v2 rail 19a
Click to expand...
that wouldnt actually add up to 36 on the 12v though. also like I already mentioned a 4890 or gtx275 would be no better than a gtx260 with your cpu at its stock speed.
 
Okay, I probably wouldn't trust that PSU in particular then, given that the label on it doesn't even give a max 12V load value at all. If it was an EarthWatts 500 that would've worked plenty fine though. At this point what card is best for you also depends on how much your CPU is overclocked as noted earlier. Whether you also need a new PSU, I don't know for sure, but I'd recommend doing so anyway to be on the safe side.
 
cannondale06 said:
that wouldnt actually add up to 36 on the 12v though. also like I already mentioned a 4890 or gtx275 would be no better than a gtx260 with your cpu at its stock speed.
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Actually my 6400 is overclocked to 3 ghz. And I know that the 4890 is a bit more than is needed for 1680x1050, but I want some future-proofing (what if I upgrade the monitor in a few months?). What is the number of amps on the 12v rail for this power supply model (apparently, I do not know how to calculate this number)?
 
biggles said:
Actually my 6400 is overclocked to 3 ghz. And I know that the 4890 is a bit more than is needed for 1680x1050, but I want some future-proofing (what if I upgrade the monitor in a few months?). What is the number of amps on the 12v rail for this power supply model (apparently, I do not know how to calculate this number)?
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well even a 4870 or gtx260 will tear through games at 1680 and even 1920. so unless you realistically plan on upgrading to a 30inch monitor then its not even an issue at all.
 
biggles said:
OK, here is the exact model number and specs:
Antec SP-500 500w
5v rail 35a, 12v1 rail 17a, 12v2 rail 19a
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doing some digging on the SP-500 brought up this:

http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/specs/SP500_spe.html


From the specs:
* +5V, +12V1, 12V2 and +3.3V maxload: 480Watts
* +5V and +3.3V combined output: 180Watts

So my answer would be no. Best to look for a better 500W-600W PSU for the 4890.

I'd probably recommend the 650TX if you intend to stay single card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005
 
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Ok, my bad. I did not see that biggles posted his PSU model. I recommend getting a new PSU:

The Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series(which that SP500 is part of) were well known for their above average death rates due to a poor choice in caps and cooling design. In more specific terms, Antec/CWT specified/used caps that did not respond well to heat. Unfortunately, Antec made the decision to have the PSU fan only ramp at really high temps in an effort to keep the PSU quiet. However, just medium to high temps were enough to screw up the caps so really high temps were murderous. Over time, this degraded the quality and performance of those PSU series. So yeah it might be time to upgrade the PSU.

Oh and you determine the amperage on the +12V rails by first finding out what's the total combined, max load, combined or max wattage set aside for the +12V rails/section alone. Then divide that total by 12 and you get how much amps the PSU has on the +12V rail.

That's the correct way to find out how much amps a power supply has. Don't add up the amps on the +12V rail to figure out the amperage. Doesn't work that way. If the total combined or max wattage can't be found on the power supply, check the manufacturer's page for that PSU for that info. If the manufacturer doesn't provide that information, it's generally a good sign for you to drop that power supply from consideration.

So definitely replace your PSU. What would be your budget for this new PSU?
 
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That antec psu and a 1gb 4870 on a oc e8400 on my brother's pc wasnt stable. Installed a corsair psu, and all ok.
 
Get yourself a solid 600W+ PSU and you shouldn't have any power problems.
 
Thanks for the replies, guys. I like the Corsair psu suggested by biskquik above. That would match up well with the 4890 video card.
 
biggles said:
Thanks for the replies, guys. I like the Corsair psu suggested by biskquik above. That would match up well with the 4890 video card.
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Its not so much that 500W isn't enough power as it is your perticular 500W unit just isn't up to par. A solid 500W unit would power your rig just fine.
 
Well I just grabbed myself one of these new 4890s and so far I haven't had any trouble with stability at all.

My power supply has 41a combined on the 12v rail though.

Seasonic S12 Energy+ 550W

I'll have to give it a bit longer though. I have played Crysis for a few hours today though. Man, that game looks awesome on Very high settings at 1920x1200. :)
 
Canon said:
Well I just grabbed myself one of these new 4890s and so far I haven't had any trouble with stability at all.

My power supply has 41a combined on the 12v rail though.

Seasonic S12 Energy+ 550W

I'll have to give it a bit longer though. I have played Crysis for a few hours today though. Man, that game looks awesome on Very high settings at 1920x1200. :)
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not quite sure how you're getting a good experience on V.High at 1920x... my GTX260's in SLI are only just about acceptable for me.
 
nightwalker said:
not quite sure how you're getting a good experience on V.High at 1920x... my GTX260's in SLI are only just about acceptable for me.
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To be fair, Crysis does not scale well with multiple GPUs.
 
Well... I guess it's all subjective.

I'm ok with 20-30fps.

On my old card (8800 GTS 320mb), I would get 7-10fps with those settings (which is unplayable of course).
 
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