Is a 600 watt psu enough for a GTX 280?

A

A13X

Limp Gawd
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Nov 5, 2005
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Ive got a seasonic s12-600. Its a really good overall psu (and it was kind of overkill when I bought it), but with all ive been hearing about power hungry cards and these crazy 1200 watt psus out im not sure if 600 watts enough to power a single GTX 280.

Lets say i get a quad core intel cpu, 4 gigs of ram, and a gtx280. Is the s12-600 enough or do I have to get a new psu?
 
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^That slide is a load of bullshit. You could easily run a GTX280 off a quality 450W PSU. A good 600W would be absolutely fine with a GTX280 and a quad.
 
Zero82z said:
^That slide is a load of bullshit. You could easily run a GTX280 off a quality 450W PSU. A good 600W would be absolutely fine with a GTX280 and a quad.
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They have always overstated requirements because if they said 450W, then some tool would go out and buy a Deer 450W and complain that the GTX280 made his PSU blow up and burn his house down. On that note, I'm certain even a Deer 1000W would still do that if such a thing existed.
 
dandragonrage said:
They have always overstated requirements because if they said 450W, then some tool would go out and buy a Deer 450W and complain that the GTX280 made his PSU blow up and burn his house down. On that note, I'm certain even a Deer 1000W would still do that if such a thing existed.
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Yeah, I know that. Still, it doesn't mean people should go by those numbers while shopping for a quality PSU.
 
Zero82z said:
^That slide is a load of bullshit. You could easily run a GTX280 off a quality 450W PSU. A good 600W would be absolutely fine with a GTX280 and a quad.
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Why is the chart bullshit? The chart states 550w is recommended & you said 600w..What is wrong about that?
 
Donovan Tipton said:
Why is the chart bullshit? The chart states 550w is recommended & you said 600w..What is wrong about that?
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I said 450W is enough. The OP has a 600W which I said would be plenty, however you could technically run a GTX280 system on as little as a quality 400W unit with no trouble. Hence the 550W minimum requirement being bullshit.
 
i wouldnt attempt to run a quad and a gtx280 on less than a 40amp 12v rail psu if you intend to overclock at all PERIOD, regardless what nvidia says, for a stock rig 33amps and up should be sufficient.
 
Ya know, I was looking around at the 300w - 400w psu's & it is rather amazing at how many are Sli & Crossfire certified..Are they meaning old cards or would they be "liable" if you cranked up a couple or 4870x2's on a 300w psu?
 
Donovan Tipton said:
Ya know, I was looking around at the 300w - 400w psu's & it is rather amazing at how many are Sli & Crossfire certified..Are they meaning old cards or would they be "liable" if you cranked up a couple or 4870x2's on a 300w psu?
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Old cards only, and some probably were never certified in the first place. Tagan got in trouble a while back for putting "SLI Certified" on their PSUs that hadn't been tested, and if they'll do it I wouldn't be at all surprised to find less reputable brands doing the same.

SLIzone.com keeps a reasonably up to date list of SLI Certified PSUs and what they're certified for.
 
Donovan Tipton said:
Ya know, I was looking around at the 300w - 400w psu's & it is rather amazing at how many are Sli & Crossfire certified..Are they meaning old cards or would they be "liable" if you cranked up a couple or 4870x2's on a 300w psu?
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None of the current generation of cards would work particularly well (if at all) on a 300W PSU. However, a quality 450W unit like the Seasonic-built Corsair VX450 is capable of powering any single-card solution out there, although most people like to go up to something bigger to give them headroom. A 600W PSU is plenty for any reasonable dual-GPU system, although for something like a dual 4870X2 or dual GX2 system, you'd probably want something around 750W.
 
Rattle said:
i wouldnt attempt to run a quad and a gtx280 on less than a 40amp 12v rail psu if you intend to overclock at all PERIOD, regardless what nvidia says, for a stock rig 33amps and up should be sufficient.
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So can I run my Q6600 and a 280GTX on a Corsair HX620W??

Man I hope not to ask these questions on my near future build with my Ultra 1600 X3 I purchased last year.... Sigh..
 
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