GTX480x3 PSU Requirement?

[TheUnk]

Is 1000W enough?

i7-930@4GHz
6Gb RAM
1 SSD
1 1TB HDD


Moved to PSU forum.

Super Moderator BFG10K.

 

[Grooveriding]

Negative.

I am going this route soon, 1200W is about what you need.

 

[TheUnk]

Aww that sucks.. Thought this Corsair 1000W would last forever!

 

[Conscript]

I'm thinking you'll either need a nearby nuclear reactor or harness the power of the sun. /ducks

 

[-Slacker-]

Why not 3 570s?

 

[TheUnk]

Why not 3 570s?

Already have 2 480s

 

[Spikesoldier]

yeah im leaning toward 1200w too especially with that OC on the CPU.

 

[Grooveriding]

Already have 2 480s

Same deal here. Plus the 480 is mildly faster and overclocks higher, plus it's cheaper than a 570 depending on where you get it.

Problem is you need serious power to run more than one. I will need to sell my HX1000 and upgrade to get the third one, so I am still not sure.

But this deal is making me tempted to just do it

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...y&promoid=1267

 

[Rubycon]

Corsair AX1200, Antec HC1200, Thermaltake Toughpower 1200, Enermax EVO Galaxy 1250 all work well with that configuration.

 

[Jacky60]

Aww that sucks.. Thought this Corsair 1000W would last forever!

Know the feeling I can count 7 really crap PSU's I stupidly bought before getting the Enermax Revolution 1250W. In future I'll always buy top end cases/psu if and when current ones fail (not sure how a case fails but you know what I mean)

 

[Rifter]

Know the feeling I can count 7 really crap PSU's I stupidly bought before getting the Enermax Revolution 1250W. In future I'll always buy top end cases/psu if and when current ones fail (not sure how a case fails but you know what I mean)

Im leaning this way too. Going to go all out on my next case and PSU.

 

[digitaldurandal]

A good 1k will probably run them at stock settings, it would definitely be pushing it beyond efficiency though - id upgrade to be on the safe side.

To be honest I wouldn't go tri sli at all. What exactly are you trying to accomplish with your rig, that means you need a third gpu? Folding?

 

[toyota]

A good 1k will probably run them at stock settings, it would definitely be pushing it beyond efficiency though - id upgrade to be on the safe side.

To be honest I wouldn't go tri sli at all. What exactly are you trying to accomplish with your rig, that means you need a third gpu? Folding?

pushing it beyond efficiency? not even sure what that means but even the best 1000 watt psu would be out of luck with a highly overclocked i7 and tri sli gtx480 setup under full load. remember the gtx480 cards could easly exceed their 250 watt tdp. so thats more than 750 watts right there. and a 930 i7 at 4.0 could easily pull close to 200 watts. thats 950 watts right there without any other components plus the gtx480 cards could easily pull well more than 750 total. you are looking at well over 1000 watts during full load and that psu probably doesn't have 1000 watts available on the 12v line.

 

[Jacky60]

Im leaning this way too. Going to go all out on my next case and PSU.

Didn't mention the 2 turds of cases I have sitting unused beside me. Also my Antec 900 wasn't really big enough for current setup so previous rig sold at a loss. At least cases and PSU's if big and powerful enough can last a long time as the other contents certainly don't. The Antec wasn't a turd btw just not big enough.

 

[Rifter]

Didn't mention the 2 turds of cases I have sitting unused beside me. Also my Antec 900 wasn't really big enough for current setup so previous rig sold at a loss. At least cases and PSU's if big and powerful enough can last a long time as the other contents certainly don't. The Antec wasn't a turd btw just not big enough.

Yeah, my antec 300 was fine till i crammed a noctura NHD14 cooler into it and 2 GTX 460's. And the lack of any kind of cable management is a PITA when you are running 4+ hdds/optical drives and 2 GPU's.

Im going to go with something like the corsair cases next time, they usually have excellent cooling and cable management.

 

[exar333]

1200w would be ideal, especially if you are OCing the 480s at all.

 

[solofly]

My system is around 900W at full load (640W with two 460GTXs) so if I were to add another 480/580 that would put me 1200W range which isn't enough. I personally would go with at least 1500W PSU for tri-SLI...

 

[toyota]

1200w would be ideal, especially if you are OCing the 480s at all.

1200w would be the very minimum I would recommend and even then I would say be careful with the overclocking. a system with 3 overclocked gtx480 cards and 4.0 i7 930 will pull well over 1000 watts so you dont want to push your psu to 90-95% of what it can handle on the 12v line.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Wow. Make sure that your house wiring is up to the task as well.

 

[Rifter]

Wow. Make sure that your house wiring is up to the task as well.

Or just fire up your personal nuclear reactor.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Or just fire up your personal nuclear reactor.

http://www.ketzer.com/delorean_mode...zer.com/delorean_model/delorean_mrfusion.html

 

[AdamK47]

Wow. Make sure that your house wiring is up to the task as well.

I had to get an electrician out after I fried a section of mine. Good thing the house didn't burn down.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

I had to get an electrician out after I fried a section of mine. Good thing the house didn't burn down.

That will make me think twice about going crossfire in my 100 year old house...

 

[maniac5999]

I had to get an electrician out after I fried a section of mine. Good thing the house didn't burn down.

Yup, a lot of people don't understand just how much power a high end gaming rig pulls.

Just so people know, the voltage formula is Volts * Amps = Watts,
So a 10Amp circuit breaker or fuse (the most common kind in older houses) trips when you reach
10A * 120v = 1200w
Sounds fine, right? well, if you assume that that Tri-SLI setup is pulling the max 1200w out of that PSU, and that we're still running at 80% efficiency, then we actually are drawing 1200 * (1/0.8) = 1500w out of the wall.

What if you put in a bigger 15Amp breaker like they use for major kitchen appliances? Well, remember they use upgraded wires on those circuits just so that you don't fry the wires in the wall and burn down the house. (Putting a 15 Amp breaker in in that situation would basically be overclocking your house, and I don't know about you, but I can afford to have my desktop melt down, but not my house ) Even with 1800w to play with, you might STILL not have enough power. Is the PSU the only thing plugged into that circuit? What about your monitor? Any lights?

All of this just goes to show how ridiculous of a card the 480 is. It's good that the 580 is an improvement on the power front, but I suspect that in the next generation or two all cards will begin to utilize the kind of power management that AMD put on the 69XX cards.

 

[RavenSEAL]

1200w...

I hope the electrical wiring in your home is in good condition...