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GTX580 SLI on 650 watts?

H

houe

Senior member
I purchased a GTX580 3GB (MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition) which according to [H] uses 28 watts less power at load than a regular 580. See http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/..._card_review/9

For SLI that is a savings of 56 watts so I think I'm going to try and run a couple of these on my Seasonic X-650 power supply. What do you think the chances are that it will work ok? Rest of system is in sig.

First card will arrive on Thursday. Probably waiting until BF3 release to purchase the 2nd.


Moved to PSU forum.

Super Moderator BFG10K.
 
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you would be absolutely foolish to try and run gtx580 SLI with your 650 watt psu. a 100% stock gtx580 can easily use 250 watts or mor playing a game so that would be 500 watts right there. your cpu even if stock would use well over 100 watts. that right there would be enough to stress the crap out of the 12v line. and if you had gtx580 sli you would want to oc the cpu to get the most out of that system. do NOT risk it.

with your i7 930 system, that single gtx580 is the highest you should even fool with.
 
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Won't work. I don't feel like digging up the URL but, in a test 580 SLI's when overclocked were pulling 900W from the wall.

So with 580 SLI you'd probably want 850 minimum, 1k preferred. If you're heavily overclocking a LOT of stuff, ie 5ghz cpu + dual gpu overclock you will want a 1000W psu.

At stock everything (cpu + gpu) bare minimum would be 750, but thats pretty iffy. But adding overclocking to the mix, it will add a *lotttt* of power draw
 
yeah 750 would be the very minimum to safely power all stock gtx580 and i7 930 system. and yeah overclocking can add tons of power usage on the i7 930 and/or gtx580 cards.
 
houe said:
54 amps on the 12V.
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even with stock gtx580 sli and stock i7 930 you would easily be using 90-95% of that during gaming. do not do it. buy a very high quality 850 watt psu or better and then you can oc your system a little and get the most out of it.
 
blackened23 said:
Won't work. I don't feel like digging up the URL but, in a test 580 SLI's when overclocked were pulling 900W from the wall.

So with 580 SLI you'd probably want 850 minimum, 1k preferred. If you're heavily overclocking a LOT of stuff, ie 5ghz cpu + dual gpu overclock you will want a 1000W psu.

At stock everything (cpu + gpu) bare minimum would be 750, but thats pretty iffy. But adding overclocking to the mix, it will add a *lotttt* of power draw
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Yeah, I probably won't overclock much. Maybe just a mild OC... depends on what i see from my kill a watt meter.
 
houe said:
Yeah, I probably won't overclock much. Maybe just a mild OC... depends on what i see from my kill a watt meter.
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even stock you are pushing that 12v over 90% which is foolish. you could easily have spikes that go to the very limit of what the psu can handle. do not be stupid.
 
Don't even think about SLI-ing 580's on a 650W PSU. It's going to turn from a PSU into a POS in no time.

If you're willing to spend $500 on a second video card, I think it wouldn't be too much trouble to sell the 650W PSU and buy a Corsair HX1050.

In their stress test it delivered 793 watts and pulled 943 watts from the wall before it failed.
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That's on a brand new unit (0% capacitor aging). It's overspecced for this very reason - over time, it should be able to deliver 650W despite capacitor aging.

Secondly the test is a momentary load. It doesn't mean that you'd be able to pull over 650W continuously, not for very long at least.
 
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4008/nvidias-geforce-gtx-580/17

Total system load: 620 watts in Crysis, 777 watts in Furmark.

If you stick to regular games you should be okay because those Seasonic X PSUs are incredibly overspecced (i.e. their label is much lower than they can handle). That version can deliver around ~790W from the overload tests I’ve seen.

You might reduce it’s life span pushing it that hard, but it does have a 5 year warranty.
 
houe said:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Seasonic-X-Series-650-W-Power-Supply-Review/837/8

In their stress test it delivered 793 watts and pulled 943 watts from the wall before it failed.
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thats great that found the absolute limit on a brand new power supply. best case scenario for you is that you stress the crap out of your power supply and significantly reduced its life. likely scenario is that you get brave and oc something and and it shuts down only damaging the psu. worst case scenario is that your fry your other parts.

if you have common sense then at no point does it makes sense to do what you are trying to do. if you cannot afford a proper psu then you have no business spend 1000 bucks on graphics cards.
 
BFG10K said:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4008/nvidias-geforce-gtx-580/17

Total system load: 620 watts in Crysis, 777 watts in Furmark.

If you stick to regular games you should be okay because those Seasonic X PSUs are incredibly overspecced (i.e. their label is much lower than they can handle). That version can deliver around ~790W from the overload tests I’ve seen.

You might reduce it’s life span pushing it that hard, but it does have a 5 year warranty.
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yeah but there are other games that use more power. heck look right here in another anadtech review and see HAWX using 675 watts. surely other games can and will use more power than that. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4239/nvidias-geforce-gtx-590-duking-it-out-for-the-single-card-king/16

not to mention power usage can vary from samples and he could easily pull more wattage than what they did. plus he even has the balls to say he will attempt a mild oc. he is only asking for trouble because even the best case scenario is not good.
 
toyota said:
yeah but there are other games that use more power. heck look right here in another anadtech review and see HAWX using 675 watts. surely other games can and will use more power than that. http://www.anandtech.com/show/4239/nvidias-geforce-gtx-590-duking-it-out-for-the-single-card-king/16

not to mention power usage can vary from samples and he could easily pull more wattage than what they did. plus he even has the balls to say he will attempt a mild oc. he is only asking for trouble because even the best case scenario is not good.
Click to expand...

Remember these particular 580s use 28 watts less than a regular 580 board design.
 
BFG10K said:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4008/nvidias-geforce-gtx-580/17

Total system load: 620 watts in Crysis, 777 watts in Furmark.

If you stick to regular games you should be okay because those Seasonic X PSUs are incredibly overspecced (i.e. their label is much lower than they can handle). That version can deliver around ~790W from the overload tests I’ve seen.

You might reduce it’s life span pushing it that hard, but it does have a 5 year warranty.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm thinking you are correct too.
 
houe said:
Remember these particular 580s use 28 watts less than a regular 580 board design.
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you are living in fantasyland if you think that every one of those will use 28 watts less than other gtx580 cards. you could end up with gtx580 cards that use more power than other gtx580 cards. and why come here and ask for advice if you already have your mind made up? IMO, you should get your priorities straight and ensure you have a proper psu before spending way over 1000 bucks on your gpus. have fun risking your system and maybe it will be a lesson for you if you destroy parts of your pc by skimping on the psu.
 
toyota said:
likely scenario is that you get brave and oc something and and it shuts down only damaging the psu. worst case scenario is that your fry your other parts.
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That won’t happen on a quality PSU like this. OPP/OVP will shut down the PSU without any damage to it or his components. If he finds his system is shutting down while gaming he’ll know he needs a better one.

yeah but there are other games that use more power. heck look right here in another anadtech review and see HAWX using 675 watts
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Again, the OPP trip-point for that unit seems to be about ~790W. For my 560W unit in my sig, it's about ~730 W. Ripple/efficiency/voltage are still well within limits at the point they shut down.

For Seasonic X PSUs in particular, their rated label far understates their capacity.
 
houe said:
Remember these particular 580s use 28 watts less than a regular 580 board design.
Click to expand...

that is going to save 2.5a which isn't too shabby. I picked up the x750 after it was on sale for ~$130 just so I could have breathing room with SLI 470s. Not to mention horrible power suckers I'm using: Phenom x6 @ 4ghz 1.45v and the soon to be two - 470s. On my x650 my kill-a-watt is showing ~500w under OCCT GPU, and around 400Wish gaming. I have a lot of faith in the Seasonic but I don't want to stress it to much XD.
 
All I can say is Holy Jesus C. That is so much electricity roaring through those card. My 460 warms up my bedroom enough, have 2 of those beasts in the same case is nuts 😛.
 
toyota said:
you are living in fantasyland if you think that every one of those will use 28 watts less than other gtx580 cards. you could end up with gtx580 cards that use more power than other gtx580 cards. and why come here and ask for advice if you already have your mind made up? IMO, you should get your priorities straight and ensure you have a proper psu before spending way over 1000 bucks on your gpus. have fun risking your system and maybe it will be a lesson for you if you destroy parts of your pc by skimping on the psu.
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Don't worry I'm not going to just be an idiot. I've got one coming on Thursday so I'll load it up and see what I'm drawing from my rig and see how much headroom I have.
 
houe said:
Don't worry I'm not going to just be an idiot. I've got one coming on Thursday so I'll load it up and see what I'm drawing from my rig and see how much headroom I have.
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I just looked and those cards are going to be 1200 bucks. why are you opposed to spending 125-150 bucks to properly and safely power them? that will also allow you to oc your cpu and the cards a little and actually get the performance that a gtx580 sli setup is capable of.
 
toyota said:
I just looked and those cards are going to be 1200 bucks. why are you opposed to spending 125-150 bucks to properly and safely power them? that will also allow you to oc your cpu and the cards a little and actually get the performance that a gtx580 sli setup is capable of.
Click to expand...

I'm running a tight budget otherwise yeah I'd be all over the seasonic X-850.
 
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