Need power supply recommendations

[soybeast]

Hey guys, I just took the plunge on a shiny new radeon 2900 xt and I'm loving it so far (having gone from a 9600 pro to this, it's like hell and heaven). However, I don't think my power supply is adequate enough for it.

I fired up some games like GTR2 and GRAW and didn't run into a single problem. Then I fired up the Lost Planet demo and right when the sh!t was getting good, my system powers off. I don't think my 500w enhance 5150GH can cut it with this vid card.

So this brings me to you guys. I'm looking for something with 600w or greater (with at least 80% efficiency) to be on the safe side. Price as of now isn't a concern. So what do you guys recommend? (please include links to reviews, thanks!)

 

[Elias824]

OCZ is always a nice choice, only downside is they are not modular.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341001 600w
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341002 700w

 

[mruffin75]

If I may ask.. what's it like with GTR2?

I've got a 2900 coming on Monday and my son is getting me GTR2 for fathers day..

 

[soybeast]

It's nice. You can jack all the settings up no prob (@ 4xAAA and 16x AF). It seems to tax the 2900xt the least from my initial observations in comparison to running shader intensive FEAR and the Lost Planet demo.

Speaking of Lost Planet, that game is absolutely gorgeous and runs nicely @ 1152 x 864 :-D

 

[cmdrdredd]

Or you can get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151030 Seasonic M12 SS-600HM with modular cables. It's more expensive at $169

Or for $114 after rebate the Corsair CMPSU-520HX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001 It's 520w with plenty of amps on the 12v rail for you

 

[swtethan]

GTR2 is smooth @ max settings, even in 50 car races, easy. You need a powerful CPU also.

 

[Elfear]

I think your 5150GH would be fine for one 2900XT. Even ATI agrees. I ran a heavily overclocked X1900XT Crossfire setup and an E6600@3.6GHz on the model just up from yours, the 0560G. My GTX consumed a lot less power than my Crossfire setup when I measured power draw and your HD2900XT consumes just a tad more than a GTX. Kinda of a roundabout way of saying I thing you should be fine with your current PSU.

What other components are you running? How do you have the two cables hooked up to the card (2 6-pin or 1 6-pin + 1 8-pin)? Your PSU has two 12V rails and both need to feed the card or I imagine you'll have probs. Similar problems showed up with the 0560G when reviewers used it with a Crossfire setup and the rails weren't split right so it was trying to pull all the power through one 12V line. An adapter easily solved the problem. Probably worth looking at to see which rails your card is pulling it's power from.

 

[ronnn]

Thanks for that link. Confirms my ps is up to the job, if ....

 

[soybeast]

Hm, you might be right Elfear to a certain extent...

I realized that when my computer shut off while running Lost Planet, I was also running some hard drive intensive applications in the background. I tried the game again without those running, and it ran fine (FEAR also).

I guess at my current power level I'll have to live without playing games and doing some other multitasking stuff in the background. Ah well, my wallet is still hurting so I'll just hold off on a new psu for a while :-o

Thanks everyone!