Questions regarding the XFX ATI HD 4890 1GB

[crackshot91]

I have an Xclio Stablepower 500 Watt PSU (2x +12v rails at 18 amps each). I know AMD recommends a minimum 500 watt PSU for the 4890, but what about for overclocking? I want to see if I can get 1GHz on the core, 1.2GHz memory. I'll be getting (as in, it should be here by Monday) the XFX 4890 with the non-reference cooler. Here's the rest of my system:

C2D E6750 @3.2GHz (1.25000 Vcore/Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro/MX-3)
4x1GB G.Skill DDR2-800 (1.8v, 5-5-5-15 Timings)
XFX 8800GT 512MB Alphadog Edition (OC'd to 670/1675/970 - Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2 w/ 92mm fan)
Gigabyte P35-DS3L Rev. 2 (1x PCIe x16 1.0)
NZXT Apollo Case (2x 120mm Apevia Blue LED fans Rear exhaust/Front intake)
ASUS VH242H 1920x1080 24" Monitor

Questions:

1) Is my 500 Watt PSU sufficient for the 4890 + OCing? It has a total of 36 Amps on the 12v rails. Surely it's enough.

2) Will the 4890 be bottlenecked at all by the rev. 1.0 PCIe x16 slot or the Core 2 Duo at 3.2GHz? I know newer boards have PCIe 2.0 x16 slots

3) What is the best sub-$50 after-market cooler for the 4890? I hear the get quite hot (85c at load!)

 

[thilanliyan]

I'm not sure if the card itself is NON-reference but if it IS then volt modding, and hence getting up to 1GHz core will probably be difficult. The reference PCBs (not the cooler) are the ones that are easy to software volt mod.

The card itself should run cooler than stock so you shouldn't have a problem with that but OCing might not be so easy.

EDIT: I think the card itself is non-reference so no software volt mods.
Take a look at this thread:
http://forums.ncix.com/forums/index..._id=42996&msgcount=8&overclockid=0#msg2081435

 

[james1701]

Yes it is non reference. With a your cpu that psu should be able to run it. I have an Antec 500W and it runs it and overclocks it. The only time I have any trouble is when I run OCCT test. It just shuts down my computer. All other benchmarks have no trouble. I did pick up an Antec Earthwatts 650 psu for 49.99 the other day when NE had them onsale. The cooler thats on it is pretty good. In my Antec 90 case, it idles at 42C and loads out folding at 62C with the fan at 62%. Instead of a new cooler, you might want to look at getting a case with a few more fans. There are a bunch on sale this weekend. Depending on where you live, I seen Newegg had the Coolmaster HAF 922 on sale for 59.99 AR.

Its a good card, you will like it. As far as the PCIE slot goes, you might loose 10% from it.

 

[thilanliyan]

Its a good card, you will like it. As far as the PCIE slot goes, you might loose 10% from it.

That would probably happen in very few instances.

 

[Rifter]

You might need a new PSU, i was having all kinds of stability problems with my system and my OC on CPU and vid card(in sig) when i upgraded from a 4830 to a 4890. I was running a Arctic Cooling 550RF PSU(which should have been enough) and as soon as i upgraded to my Corsair 850Tx all problems dissapeared.