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XFX R9-290X and power questions?

Z

zzglenn

Member
Hello,

Background:

Me and my son enjoy playing current PC games. Here is what we have been playing over the last year StarCraft 2, Far Cry3, Civ 5, Civ BE, BF4, Cod, GW2, TitanFall, Endless Legend, Minecraft, Terraria... some others. So a lot of FPS and RTS. My system is currently 3 years old. Below is what I am running.

Asrock Z68
i5-2500k Sandy
16GB DDR3
Radeon HD 6950
Corsair SSD 128gb
Samsung SSD 256gb
XFX TS Edition PRO650W


I started looking for a nice upgrade for my gaming computer for Christmas since some of the games are starting to slow down, or I can't get past normal settings without slow down. Today I saw a deal for an XFX R9-290X for $299 AR.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150696

Free games and all that.

I did some digging, and this card seemed to be a sweet spot. I pulled the trigger before looking at the specs. The card says it requires at least a 750w PSU. My current system has an XFX 650.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817207014

Couple of questions:

1) Did I pull the trigger to quick, and should have opted for a GTX 970 4GB with less power since I will have to buy an new PSU to handle the ATI card (comes to around the same price)?

2) I really didn't want to go much over $300 for a new GPU, but I wanted something nicer than the $150 range that I normally pay. Is there a better option where I don't need to buy a PSU or go $350s for the same speeds? I did look at the GTX 970 but the ones around the $300 are sold out. I was afraid I would miss this deal as well.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations.
 
zzglenn said:
1) Did I pull the trigger to quick, and should have opted for a GTX 970 4GB with less power since I will have to buy an new PSU to handle the ATI card (comes to around the same price)?
Click to expand...
Only once you stop beating your wife 🙂.
The 750W number is exaggerated, to mitigate user issues with low quality PSUs. At stock speeds, I doubt you'd reach 400W. There is no need to buy a new PSU. I'm 95% sure yours is a Seasonic-based one similar to the Core series.

Relevant test data

Keep your PSU money, and play some free games.
 
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