1,000 Watt PSU for 3x 6970's?

[digitzero]

CPU: AMD Sempron 140
CASE: open (n/a)
HDD: 16 GB SSD
3x ATI 6970's (slight overclock)

Do you think I can reliably run 3 of these ATI's on a 1,000 Watt PSU?

Using Newegg's Power Supply Calculator, it says I would need 1168 Watts.  Hoping to get by with less, if possible.

[Jack of Diamonds]

A 6970 consumes about 250 watts at full load. At most, your entire system would be consuming 800 watts.

The newegg calculator is being overly cautious.

[digitzero]

Thanks!  As for overclocking, any idea on how much that would bump it up from the 800 W level?

[Jack of Diamonds]

Add 50-75W overhead for every card if OC'ing significantly.
So around 950 watts max for the entire system

[organofcorti]

I have a set up similar to yours, except with 1x6990 and 1x6970 and I use an 850Watt PSU. I ran both OC'd for a while, not problem with power. Way too much heat and noise to run OC'd for long though.