4x 5850 Setup, Minimum PSU needed?

[krzynek1]

maybe that difference comes from method used to count energy

i was using standard electric bill meter

http://www.airbornegamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/electric-bill-meter.jpg

but i know for sure that it must be accurate, its the electric company hardware

my rig contains those parts:

MSI 790FX-GD70
SAPPHIRE HD5850 Xtreme
AMD Sempron 140 AM3 BOX
Goodram DDR3 1024MB 1333MHz CL9.0
2 x Fortron FSP650-80EGN
80 GB hdd

[1713489618]

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[Xephan]

I'm sure i've read that the 5850's are the most power efficient in the 58XX group, would you know how much extra power your 5870 takes over the 5850's?

A bit more, I have both and recorded down my power consumption at different clocks. But the data's at home so I'll try to remember to share it later if you're interested. I did remember thinking, my rig would be more efficient if my 5870 was a 5850. But then I probably won't have as much performance for my games

I forgot to mention one thing, i'm currently overclocking the core of each card to 840MHz and underclocking the memory to 150MHz (I know everyone says 300 is great, but i don't seem to be able to overclock the core any higher under any memory setting without a bsod, and there's no difference in hash rate between 300 and 150, but the temp goes down alot).

I don't know if downclocking the memory will make much of a difference at all, would anyone else know?

Quite a few watts, I was surprised to see a significant (>10W can't be sure, again data's at home) difference dropping from 1200Mhz to 300Mhz on my 5870. Not sure if it would make that big a diff by going from 300Mhz to 150Mhz though.

[Xephan]

Could someone please tell me how to overclock my 5850's past the 775 core that is max setting in CCC

Manythanks

Use a third-party tool, e.g. Sapphire has Trixx if you're using one of their cards.

[gellimac]

For now I am running 3 HD 5850 at 1000/350 with a voltage of 1.090V with a corsair 850W Gold

Do you think I can add another 5850 at 1000/350 and 1.090V??

[haploid23]

my rig with 4x5830 sapphires with clocks 1000/300 have power consumption = 786 W

That seems high.  My 4x5830 Sapphires with clocks at 998/300 are 640W-650W at the wall with a Kill-A-Watt meter.

Cheers,
Kermee

that's because you guys don't take into account power supply efficiency and other hardware like the motherboard and CPU. the DC power draw should be relatively the same, but a PSU with 80+ bronze will suck more juice from the wall than a 80+ gold PSU.

[m3sSh3aD]

For now I am running 3 HD 5850 at 1000/350 with a voltage of 1.090V with a corsair 850W Gold

Do you think I can add another 5850 at 1000/350 and 1.090V??

Yes, 1015/300 @ STOCK! (1.085 i believe, not 1.088 as trixx is ALWAYS a few volts UP! Also, fixed fdan needs to be selected on EVERY RELOAD for EVERY CARD! Bug.  A new revision by shapphire xtreme. I posted a info thing but no one see's it in noob section Revision is 230SA at the end of the P/N, Not 000SA like most are Not volt moddable yet though and ghot a generic answer from shapphire

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=29860.msg375290#msg375290

1KW IS PLENTY, JUST MAKE SURE ITS DECENT!!!! END OF

[PLaci1982]

I recommend 1000-1200W, because:

it's enough to work with it =/= energy-efficiency

Most PSUs are @ 50% load the most efficient!

[gellimac]

For now I am running 3 HD 5850 at 1000/350 with a voltage of 1.090V with a corsair 850W Gold

Do you think I can add another 5850 at 1000/350 and 1.090V??

Yes, 1015/300 @ STOCK! (1.085 i believe, not 1.088 as trixx is ALWAYS a few volts UP! Also, fixed fdan needs to be selected on EVERY RELOAD for EVERY CARD! Bug.  A new revision by shapphire xtreme. I posted a info thing but no one see's it in noob section Revision is 230SA at the end of the P/N, Not 000SA like most are Not volt moddable yet though and ghot a generic answer from shapphire

http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=29860.msg375290#msg375290

1KW IS PLENTY, JUST MAKE SURE ITS DECENT!!!! END OF

no no I am running another Overclocking tool.
I am to 1.090V (I overvolted myself I have BSOD at 1.088 or less)

You are telling me that a 1000W PSU is good but did my 850W gold corsair is enough for my 4 cards?

ps : I will post your thred in the hardware section like this everybody would be able to see it

[m3sSh3aD]

Can you do that thank you

Alot of hassle to sim,ply do that, you wouldnt believe. ABuse and all

My 850 Watt was cheap and nasty. Struggles with 2x 5850's being OC'd. Good enough for just 2 cards on there own so it shows hopw bad these psu's are There £60 worth a try i thought :/

I got a 900 Be quiet here i picked up for £100, I think that would be sound for 4 cards but i wouldnt use it as someone said above, running over 90% is bad news in most cases. 80% 1kw is 800W, i wouldnt use any less than 1KW SINGLE psu. I jerry rig mine and use muliple psu's though. its cheaper and spreads p[oer more evenly

[phindus]

I run 4x5850@930MHz on a XFX 750W PSU (80+ bronze, draws 850W from the wall.). A friend of mine uses a 650W PSU to power his rig with 4x5850 in it. Doesn't need to be 1200W, that's just overkill IMO.

[Xephan]

I don't know if downclocking the memory will make much of a difference at all, would anyone else know?

~20W difference downclocking only memory down to 300Mhz on both my 5870 and 5850

[Xephan]

I run 4x5850@930MHz on a XFX 750W PSU (80+ bronze, draws 850W from the wall.). A friend of mine uses a 650W PSU to power his rig with 4x5850 in it. Doesn't need to be 1200W, that's just overkill IMO.

Most PSU are built with some tolerance, especially the lower capacity models in the same series based off the same PCB/design. But it's not ideal to push a PSU constantly at 90% or higher, especially if the ambient temperature is hot due to the cards.

If the PSU dies in a bad way, it can damage connected equipment.

[NextBigThing987]

whats a PSU

[Xephan]

whats a PSU

http://www.google.com

[lowlevel]

I've currently got 3 5850's running on a Phenom 2 x4 with 8gb RAM, on a 700w Corsair PSU.

I'm finding very conflicted information, some people seem to suggest 4 will run on a 700-750w unit while others are doing calculations of the power unit which suggest that i'd need an 850w or more.

Is anyone running a similar setup? Or could anyone test this out for me?

I have the 4th card just sitting , waiting for a PCIE x4 to x16 riser card so i can actually plug it in, but it will take a few more days to arrive, so if i need to go out and spend another £70+ on a PSU i'd rather get that done asap.

Thanks

You could probably get away with an 850watt, but I would buy at least 1000watt.
You don't want to be running your power supply anywhere near 100%.... it'll just act like a hair dryer and will no doubt have a short life.
 

[Kermee]

my rig with 4x5830 sapphires with clocks 1000/300 have power consumption = 786 W

That seems high.  My 4x5830 Sapphires with clocks at 998/300 are 640W-650W at the wall with a Kill-A-Watt meter.

Cheers,
Kermee

that's because you guys don't take into account power supply efficiency and other hardware like the motherboard and CPU. the DC power draw should be relatively the same, but a PSU with 80+ bronze will suck more juice from the wall than a 80+ gold PSU.

Bingo. Excellent point. Didn't realize it at the time of my post.

Cheers,
Kermee

[ed64]

What's the breakage on gold vs bronze though? About 5% difference in efficiency?
So for a 800W load

• 85% efficiency = 941W
• 90% efficiency = 889W (delta of 52W)

At 0.15/kwh, this means $0.1872/day in savings for a total of ~$68/year
At 0.10/kwh (average where I live), that means $0.1248/day or ~$46/year

Price difference between Coolermaster 80PLUS Bronze and Gold is about 75, so you break even in over a year or two depending on your power costs. Given that a PSU will last 3-5 years or longer, this is probably a smart investment!

my rig with 4x5830 sapphires with clocks 1000/300 have power consumption = 786 W

That seems high.  My 4x5830 Sapphires with clocks at 998/300 are 640W-650W at the wall with a Kill-A-Watt meter.

Cheers,
Kermee

that's because you guys don't take into account power supply efficiency and other hardware like the motherboard and CPU. the DC power draw should be relatively the same, but a PSU with 80+ bronze will suck more juice from the wall than a 80+ gold PSU.

Bingo. Excellent point. Didn't realize it at the time of my post.

Cheers,
Kermee

[Cidsor]

The ABSOLUTE minimum I would go for would be a good single rail 850W. That is with no GPU overclock OR no CPU/MB overclock. 5850's draw roughly no more than 150watts per card really, not clocked. 150W*4=600W, 200W for the other components (unless you have 10x0.8A fans and 10xHDD's, 200W is much for a system - GPU, even overclocked).

If you however want to be safe go for a 1050W PSU (Less likely to hit a bad brand vs 1000W).

Just to add to the PSU wave ~

Get a PSU which is Gold to Bronze certified or whatever it is called. Always read reviews about them. They are advertised with high efficiency, BUT BUT BUT you can advertise with Gold efficiency on a 1000W PSU while meeting the Gold efficiency requirements when the PSU deliver 500W and not at 1000W, and sometimes the other way around!!!

Find 2-3 PSU's you would be willing to get, then reconsider and choose better ones (if money is no hinder), then read the reviews for all 4-6 PSU's to find what fits your purpose the best.

I can also recommend having 2x PSU if your cabinet have the space for it. F.ex. 2 gold efficiency 650W should be cheaper than 1 gold efficiency 1200W PSU, delta temp should be lower (meaning lower temp per PSU, but higher average temp because of 2 units), noise could become higher as dB stack and generally you will have a better (read; more reliable) way of supplying your computer with power.

[Wuked]

I'm running 3 x 5850s overclocked, and my entire rig is taking up about 750W, so I would really recommend a 1000W PSU minimum.

[Beta-coiner1]

Honestly,I don't believe any of the hype in which multiple videocards can work in a system.I have just recently gotten a Radeon 6950 and was trying to get my old 5770 to work in the same system as a seperate videocard but it never wanted to boot whenever I tested the system.I have a TX650W Corsair PSU which didn't seem to like the fact of both videocards being in the system and had to take it out as I thought the power requirements wouldn't be that high for both cards.

I would recommend getting at least a 1000 watt PSU to be on the safe side as it may also have more PCI-E 6 pin connectors for multiple GPU combinations.