7870 le +psu

A

Ator

New member
So i already had a thread a while back that i am planning on buying a new card. I am 90% sure it is going to be the sapphire 7870 tahiti le, even though some of you suggested the 7950 for the long run, but since im gaming at 1920x1080 i do not think it is worth an extra 60 euros for a maybe 10% boost vs the tahiti le.

Anyway the question that i wanted to ask is wouldmy corsair cx500w psu suffice for the new card, since i read that consumption can peak as far as 200w for the card alone.
My psu only has 408w on the 12v rail with 34 amps, so i might be stretching it a tad far with it. On the other hand i talked to a guy on another forum that has the card and is powering it from a LC Power 650W Ozeanos, that has 2x12v rails with 22 amps each and a total of 422w + he is powering a oc-ed 3570k and a water pump of that.

Anyone have any ideas? :confused::confused::confused:

Ty you all for any and all help
 
Ator said:
Tnx for the response. I was a bit sketpical, because i found this http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/51...ti_le_2gb_myst_video_card_review/index19.html
where it states that total system power draw is 400w, and my psu only 408w on 12v rail
Click to expand...
Corsair's labeling of the rails with the CX V2 series are actually a bit strange, as it's the same as the original CX units despite having internal upgrades. That unit should have no problems delivering 500w from the 12v rail alone, so you are fine there.
 
the thing about corsair and other good brands (rosewill, antec etc) is that when they rate a PSU for 500w, that means it will get 600w+ in high heat without crashing. Sketchy brands don't rate their psu's with this kinda discipline. You should be fine.
 
Ty all for your help.

So which one would you guys get the powercolor myst one , where if i buy in germany get the new bioshock and tomb raider, or buy at home and get the double fan sapphire xt boost one but no games?
 
Hmm.

Personally I disagree.

I had a CX 430 and it was a cheap pile of rubbish, nothing at all like the rest of Corsair's range. It was touted as being 'the builder series' and tbh was only really good enough for a basic office PC.

I had a 775 MATX board on it with a Core 2 Duo E4500 and when I connected my 8800 Ultra to it it just sat in a boot loop.

Sure, the other Corsair PSUs are very solid and under rated, but the CX range (at least the one I had) were nothing but cheapo PSUs with a nice sticker on.

The original CX400 or whatever it was called? well that was a rebranded Seasonic, absolutely nothing like the tat I had. the CX 430 was really light and was also rated at 80+ only for me to find out Corsair had retracted the 80+ rating.

I would do some solid research before trying it if I were you.

Ator said:
My psu only has 408w on the 12v rail with 34 amps, so i might be stretching it a tad far with it.
Click to expand...

Having read that I would never run your system from it. Especially an LE which uses quite a power hungry core. Remember - this isn't one of Corsair's high end under rated PSUs, this one is literally 'get what you expect for the price'.
 
Last edited:
AlienALX said:
Hmm.

Personally I disagree.

I had a CX 430 and it was a cheap pile of rubbish, nothing at all like the rest of Corsair's range. It was touted as being 'the builder series' and tbh was only really good enough for a basic office PC.

I had a 775 MATX board on it with a Core 2 Duo E4500 and when I connected my 8800 Ultra to it it just sat in a boot loop.

Sure, the other Corsair PSUs are very solid and under rated, but the CX range (at least the one I had) were nothing but cheapo PSUs with a nice sticker on.

The original CX400 or whatever it was called? well that was a rebranded Seasonic, absolutely nothing like the tat I had. the CX 430 was really light and was also rated at 80+ only for me to find out Corsair had retracted the 80+ rating.

I would do some solid research before trying it if I were you.



Having read that I would never run your system from it. Especially an LE which uses quite a power hungry core. Remember - this isn't one of Corsair's high end under rated PSUs, this one is literally 'get what you expect for the price'.
Click to expand...

Dude, the Builder series whilst not being massively high quality, they are still very decent psu's. I had a CX600 and I was running 2 5850's off of that, 1 5850 draws more power than a 7870 so 1 7870 is going to be completely fine on a CX500
 
seumasbeathan said:
Dude, the Builder series whilst not being massively high quality, they are still very decent psu's. I had a CX600 and I was running 2 5850's off of that, 1 5850 draws more power than a 7870 so 1 7870 is going to be completely fine on a CX500
Click to expand...

He isn't running a 7870 he's running an LE which pulls nearly as much power as a 7950. Same core, just less of it.

If you wish to take gambles with your hardware then I guess that's up to you, but the new CX range aren't much better than unbranded PSUs they just have a Corsair sticker on.

It's much more sensible to buy a good high end PSU and then just keep it. Once you've made that investment you can carry it into any new build.

The CX500 has a very low amp single rail. Too low for a card as power hungry as the 7970 LE IMO.
 
AlienALX said:
Hmm.
The original CX400 or whatever it was called? well that was a rebranded Seasonic
Click to expand...

i had it paired with the good old athlon x2 5600 and the gtx 275(twin frozr OC).the gtx 275 uses more W than a hd 7970 . cx500(CWT inside) can easily hold a 7870 xt

and i`m not sure but if you divide the card W usage(for 7950 stock its like 150w in gaming,180 max?) by 12 (12vrail) and do the same thing with the cpu you get how many amps you need ? not sure
 
Last edited:
AlienALX said:
He isn't running a 7870 he's running an LE which pulls nearly as much power as a 7950. Same core, just less of it.

If you wish to take gambles with your hardware then I guess that's up to you, but the new CX range aren't much better than unbranded PSUs they just have a Corsair sticker on.

It's much more sensible to buy a good high end PSU and then just keep it. Once you've made that investment you can carry it into any new build.

The CX500 has a very low amp single rail. Too low for a card as power hungry as the 7970 LE IMO.
Click to expand...

As a said, if 2 5850's on a CX600 is fine then 1 7870 LE on a CX500 will be completely fine
 
AlienALX said:
The CX500 has a very low amp single rail. Too low for a card as power hungry as the 7970 IMO.
Click to expand...

lol no its not too low ,its plenty even for a card like the 7970.amd recommendation for it is a 500W trash PSU.ofc if you OC the cpu and the card you will want a 550-600W one.If its seasonic? well then a seasonic G 450W is fine even for 7970.anyway how many W do you think a pc uses ?lol
 
s3ns3 said:
lol no its not too low ,its plenty even for a card like the 7970.amd recommendation for it is a 500W trash PSU.ofc if you OC the cpu and the card you will want a 550-600W one.If its seasonic? well then a seasonic G 450W is fine even for 7970.anyway how many W do you think a pc uses ?lol
Click to expand...

Do you know anything about electricity dude? or do you frequently take big risks?

Looking at the CX500 I see that the V2 (providing that's what we are discussing here as the V1 wasn't even 80+) is 80+ bronze. I won't assume you know what that means so I will explain it.

80+ bronze means that a PSU can remain efficient with loads of up to and not over 85%. That means that once you go over 85% of the full load (which on the 12v rail is 408 watts maximum ) you are generating wasted power.

Wasted power ends up as heat. That means that you have 85% of 408 watts on the 12v rail before the PSU starts to get hot.

Now whilst I agree that a good high end power supply is under rated they only really do so to get the 80+ rating. So for example let's say that a 800w 80+ gold PSU is really a 1000w PSU that is rated at 800w so that the load being put on it does not allow it to exceed 90% of what it is rated to do.

The advice being given here is very bad, because the CX range are not under rated nor under priced high end PSUs. They are what they are, a cheap budget power supply designed for cheap systems. A couple of years ago Scan and other companies were using them in 2500k OC/560ti rigs. However, they were using the CX600 as a minimum.

So good advice is ditch the CX500 and buy a good, quality PSU. That's advice based on facts and not wanting to load a PSU higher than its rated 80+ rating which is no more than 85%. Once you go over that you will start to ripple and the power will clip and become unstable.

So if you want to continue to advise to do that? that's fine, but I suggest you spend an hour to figure out exactly what it is you're doing.
 
Look dude, the AMD site clearly states that a 7870/7950/7970 will be absoloutely fine on any 500w psu, the Builder series is a pretty decent line of psu's and I have seen many people running much more power hungry hardware off of one and there is no problems what so ever, a system with the 7870 le isnt really going to pull anything over 340w anyway
 
AlienALX said:
Do you know anything about electricity dude? or do you frequently take big risks?

Looking at the CX500 I see that the V2 (providing that's what we are discussing here as the V1 wasn't even 80+) is 80+ bronze. I won't assume you know what that means so I will explain it.

80+ bronze means that a PSU can remain efficient with loads of up to and not over 85%. That means that once you go over 85% of the full load (which on the 12v rail is 408 watts maximum ) you are generating wasted power.

Wasted power ends up as heat. That means that you have 85% of 408 watts on the 12v rail before the PSU starts to get hot.

Now whilst I agree that a good high end power supply is under rated they only really do so to get the 80+ rating. So for example let's say that a 800w 80+ gold PSU is really a 1000w PSU that is rated at 800w so that the load being put on it does not allow it to exceed 90% of what it is rated to do.

The advice being given here is very bad, because the CX range are not under rated nor under priced high end PSUs. They are what they are, a cheap budget power supply designed for cheap systems. A couple of years ago Scan and other companies were using them in 2500k OC/560ti rigs. However, they were using the CX600 as a minimum.

So good advice is ditch the CX500 and buy a good, quality PSU. That's advice based on facts and not wanting to load a PSU higher than its rated 80+ rating which is no more than 85%. Once you go over that you will start to ripple and the power will clip and become unstable.

So if you want to continue to advise to do that? that's fine, but I suggest you spend an hour to figure out exactly what it is you're doing.
Click to expand...

Well i am a tad torn now and might just risk some additional $ and prolly get the xfx650w or smth like that, as i do not wish to screw up any of the other stuff in my pc.

But i also think that the logic behind psu efficiency as you stated is a tad flawed. 80% efficiency only tells you how much of the outlet power is being efficiently converted into pc power. So for instance if your pc draws 500w and the psu has 80% efficiency (whilst being a 500w psu) , that means that it draws 625w from the power outlet, but utilizes only 500w. Not sure if you meant what i wrote or not, so if you ment this i appologize for double posting the same thing.

seumasbeathan said:
Look dude, the AMD site clearly states that a 7870/7950/7970 will be absoloutely fine on any 500w psu, the Builder series is a pretty decent line of psu's and I have seen many people running much more power hungry hardware off of one and there is no problems what so ever, a system with the 7870 le isnt really going to pull anything over 340w anyway
Click to expand...

Well my system spec is:
Asus z68v lx
4x2gb corsair 1600mhz xmp ram
i5 2310
xfx hd 6850
1x dvd rom
1x 500gb blue wd
3x 120mm fan
and about 6 usb devices
thats running of a cx500w the non v2 version and its not 80+ certified
 
Last edited:
seumasbeathan said:
Look dude, the AMD site clearly states that a 7870/7950/7970 will be absoloutely fine on any 500w psu, the Builder series is a pretty decent line of psu's and I have seen many people running much more power hungry hardware off of one and there is no problems what so ever, a system with the 7870 le isnt really going to pull anything over 340w anyway
Click to expand...

Yes, they state that a 500w minimum PSU is good enough I completely agree.

However, when they make those ratings they do so with a high end PSU. I think people are forgetting that the CX is not a high end PSU. Just because it has Corsair printed on it does not mean you can assume it can do what their other PSUs can do.

When the 'new' CX range released they refused to send any out for reviews as they pretty much admitted that they were nothing like the old CX range that were quite expensive rebranded Seasonic units. These were what they were, a cheap half decent PSU but certainly NOT aimed at the enthusiast.

I'm not saying any of this to be a dick or just because I don't agree with you. Taking risks with electricity is not a wise thing to do and I know this because of years of experience with it.

So whilst you may have gotten away with running 5850 CFX on a CX600 doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do, does it?

If this were any other PSU from the Corsair range I would completely agree, but it isn't. This is a cheap budget PSU and certainly shouldn't be homed in a high end gaming PC.

I've had a 650w PSU that could put out over 800w before it even broke a sweat. But, that PSU cost more than a cheap 800w PSU (£130 Enermax Modu II).

To make sure that a PSU remains safe and efficient the best advice is to work out your maximum system draw, then apply a 75% logic. IE - if my system pulls say 450w at maximum draw then get something like a 600w power supply to make sure you never worry it nor waste money in pumping out heat..

I've looked around for proper reviews of the CX series and I can't find any. So basically no one has loaded one onto a machine like Gary has here at OC3D and really put it through its paces.

Tom did a 'review' of a so called high end PSU once (I forget the make and model now but I'm sure he remembers) and it just proved once and for all that you can't make assumptions when it comes to power supplies no matter how good or expensive they are. This thing rippled more than a bloody raspberry in an ice cream factory.

Which of course, when you are loading a PSU up with hardware at home you can't see. You don't get any warnings at all.
 
Well my system spec is:
Asus z68v lx
4x2gb corsair 1600mhz xmp ram
i5 2310
hd 6850
1x dvd rom
1x 500gb blue wd
3x 120mm fan
and about 6 usb devices
thats running of a cx500w the non v2 version and its not 80+ certified[/QUOTE]

Dont worry dude, the CX500 will be more than enough to power that system with a 7870 LE
 
Have to say, I'm not too keen on Corsair's CX range either.
Built a rig for my mate based in an ivy i3, MSI z77 and a 7870 tahiti LE and the CX500 PSU came with it's 8pin CPU power connector loose, causing boot issues and having to be replaced.
Fair enough the replacement unit he's now using (still a CX500) is powering the rig fine but I personally wouldn't trust it again. Braid's MORE than underwhelming and it just has a cheap feel about it; causing me to think I'll have to replace it for him again in a year or two.
For just ~ £15 more you can have a HX550m or a GX600 which won't come broken and will power your rig for many long and happy days :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

syfer1987
XFX 6800 XT AND RTX 2080 TI both faulty cards trying to fix
Replies
0
Views
192
syfer1987
syfer1987
K
9070XT auto overclock
Replies
3
Views
843
KingNosser
K
AlienALX
Building my dream N64. More in depth than you would think (and me !)
Replies
11
Views
1K
AlienALX
AlienALX
AlienALX
The Fairchild Ghost subwoofer project
2
Replies
35
Views
682
AlienALX
AlienALX
A
Finally first cheap 10G NICs for PCIex1 slot
Replies
0
Views
495
Azure_Bram_225
A
Back
Top