PC P&C 510 SLI and the GTX280

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Phenol312

Weaksauce
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Oct 27, 2007
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Hi ... simple question. Will the GTX280 be able to run sufficiently off my PC P&C 510 SLI?

specs for my system are in my signature. Thanks. :)
 
We don't know. No hard information about the card has been confirmed. So wait till the real reviews come out and ask again.
 
You'd be surprised what a PSU could run even well below the card manufacturers specs. ATI specs 450W/30A for the X1950 Pro. Ok, so we all know that's for the whole system, not just the graphics card as there's no way an X1950 Pro pulls any more than 65-70W.

Anyhoo, I ran it off a 400W PSU that was barely capable of 20A combined on the two rails it had. Was perfectly stable for the duration. (a few months). I swapped out the system at that time, so I didn't have the opportunity to run it any longer. I think they're just speccing well within limits to cover for those with heavily loaded/overclocked quad-core systems with loads of stuff.
 
so now that the [H] review on the GTX series cards are out...what is everyone's take on this? Will my 510 be able to handle it or should I start looking at a bigger PSU?
 
34Amps and 510Watts should be enough....but if you are going to be spending over 600bucks on a video card why not spend some on a decent PowerSupply as well?
 
I am calling PC Power and Cooling tommorow to find out
Got the same supply
 
PCP&C is only going to give you an answer to the exact specification. If your PSU was rated for 39.5A and the card needed 40A, they would tell you it would not be enough.
 
i read that Nvidia's amperage requirement on the +12v rail is based on total system draw on average, not just the card, so in other words, as long as the entire system the 280 is being placed in does not exceed 40 amps total draw on the +12v rail it should be okay

or is this incorrect? i know the common perception is 40 amps, card alone....but somehow this does not make sense, and the total system amperage draw does make sense
 
Its not 40A for the card, they are just using that for a baseline as to what may or may not make for an appropriate power supply for the entire system containing a GTX280.
 
ocellaris said:
Its not 40A for the card, they are just using that for a baseline as to what may or may not make for an appropriate power supply for the entire system containing a GTX280.
Click to expand...

thats what i heard....so i am not the only one

it makes sense if you look at overall system draw on common systems including the vid cards and the power supplies they are running on
 
to quote the Hard OCP review of the gtx280

"Should you be thinking about SLI configuring a couple of 280s, I would suggest at least a 700w PSU if you are an overclocker. You could possibly slide by with a very strong 600w PSU, but you would likely be pushing it too hard and would likely be better off with an 800w unit in the long run."

thats SLI...so this begs the question...what will work for just a single?
 
i think it depends on the rest of the system draw and the draw of the 280 by itself, and the combined ability of the PSU, but then again, i guess thats obvious...LOL

something tells me a 500-600 watt quality PSU would be fine, i was actually surprised to see people saying the PCP&C 510 SLI PSU you mentioned would not work for a single card.....the 280 donest use any more power than the 9800GX2 at full load (a little maybe) and uses less at idle.....and i bet theres plenty of people running a system with a GX2 on that PSU just fine
 
Some relative power consumption numbers with the video card under load:

17067.png


From AT
 
Phenol312 said:
thats SLI...so this begs the question...what will work for just a single?
Click to expand...

You've been told that already: at least 40A on the +12V rail according to Nvida recommendations. 40A is not for just the card itself. It also includes the system as well. The reason why that PC P&C won't work because it has only 34A on the +12V rail. So according to the minimum specifications from Nvidia, that PSU will not be enough for a system with the GTX 280.

That is not to say a 500W PSU is not good enough. The Corsair 550W and Corsair 520HX have 41A and 40A on the +12V rail respectively. Which is enough for a system with the GTX 280

However I think your PSU should be able to handle the GTX 280 since sometimes Nvidia overspecs on the amperage requirement IIRC. As shown in both the AT and HardOCP review, your PSU is enough for the GTX 280.
 
Here are the power consumption numers at the wall for [H]:

Power testing was done on an ASUS P5Q Deluxe with an Intel Core 2 Quad QX9770 and 2GB of Corsair DDR2 1066MHz Ram. The power supply on our system used below is running a Koolance water cooling setup for our CPU. There are a total of three hard drives in the configuration, a CDROM, a floppy, and one 120mm fan
Click to expand...

1213329410dkPbuPba8A_10_5.gif


Remember that is at the wall, before factoring in power supply efficiency. Figure 82% for the BFG 800 [H] used, and the power supply is putting out ~295w. They tested with Furmark, which puts a pretty decent load on the CPU.
 
ocellaris said:
Some relative power consumption numbers with the video card under load:

17067.png


From AT
Click to expand...

any ideas where a 8800GTS 320 SLI would fall? maybe around the 8800GT SLI numbers? maybe slightly lower?

was wondering because i am about to install the Antec Earthwatts 500 in my system, figured it would be enough, its a wuality PSU built by Seasonic and has been tested to be able to output well over it's rated power

i was thinking, 270Watts for the GTS's, 89 Watts for the CPU, but not sure about the Audigy2 ZS sound card, two sticks of DDR memory, optical and hard drives....never seen wattage on those components

that chart is measured in watts, not amperage, quite different


to the OP, i found this site to have much more detailed in depth information about power supplies than any other site with tons of reviews, might prove useful and will show you in many cases many PSU's from different companies are actually the same

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/page/power
 
I work with the guys at PC Power and they won't tell you that the 510 will work, because when you push any PSU beyond the max of it's power ratring, it will heat up and loose efficiency. The specs will suffer and lower the available power and this can cause problems.

You might run just fine with the 510, but you may also have issues down the line, so it's best to give yourself some headroom with a larger PSU. Your components will be better protectedand if you start having issues it won't be because your PSU is too small for the job. Stay with a high quality unit that exceeds you needs and you should be fine.
 
ok andy you work with PC P&C ... why don't they offer a step up program for their PSU's? :p

I'll mail in my 510 SLI and some cash and you guys send me the next step up ;)
 
andyOCZ said:
I work with the guys at PC Power and they won't tell you that the 510 will work, because when you push any PSU beyond the max of it's power ratring, it will heat up and loose efficiency. The specs will suffer and lower the available power and this can cause problems.
Click to expand...

Right, however even with a GTX280 in the system, it is still well under its rated output of 510w.
 
You should also remember that if your remove the CPU bottleneck, the GPU power consumption will soar. According to Hardware Canucks, their Quad @ 3.5 was proving to be a bottleneck. For a single card, that unit should be enough. If you are doing something extreme (cooling wise), I would go along with what [H] said only use those numbers FOR a A SINGLE card.
 
Phenol312 said:
ok andy you work with PC P&C ... why don't they offer a step up program for their PSU's? :p

I'll mail in my 510 SLI and some cash and you guys send me the next step up ;)
Click to expand...

I will suggest it, but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting! :D
 
ocellaris said:
Right, however even with a GTX280 in the system, it is still well under its rated output of 510w.
Click to expand...

Nvidia is calling for 40a minimum on the 12v rail. The 510w is rated at 32a. It might work fine, but the caveats I mentioned above still apply.
 
well im only running a dual core with one HD and very few peripherals (see sig). So is it safe to conjecture that it would be easier to run my system with a 280gtx off a 510 SLI vs the test rig [H] used?
 
I haven't read the review, but lower power requirements for your basic system will be better. One thing you have going for you is that the 510 is not some overrated PSU.

You can always try, but if you get CPU or memory errors, data corruption or have any video issues, quit running the system and upgrade to something with more than 40a on the 12v rail. These are all bad signs.
 
thanks for the advice...I'm not planning on pulling the trigger on the GTX280 for awhile. IMO, its kinda overpriced and I would like to see what ATi has to offer this cycle.

Has anyone run big cards off this PSU? 9800gx2's, 88/9800GTX's, 8800 ultras?
 
Ok...again back with a question. Is the 510 up to the task of powering the 4870X2?

A lot of reviews say that the 510 SLI is more powerful than many 600+ PSUs but how much truth is there to this claim? I know people can run 8800GTXs on the 510 SLI so i assume my card woudl be good at least for the 4870...but is the X2 pushing it?
 
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