5850 power requirement = 600w ?

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leehom

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Nov 14, 2007
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When I researched the power requirement online, everywhere told me I only needed 500w for a 5850. When my Asus 5850 Top came in yesterday, the box said 600w. Luckily I ordered a 650w power supply for a new computer build and used that to replace the old 500w p/s in that computer.

Do all 5850 require 600w or will 500w work? I have a computer with a 500w power supply and would like to upgrade the video card to a 5850 in the future, but If I have to purchase a new p/s again, I definitely won't! I don't have anything power hungry in this computer.

i7 - 860
1 hard drive
1 dvd drive
2x2 gb 1600mhz ram
500w Enermax Liberty p/s

Will I be ok?
 
A quality 500w PSU should be fine for all HD5850 imo. 38A on the 12V looks good as long as it lives upto its rating (and Enermax is a good brand, so it should).

Edit, actually looking over the power requirements, you are definitely fine. Buy that HD5850 and overclock your system. Oh and add an SSD drive. :)
 
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I run an Asus HD5850, Q9950 @4.0GHz, 1 SSD, 3 HDDs, 2 TV cards etc on a Corsair VX 450w PSU without any issues...

A "quality" 450w PSU will handle it without any problems, but a cheap "generic" one will definitely not...
 
CrowJA said:
A 550W PSU can handle an i7 980X and a GTX 480. You decide.
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a GOOD 550 will. I am not sure about the OPs PSU.


edit, ok, apparently it got a 9.5 on Johnny's but I can't find the review, OP will be fine
 
While yes, a GOOD quality 500W PSU would probably be enough, I wouldn't try it with the Enermax Liberty since It's a five year old PSU. Yes it reviewed well but that was FIVE years ago. By now it has probably degraded in terms of power output. As such, it may no longer provide 500W or even 400W of power reliably and safely.
 
Danny Bui said:
While yes, a GOOD quality 500W PSU would probably be enough, I wouldn't try it with the Enermax Liberty since It's a five year old PSU. Yes it reviewed well but that was FIVE years ago. By now it has probably degraded in terms of power output. As such, it may no longer provide 500W or even 400W of power reliably and safely.
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that might explain why I couldn't find the review. good catch.
 
I agree with Danny and the others. The "600W" power requirement is due to the numerous shitty 600W PSUs on the market.
 
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My understanding is that ATI and NVIDIA must put bottom level requirements to be safe since most people, say about 97%, buy only "numbers".. Most people just don't see the difference in a good and shitty power supply. They only care of numbers, so card manufacturers have to take this into account to make sure not to be sued in case that "super ¼ pound 600W made in china" power supply suddenly, fails...

Para
 
Some great points made here. People are correct, the 5850 in no way requires a 600W PSU if it is run in a normal system on a quality PSU. The card itself has a TDP of 150W, and generally draws about 120W on load. Most important to look at is the amperage on your 12V rail, and to make sure it can adequately supply the card, and 38A is more than sufficient. However, Danny Bui brings up a great point - that is an old PSU. Even though I always purchase quality units, I generally replace power supplies every five years as habitual maintenance. Your current system isn't going to require anywhere near 500W at typical loads, and you'll probably need a very beefy overclock on both the CPU and GPU to even break 300W. That said, if you have the funds, a new PSU would be an upgrade to consider in the near future.
 
Could someone please point me to clear evidence that a decent power supply will significantly degrade noticably inside of 5 years? Until then, it sounds like nonsense to me.
 
spine said:
Could someone please point me to clear evidence that a decent power supply will significantly degrade noticably inside of 5 years? Until then, it sounds like nonsense to me.
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Heat is the number one killer of capacitors and resistors in all PSUs. You see, the typical PSU heats up on the inside to between 40 and 50° C. And each time it warms up that high, it reduces the usable lifespan of a component by a certain amount. And if a PSU's innards are that warm (or hot) for extended amounts of time or multiple times, you've really shortened the useful lifespan of the PSU itself. In other words, more and more wear and tear.
 
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