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GTX 560/HD 6950 1GB on Earthwatts 500

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Flogger23m

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Jun 19, 2009
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I am wondering a single (no SLI/crossfire) GTX 560 and HD 6950 1GB would work on an Antec Earthwatts 500? It has two 12v rails with 22 amps each, and the GTX 560 requires 30A. Does this mean I have enough amps?


This PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007&cm_re=Antec_Earthwatts_500-_-17-371-007-_-Product


And how much does the HD 6950 require from the 12v?

Rest of my specs:
2 RAM sticks (might get a 3rd for 6GB)
1 hard drive (might connect a second soon)
1 DVD drive
1 PCI card
2 case fans
GTX 260 - Will upgrade to either GTX 560 or HD 6950
AMD 9950 - Will upgrade to AMD 1090T or AMD 955
A few USB devices plugged in
... and possibly something that I missed


Thanks for looking.
 
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I am really failing here on finding the amps requirement, but Sapphire lists a 500 watt PSU as the minimum for running their 6950 2GB card.
AMD says: "500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended"
 
I believe the maximum draw of the 6950 is around 200W. Therefore a good quality 400-450W PSU would suffice. AMD will recommend 500W minimum as the majority are running generic PSUs that are not really up to spec.
 
Ample. While 500W is stated as the minimum, this is a protective requirement because of all the crappy PSUs out there. You could get away with a 6950 on a 380W unit without incident, the 500W earthwatts is fine.
 
you should be fine, I ran a gtx 260(192) on that same psu and didn't have any problems and I believe the power requirements are the same.
 
Antec's earthwatts psus are great. I have been an avid fanboy of their EA650 for a few years now. Every system I build has one in it and I have never had one that was DOA or one that couldn't handle any single graphics card or mid-high range sli.
 
samuelmorris said:
Ample. While 500W is stated as the minimum, this is a protective requirement because of all the crappy PSUs out there. You could get away with a 6950 on a 380W unit without incident, the 500W earthwatts is fine.
Click to expand...
horrible advice since you have no idea what the rest of his specs are. a 380 watt psu would NOT be sufficient to run a decent setup with a 6950. no 380 watt psu would have enough 12 amps to safely do that for any extended period of time.


and why has no one even asked what the rest of the pc looks like? that will determine IF that psu will be sufficient enough to power the ENTIRE pc.
 
Sorry, forgot to post the rest of the specs. It is pretty basic:

2 RAM sticks (might get a 3rd for 6GB)
1 hard drive (might connect a second soon)
1 DVD drive
1 PCI card
2 case fans
GTX 260 - Will upgrade to either GTX 560 or HD 6950
AMD 9950 - Will upgrade to AMD 1090T or AMD 955
A few USB devices plugged in

No issues with power so far, just wondering if the 12v is enough on this PSU for one of the cards mentioned in the OP.
 
a 9950 will bottleneck the crap out of a 560 or 6950 so upgrade that cpu for sure. your psu cannot handle an overclocked X6 and highly overclocked 560 by any means. you have just over 400 watts max available on the 12v line when new and that setup would blow right past that under full load. a stock 560 and X6 would still be pushing your psu fairly hard if you ran something like furmark to test your stuff out. the 6950 seems to be the safer bet from a power consumption standpoint but you certainly don't want to be doing any extreme overclocking .

btw what res are you playing at?
 
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cannondale06 said:
a 9950 will bottleneck the crap out of a 560 or 6950 so upgrade that cpu for sure. your psu cannot handle an overclocked X6 and highly overclocked 560 by any means. you have just over 400 watts max available on the 12v line when new and that setup would blow right past that under full load. a stock 560 and X6 would still be pushing your psu fairly hard if you ran something like furmark to test your stuff out. the 6950 seems to be the safer bet from a power consumption standpoint but you certainly don't want to be doing any extreme overclocking .

btw what res are you playing at?
Click to expand...


I doubt I will do any overclocking; I never do.

In terms of wattage the 6950 seems to be higher than the 560 in this benchmark:
http://www.++++++++++++++++++++/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/40165-amd-radeon-hd-6950-1gb-review-15.html

But overall is the 560 more straining on the PSU than the 6950?
 
Flogger23m said:
I doubt I will do any overclocking; I never do.

In terms of wattage the 6950 seems to be higher than the 560 in this benchmark:
http://www.++++++++++++++++++++/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/40165-amd-radeon-hd-6950-1gb-review-15.html

But overall is the 560 more straining on the PSU than the 6950?
Click to expand...
that link doesnt work but according to anandtech and hardocp the 560 uses more power. the more the load, the bigger disparity as the 560 is hungry when pushed hard.

and you still did not list what res you want to play at.
 
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cannondale06 said:
that link doesnt work but according to anandtech and hardocp the 560 uses more power. the more the load, the bigger disparity as the 560 is hungry when pushed hard.

and you still did not list what res you want to play at.
Click to expand...


That was the Cannuks hardware link, guess it didn't work.

I use 1680x1050, but will likely go with a larger res soon.
 
Flogger23m said:
That was the Cannuks hardware link, guess it didn't work.

I use 1680x1050, but will likely go with a larger res soon.
Click to expand...
well at 1680 even your current gtx260 is pretty darn strong. heck there are just as many games where that old cpu of yours would be a limitation. tbh I would either upgrade both the cpu and gpu or neither. I would probably just get a Phenom 2 X4 or X4 and a 6950 and refrain from any overclocking. to get the same performance of a 6950 out of the gtx560 would require a large oc that ends up using over 100 watts more than a 6950. btw I would just leave your ram at 4gb as adding another 2gb stick would mean losing dual channel anyway.
 
cannondale06 said:
well at 1680 even your current gtx260 is pretty darn strong. heck there are just as many games where that old cpu of yours would be a limitation. tbh I would either upgrade both the cpu and gpu or neither. I would probably just get a Phenom 2 X4 or X4 and a 6950 and refrain from any overclocking. to get the same performance of a 6950 out of the gtx560 would require a large oc that ends up using over 100 watts more than a 6950. btw I would just leave your ram at 4gb as adding another 2gb stick would mean losing dual channel anyway.
Click to expand...



I do plan on upgrading both. Performance of the AMD 9950/GTX 260 combo is not that good for some of the games I play. I only get 15 or so frame rates in a decent sized mission in Flaming Cliffs 2.0... ArmA 2 runs poorly as well.The CPU is mainly the bottleneck, but I would like to upgrade both.
 
cannondale06 said:
horrible advice since you have no idea what the rest of his specs are. a 380 watt psu would NOT be sufficient to run a decent setup with a 6950. no 380 watt psu would have enough 12 amps to safely do that for any extended period of time.


and why has no one even asked what the rest of the pc looks like? that will determine IF that psu will be sufficient enough to power the ENTIRE pc.
Click to expand...

Do you realise how much power 380W is? A good 380W unit (I would never advocate anything but a decent brand PSU, of which the Antec earthwatts is among), has 32A on the 12V rail. Consider the fact that the HD6950 only uses 14A of these absolute maximum, and a typical CPU/board/drives will use about 10A, that's hardly pushing it, with 8A to spare.
Would I ever specify a system with a 380W unit and a 6950? Of course I wouldn't, but my point is, it is possible. I wasn't suggesting anyone go and buy a 380W unit for their 6950, it was in the context of the OP having a 500W PSU, which would easily handle it, because a 380 also could.
 
samuelmorris said:
Do you realise how much power 380W is? A good 380W unit (I would never advocate anything but a decent brand PSU, of which the Antec earthwatts is among), has 32A on the 12V rail. Consider the fact that the HD6950 only uses 14A of these absolute maximum, and a typical CPU/board/drives will use about 10A, that's hardly pushing it, with 8A to spare.
Would I ever specify a system with a 380W unit and a 6950? Of course I wouldn't, but my point is, it is possible. I wasn't suggesting anyone go and buy a 380W unit for their 6950, it was in the context of the OP having a 500W PSU, which would easily handle it, because a 380 also could.
Click to expand...
Antec earthwatts 380w makes just 28 amps(336 watts) on the 12v line. a decent gaming system with a 6950 and could easily pull close to that much wattage. 381 watts at the wall here with only a mild oc on the cpu and no oc on the 6950 at all. http://hardocp.com/article/2011/02/01/galaxy_geforce_gtx_560_ti_gc_overclocking_review

anyway yeah he should be fine with a 6950 and X6 cpu with no crazy overclocking.
 
My 4870X2 (286W versus the 6950's 170W) and a 3.87Ghz Q9550 at 1.4VCore, with 3 hard disks (two 7200rpms and an original 10k 3.5" raptor) pulled 390W out of the PSU in Crysis.
A 6950 and an X6 won't be using 380W :p
 
samuelmorris said:
My 4870X2 (286W versus the 6950's 170W) and a 3.87Ghz Q9550 at 1.4VCore, with 3 hard disks (two 7200rpms and an original 10k 3.5" raptor) pulled 390W out of the PSU in Crysis.
A 6950 and an X6 won't be using 380W :p
Click to expand...
see my edited post for the hardocp link. you overestimated how many amps the 380 watt psu makes so it would not be safe at all. and overclocking can drastically change power usage very quickly.
 
cannondale06 said:
see my edited post for the hardocp link. you overestimated how many amps the 380 watt psu makes so it would not be safe at all.
Click to expand...


lesitung_575px.jpg


28A total then. and? Last time I checked, drawing 24A out of a 28A PSU wasn't unsafe.
 
samuelmorris said:
http://images.anandtech.com/doci/3902/lesitung_575px.jpg

28A total then. and? Last time I checked, drawing 24A out of a 28A PSU wasn't unsafe.
Click to expand...
how are you coming up with only using 24 out of 28 amps? perhaps you missed the simple math? hardocp got 381 watts at the wall so even when factoring in efficiency that would put the 28 amp (336 watts) right at the limit.
 
Newsflash, PSUs have a 5V rail too!
381W AC, take an optimistic 85% efficiency, gives 324W, total draw, from all DC rails. That's already 12W below the maximum, before we take the 5V rail loading off.

Yet again, I did not say I'd recommend this, I said it would work, and it will. It was a case to make a point, not 'hurdur buy 380W PSUs to run 6950s'. You should probably stop trying to find flaws in an argument that doesn't exist.
 
samuelmorris said:
Newsflash, PSUs have a 5V rail too!
381W AC, take an optimistic 85% efficiency, gives 324W, total draw, from all DC rails. That's already 12W below the maximum, before we take the 5V rail loading off.

Yet again, I did not say I'd recommend this, I said it would work, and it will. It was a case to make a point, not 'hurdur buy 380W PSUs to run 6950s'. You should probably stop trying to find flaws in an argument that doesn't exist.
Click to expand...
newsflash for you. not all psu will make the exact full rating that had when brand new and not under ideal conditions. even in a perfect world that is still taxing the psu at over 90%. throw in some overclocking on 6950 and its over with.

I just wanted to point out that a 380 watt not really be sufficient for a 6950 like you said. yes i know you said it in passing but you cant just say whatever you want and expect no one to have a differing view.

and again we agree his 500 watt psu will be fine with no extreme overclocking. ;)
 
Overclock both the CPU and the GPU on a PSU below the officially recommended rating for your system then run a stress test and you get what's coming to you. The typical load consumption of an i7 2600K at stock including the chipset is 100W (8.3A on the 12V), and the typical gaming load consumption of a stock HD6950 is only about 140W (11.7A on the 12V). That makes roughly 20A in a game, assuming the game uses 100% CPU, which of course typically they don't. Add maybe a couple of amps for drives and fans, and you come to 22, maybe 23A, or about 80% of the PSU's maximum output.
Two solid years of 80% output has done no harm to my Zalman, why should it here?
 
samuelmorris said:
Overclock both the CPU and the GPU on a PSU below the officially recommended rating for your system then run a stress test and you get what's coming to you. The typical load consumption of an i7 2600K at stock including the chipset is 100W (8.3A on the 12V), and the typical gaming load consumption of a stock HD6950 is only about 140W (11.7A on the 12V). That makes roughly 20A in a game, assuming the game uses 100% CPU, which of course typically they don't. Add maybe a couple of amps for drives and fans, and you come to 22, maybe 23A, or about 80% of the PSU's maximum output.
Two solid years of 80% output has done no harm to my Zalman, why should it here?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies everyone. Good to know my PSU is safe for a 1090T + video card upgrade. :D

And just to clarify, considering I have two 12V at 22A each, that means I have 44 total?
 
Not necessarily, as there is also a limit of TOTAL 12V usage. Normally it's less than the sum of all the 12V rails. For example, I believe this is your PSU:
label.jpg


Notice that 22A x2 x12V = 528W.
That couldn't be with a 500W unit as it'd exceed 500W. The max for 12V output is 408W, or 34A total.
 
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