Good Graphics Card

• Roy Mustang wrote on 2011-06-20 01:10

  Quote from Yoorah;481792:

  Err... >_>...
  The 5770 is a nice card (it's what I use) but why did you buy a new 600W PSU for it? Unless there's an important reason or circumstance for doing so that you didn't mention, it's a pretty dumb move. D: Test the 5770 with your old PSU--it should work just as well. If it does, see if you can return the new PSU for a refund.

  
  
  A guildmate told me that it may work fine at first but will eventually run into problems down the road and will take 20 minutes to boot. The box itself also suggested 500Watts Minimum and I only have 460Watts.
• TA wrote on 2011-06-20 21:09
  Well, a PSU will degrade over time, so I suppose it wasn't a horrible investment. In a couple years you can always upgrade to a different card as well (assuming new and worthwhile technology comes out), since you have a stronger PSU now anyways.
  
  What PSU did you get?
• Yoorah wrote on 2011-06-20 22:54

  Quote from kingofrunes;481996:

  A guildmate told me that it may work fine at first but will eventually run into problems down the road and will take 20 minutes to boot. The box itself also suggested 500Watts Minimum and I only have 460Watts.

  
  Well, your guildmate is a noob. :( The box says 500W just in case your system has other components that drain a lot of power. It's a gross over-estimate, as I explained before. Actual total (load) system power usage is much, much less...as you can see in the chart. (You should not use the chart by itself as a guide for choosing a PSU because there are other factors to consider, but it helps make the point more clear.)
  
  

  Quote from TA;482745:

  Well, a PSU will degrade over time, so I suppose it wasn't a horrible investment. In a couple years you can always upgrade to a different card as well (assuming new and worthwhile technology comes out), since you have a stronger PSU now anyways.
  
  What PSU did you get?

  
  It's true, but the over-spec is there to help address this as well. But if you were to follow through with this way of thinking anyway, it would still be a bad idea since "in a couple years" the new PSU would downgrade as well. :P
  
  The only good thing out of this, really, is that now you have a spare PSU. lol
  
  But the two for $300? Sounds way too expensive. :S I too am curious what you bought exactly.
• Roy Mustang wrote on 2011-06-22 16:43
  I bought a 600Watt Thermalake PSU from Best Buy. It was $79.99 or around that ballpart if I recall correctly.
• TA wrote on 2011-06-22 16:53
  Thermaltake? If I were to get a new PSU, I would have gotten a Corsair. They're pretty much the best brand right now, I think.
  
  This is the one I was gonna get, but ended up not getting since replacing my video card fixed the problems I was having. You wouldn't need one that good though. Something like this probably would have been a good choice.
  
  What's the rating on the thermaltake (its effeciency), and did you check reviews? What one is it?
  
  If you're gonna shell out for a PSU now (especially when it wasn't even needed), we should make sure it was a good one, while you can still take it back if it wasn't.
• Yoorah wrote on 2011-06-22 19:41
  Looks like you bought a Thermaltake TR2. $90, no 80+ efficiency certification of any sort. The same PSU is available on Newegg for $65, +$2 shipping. :| It's not a terrible PSU in the sense that it won't explode on you... but it's an extremely low-end model, and the value is not good, especially since BestBuy's is overpriced.
  
  The CORSAIR Enthusiast Series for $90 that TA recommended is not bad, but you don't even need that much power for your system. If I were in your shoes and felt like buying a better power supply just in case, I'd go with an Antec Neo ECO 520C. $55, +$3 shipping. Sure, the rated power output is lower, but it's a high quality PSU for the price. Lower quality PSUs often don't hit their rated power (dunno if the Thermaltake does) and it's not like you have power requirements that high anyway. Here's a detailed technical analysis of the Antec Neo ECO if you are interested in that kind of stuff. :)
  
  But that leaves the question for the video card...
  $300 - $90 = $210.
  Did you really spend ~$200 on a 5770? :|
  
  The 5770 is a good card, but only when it costs you around $110. If you want to spend more to get more performance, the 6850 is a much better idea. Like this one. $175 +$8 shipping. Less if you do the rebate thing. And it's not even the cheapest 6850--it has a nice dual fan design.
  
  

  [Image: http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1622/crysish.png]

  
  Taken from AnandTech, with me adding the silly text.
  
  So imo, you should either:
  1) Return the PSU and GPU, and buy a cheaper 5770 from Newegg, or..
  2) Return both and buy a cheaper PSU and GPU from Newegg.
  
  Or if you can't be bothered with all that and you don't care, then your current setup will work fine, at least.
• Roy Mustang wrote on 2011-06-23 09:16
  Ya, too much hassle, and wait time. Not to mention more removal and installation. I can't be bothered with that. I spent what I spent and it works well so don't fix what isn't broken. I appreciate your advice though.
  
  @TA I actually was looking at the Corsair one online and wanted it but BestBuy didn't have it in their store when I went and I didn't want to wait for more shipping and having to stay at home to sign for another package so in my rush I just settled for the Thermalake one they had in the store. I knew I should have just ordered it online and had it shipped to the store. Would have been better/easier.
• TA wrote on 2011-06-23 15:57
  They actually don't make me sign for packages from Newegg, or Amazon... or anywhere, really. Well, mostly nowhere. I've only had to sign for a few, but not from any of those places. I don't recall having to sign anything recently.
• Sumpfkraut wrote on 2011-06-23 17:57

  Quote from Yoorah;481200:

  If you're gonna try to correct me, do make sure you double check your facts so that you don't mislead others in the process. :(
  
  The power supply recommendations on product pages are not reliable numbers; they are grossly inflated to cover various setups. Generally, it is a good idea to follow them, but if you have a good quality PSU that delivers what it's supposed to, then you can go slightly above and be fine.
  
  If you want to compare the power consumption of two different cards, you have to look at, well, actual power consumption:
  

  [Image: http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/6369/gpus.png]

  
  Taken from AnandTech's analysis of the 560 Ti. (I added the arrows to make it more clear.)
  
  Feel free to calculate the difference in power requirements yourself. xd

  
  Also take note that Furmark is a stress test, the hardware does usually not reach this power consumption in most games, which becomes clearer when you look at the Crysis benchmarks on the same site.
  
  
  They really should provide information about the benchmark settings. "Crysis" doesn't exactly tell much.