R9 280X Power Requirement

Brachus

I know the R9 280X is just a re-badged 7970. That being the case, why do the specs on so many of the 280X's state that a 750w PSU is required? All of the 7970's state a requirement of a 500w PSU, and I cannot find anything that would justify needing a larger PSU for the 280X's, much less a 750w PSU! Am I missing something, or is this just poor spec documentation?

 

Quizzical

It's probably just poor documentation.

Part of the problem is that video card vendors don't know what else you have in your system.  Neither do they know whether you have a high quality power supply that really can deliver its rated wattage.  And they don't want to be blamed when someone buys a piece of junk power supply with an inflated wattage rating that can't handle the video card, so they commonly list much higher power supply ratings than you really need.

For a single GPU system with everything at stock speeds and nothing unusual, a high quality 500 W power supply would be adequate for a Radeon R9 280X.  Are you looking to buy a new video card, a new power supply, an entirely new computer, or what?

Brachus

Originally posted by Quizzical

It's probably just poor documentation.

Part of the problem is that video card vendors don't know what else you have in your system.  Neither do they know whether you have a high quality power supply that really can deliver its rated wattage.  And they don't want to be blamed when someone buys a piece of junk power supply with an inflated wattage rating that can't handle the video card, so they commonly list much higher power supply ratings than you really need.

For a single GPU system with everything at stock speeds and nothing unusual, a high quality 500 W power supply would be adequate for a Radeon R9 280X.  Are you looking to buy a new video card, a new power supply, an entirely new computer, or what?

Hey Quizz! Always look forward to your posts!

 

I'm not particularly looking to buy anything right now. I'm still running an HIS 6970 IceQ, and I've been very happy with it, so not sure I really even want a new card right now. I know a 280X would be an upgrade, just not sure it's an upgrade I need. My current PSU is a Seasonic X650:

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151088

Really, it's just been bothering me seeing the specs listing a 750w PSU everywhere. I've seen all kinds of people buying a new PSU to get a 280X based on the specs, and it seems insane to me. It doesn't help any when sites like Newegg have several combo deals up with a 280X and a 750w PSU. Some of my friends have talked about it and I keep telling them that they should be fine with their current PSU's because a 750w requirement just cannot be correct.

Quizzical

Unless you're doing something really outlandish or looking for unreasonably large overclocks, that should handle any single GPU system that you give it without incident.  That power supply won't be a meaningful limiting factor in upgrading your video card to another single-GPU system.

I generally recommend at least doubling your GPU performance in order to justify the upgrade.  A Radeon R9 280X is certainly faster than a Radeon HD 6970, but it's not twice as fast.  The upcoming Radeon R9 290X will be faster, but might be out of your budget.

There's also the consideration that, if your current card works well for everything you want to do with it, there's no real point in upgrading yet.  If the next game that it struggles with is a few years away, then at that time, you'll be able to get faster cards for cheaper as compared to anything on the market today.