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My PS
Soly Tech SL-8850EPS ATX 850W Switching PS, Voltage = 100/240v, Current = 12/7a, Frequency = 60-50Hz.
I'm currently running an ATI 4870 1gig with i7 920 and 6gigs all on stock settings on an X58 Platium mobo (MTX). My rig was a premade.
I just want to know whether this PS is good enough to run some of the newer cards coming out by ATI 6xxx series and beyond?
Comments
I had never heard of Soly Tech before. As best as I can tell, they're a random cheap junk brand, with one line of power supplies that is 80 PLUS certified, so as not to be complete garbage. It looks like the one you have is 80 PLUS certified, so it isn't really that bad. I'm not sure how much power you could pull from it safely, but the 80 PLUS organization pulled 680 W on the +12 V rail at room temperature. For comparison, your system will maybe draw 300 W at heavy load.
A GeForce GTX 460 at stock speeds uses about as much power as a Radeon HD 4870, and a Radeon HD 6870 actually uses a little less than that. There's no real point in getting something faster than a 6870 right now, with Cayman launching in a few weeks or so. A Radeon HD 6870 is $240, and about 80% faster than what you have. The most sensible upgrades would be either that or wait for Cayman, if you've got a considerably larger budget.
I couldn't find the full specs on the power supply. It might be helpful if you could copy them here. There should be a box on the side that lists a bunch of things. One site that I did find claimed that the power supply only had two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors, so that would limit you to a video card that draws 225 W or less.
How stable is your computer? If you have problems with blue screens of death, random shutdowns or reboots, or the system locking up, then you might want to replace the power supply with something of higher quality. If you don't have any system stability problems, it would probably be fine to keep it.
Thanks for the prompt 411 Quizz, I appreciate it.
My system is stable (knock on wood), I've had it for about a year and it's been running very well (minus an incident with a virus). I've played countless hours on DAO on max, SC2 on max, and a few others, all without a hicup. I don't have a box for the PS and as far as I can tell it only has the 6 pin connectors, so which cards would I be religated to, would I even have the option for the 6870?
I'd be very surprised if the power supply doesn't list its specs on it. I don't recall ever seeing one that didn't. Unplug the computer, open up the case, and look at the power supply. Most likely there is a bunch of text on one side, that will say +12 V, +5 V, +3.3 V, and various things in watts and or amps (e.g., 600 W or 20 A). It would be good if you could find that and reproduce it here.
Your system should be able to handle a Radeon HD 6870 just fine, as it will use less power than what you already have. If that's your budget, then have at it. If you've got a bigger budget (say, $400), then you might want to wait a few weeks.
Do you have a link for the other ATI cards that you've eluded to, and from what you know so far would I also be able to run those?
I misunderstood you earlier, I'll open up my case in a few and copy the specs here (might be a little while though).
I am not familiar with that company either, so, I turned to my friend google. Here are a few results:
It has been certified by 80 PLUS
http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/psu_reports/SP435_SOLY%20TECH_SL-8850EPS_850W_Report.pdf
A few more units:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/solytech-sl8600eps-600-watt-psu-review/5
http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/80PlusPowerSuppliesDetail.aspx?id=65&type=2
Intel Core i7 7700K, MB is Gigabyte Z270X-UD5
SSD x2, 4TB WD Black HHD, 32GB RAM, MSI GTX 980 Ti Lightning LE video card
AMD launched the Radeon HD 6870 last week. It's about 80% faster than what you have, for about $240. You can get something cheaper than that, but I don't think it would be a worthwhile upgrade. Here's one such link to it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102909
You can get the same card for the same price from a number of other sources.
If you want something faster than that, it would make more sense to wait until Cayman launches in a few weeks. That will most likely be branded as the Radeon HD 6950 and 6970. I'm expecting about triple the performance of what you have now, and for about $400. That's really just a guess, though.
I think that an 850W PS would be more than adequate since i've ran a 5850 on my 750W and there can't be that much of a difference. If anything, i believe that a 600 or a 650W power supply might struggle, but that's it.
A good quality 500 W power supply would be more than sufficient. The problem is that it's not a good quality power supply. If it were a real 850 W power supply, then why does it only have two 6-pin PCI-E power connectors? That makes it hard to draw 400 W from it without running something out of spec. So if the 850 W rating is fake, then what should it be rated at? We don't know, which is the problem.
Anand takes a look at 3 550W PSU's here, intriguing read in showing brand awareness counts as well as backing up what you say Quizzical about having a good quality one: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3985/three-550w-psus-for-different-prices