Planning to upgrade your Graphics Card? Read First...

Punkster said:

Well, don't ever rely on some video showing temps, you have to look at it this way:

1) Room temps (you don't know if the room temp is similar to yours)
2) Air flow (the case you have may be better/worse)
3) Overclock profile (if you're not overclocking, temps are going to be cooler)
4) Brand and Model of the GFX, there are several models and cooling solutions for 1 card, ASUS has its DirectCU II, MSI has its Twin Frozr II.. just to name a few.

aaaaaand, last but not least.

5) Your other components. :)

The same thing i told another forum fella once: just because you saw a Core i5 750 getting to 4.2GHz on air, doesn't mean that yours is going to behave exactly the same way, you have to take a look at the other variables to make your decision.

BTW: HIS' IceQ Turbo X are extremely cool GFX, their cooling solution is off the chains! go for it

thank you very much, now I no longer hesitate.

i have another question, is hd 6770 good enough to play game like crysis2 bf3 gta 4 in medium or high setting with my very old 15" crt monitor in resolution 1024*768 or 800*600?
i don't need full hd game, i just want to run game smooth with shadow (i never enable shadow in my game ) without lag.
high fun is the most important

an HD 6770 is good enough for playing demanding games at lower resolutions with high graphics, but that's not the only thing to be noticed, remember your processor and ram! :)

Zenix!

For a 6970 i believe that a 1000W PSU is a little bit overkill, i think you'll be better with a less wattage but same 80 Plus Gold certification, with a 1000W PSU you could easily have a 6970 in CrossfireX.

I'd recommend you a SeaSonic PSU.

But still, if you're planning to do future upgrades, maybe a 1000W PSU isn't a bad choice

This is a superb article. Many people aren't aware about the fact that you need good power supply units to handle the power requirements of external graphic cards.

Excellent work !!!

i got a gtx560 (not TI, 2gb)
it has 2 pciex power connections
as far as i know the card requires 24 amps.
my power supply has 4 pciex power conections. 2 with 20amps and 2 with 30amps.
if the card wants 24 amps and it has 2 connections does it means:
a) the sum of both ports = 24 amps, meaning if you have a psu with only 12amp in the pciex cable is ok because you will connect 2, or
b) each pciexpress conections will have 24+amps, having two connections dont add up/sum

According to Nvidia, the maximum power the gtx560 can use is 150W = 150W/12V = 12.5 Amp. That is standard reference card with 1GB of memory so yours will be slightly more. I expect it would be split. In any case if you use your two 30A you should be good.

adrek said:

Hi, do you know what are the system requirements for the AMD Radeon HD6770?

Acording to this link it is based on the same hardware as the HD5700, don't know if that also applies to the amps and watts.

I have a Corsair CX430 power supply with 28A and 430W 336W in the +12V rail (430W total).

They say a 75 watt 6 pin pci-e connector so that is 6.25 AMP @ v12V. Your PSU appears to have a single 12V rail with 28A and 336W to power everything 12V. Your processore can use up to 95W. So your processor + GPU = 170W leaving you 166W for everything else. You are probably OK but near the edge.