Solved How Much Power does a Sapphire Radeon R9 280x Need?

[Graysull]

Hi,

I am thinking about buying a Sapphire Radeon R9 280x Vapor-X Tri-X and I am not sure about how much power it needs. On the website, it says 750W. I read some forums that said it only needs about 400W or so, while other ones say that you need at least an 800W power for your PC. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Thanks

 

[ignatzatsonic]

AnandTech | Bench - GPU14

above link is for the " AMD Radeon R9 280X". Not sure if that is exactly what you have, but it says maximum power consumption in Furmark is 335; in Crysis 3 is 319; idle power consumption is 79.

I suspect that's close.

The 750 watt recommendation is for an entire system and taking into account that you might be dumb enough to buy a poor PSU that is rated at say 650 but can't put out an honest 350 for an extended period at warm temperatures.

Roundup: 5-way Radeon R9 280X Battle > Power Consumption & Temperatures - TechSpot

above link has the card tested with various games and power consumption is in the upper 200s. That pretty well matches the first link. Furmark is supposed to be a more severe test than actual gaming as far as I know.

 

[Graysull]

So it only needs about 340 max, your saying? I was planning on getting a Corsair 650W PSU.

Thanks

 

[whs]

With that Corsair you should be well covered.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

So it only needs about 340 max, your saying? I was planning on getting a Corsair 650W PSU.

Thanks

Yeah. The card alone uses up to 340 when severely abused. The rest of your PC might not use another 150.

And the 340 would rarely if ever be reached when gaming. More like 250 to 280 for the card under a heavy gaming load.

I don't think all Corsair 650 watt PSU models are of the same quality. You might want to look at Seasonic or XFX to have a better chance of getting high quality internal components in the PSU. I know some of the Corsairs were fine as of two or three years ago, but I haven't paid attention recently.

 

[Graysull]

Thanks for the help everyone. I have a Corsair PSU in my current build and have been using it for about 6 months now and I haven't had any problems whatsoever, so I decided that I will go with a Corsair PSU.

Thanks again!

 

[AddRAM]

Don`t get a Corsair 650 watt. Either go 750 or use another brand altogether.

http://www.evga.com/Products/ProductList.aspx?type=10