Crossfire on 530W PSU?

By TheLegendOfMart
in Hardware Hangout

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Grand Master

TheLegendOfMart

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Just sold an AMD 7850 to a mate who wants to crossfire it but he only has 530W PSU, BeQuiet Purepower L7, its advertised as Crossfire capable and its an 80 PLUS effecient PSU.

His Spec:

Core i5 2400 (not overclocked) - 60W Full Load

2Gb 7850 - 130W Full Load, x2 260W

2x SATA2 Rotating Media HDD - 10W each, so 20W

SSD - 5W

So we are looking at 345W not including, mobo, ram, optical drive, USB devices. With all that it cant be more than 450W surely?

Would a decent 530W PSU be enough for the above spec?

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https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1124462-crossfire-on-530w-psu/
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Grand Master

theyarecomingforyou

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Using the PSU calculator on the Thermaltake website and approximating the hardware specs you ommitted it comes out around 440W - you'll want to check it out yourself, as I took a Worst Case Scenario? approach. Considering most PSUs work at best around 85% efficiency he'll be able to run a second card but really he should have a 650W to be comfortable. The AMD website recommends 600W.

Grand Master

TheLegendOfMart

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Ok great thanks will let him know.

Just wondering why its not recommended if the worst case scenario is 440W, that leaves 90W free?

If PSUs work best at 85%, 85% of 530W is 450W which is what the full load worst case scenario is for the above spec?

Grand Master

theyarecomingforyou

Posted
Posted
Just wondering why its not recommended if the worst case scenario is 440W, that leaves 90W free?

The efficiency of the PSU dictates how much energy is wasted - that is, the amount which is converted into heat. Also, the Thermaltake website recommends adding 20% if the PSU is to be used for more than a year and that would take the wattage up to 528W. As you can see, that's clearly right on the limit. I did make sure my estimate was conservative, which is why I recommended going through the PSU calculator with the actual specs, but while such a PSU is technically capable of running Crossfire it wouldn't be recommended.

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