Well now that i have some computers im taking steps to upgrade power supplies getting ready for putting more powerful gpus. The thing is I want a platinum certified power supply and theyre exspensive as hell, so I dont want to blow it. Asus' support site has a power supply chart and I put all my specs in there and with a 570(they dont have 680 as an option) I will be running about 600 watts. Do you think, with the strain of running a computer 24 hours a day, a 50 watt window would be enough? I do trust the asus site is pretty specific on power consumption as it is more than newegg in watts. Also I hear the 600 series is more power efficient. Again, i got a 570 running at 600 watts, do you think looking at the 600 gtx's that I will be good buying a 650 watt antec platinum certified earthwatts psu 24 hours a day? Thanks, Ben.

ps. Actually the 570 and 580 register 600 watts on asus site which is more than neweggs wattage calculator. 590 registers 750 watts, I wont be spending 500 on a gpu more like 300. any thoughts?

Yea I just dont feel comfortable with a high dollar psu with only 50 watt overhead even if they ship like that at best buy etc. Well I guess Im going for a corsair professional series gold I found on google. Thanks~~750 watt

Great question! Bigger isn't always better but... I have never replaced a power supply in a computer with a smaller one. Our computers almost always need more power over time due to the fact that we tinker with them and add cards or overclock. You might me thinking about a GTX 680 today but in a year you might find a 560 or 570 on craigslist at a great price. A 650W PSU will not drive both cards.

You might consider stepping down to gold certified to get a larger power supply (750W or larger). The 2% different in efficiency will not save you enough power to matter.

I don't plan to buy anything less than 850W PSUs going forward. My last 750W lasted about 18 months running 24x7. My last 850W PSU (not certified) is still running now and it has been just over a year. It is pushing a GTX 580 running at 940MHz.

Going with a supply with 100W - 150W over your current requirement will likely serve you well - especially when you start overclocking!

Best of luck!

I just pickedup a coolermaster 1000W PSU on ebay. It is the next step in my build. The goal is to setup dual GTX 580s on one of my systems. 1000W should be enough to keep both cards happy even with over clocking.

Does anyone have power consumption stats for the GTX 580 while running GPUGrid.net? I have seen benchmarks where the GTX 580 will exceed 350W. Does anyone know if this is true? The max power without overclocking is 244W. Can over clocking really add 100W of power consumption??

Thanks for any insight.

Guru3D is always good for that stuff - below is the page on 580 power

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-580-review/7

Same page in their 580 SLI review:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-580-sli-review/14


Regards
Zy

Yea, I definatley did decide to step down from gold certified, as there was a efficiency difference of only 4% but in the end I decided to buy another 570 for my vista i7. So now i have one gigabyte ga-970a-d3 with 8150 with 570 and 460 doing some folding@home. As I could not get work from gpu grid, and my second cousin once removed is giving hundreds of millions of dollars to cancer research anyway. I also have a dell studio xps 435 mt with a 570 also now doing gpu grid. The gigabyte board is newer by a few+ years. I did decide to buy a 8150 gigabyte motherboard first as my next build, And it might end up crunching for folding@home even tho gpu grid is what i usually do I have found a niche in folding@home. You guys can keep the dell cause you got such good support on here.

Any luck getting tasks from GPUGrid on the new rig? For folding@home, I use ATI cards because they are typically better at that project. I need to get a better card as the one I have now is VERY old.

Going with a Gold series PSU was a good choice. With the 6xx series cards out, the power consumption is reduced again. I would like to get a 6xx series card but the 580s and 590s are getting very inexpensive on ebay.

Good Luck!
____________
Thx - Paul

Note: Please don't use driver version 295 or 296! Recommended versions are 266 - 285.

yea well i had 2 570s and 2 460s. I gave one 570 to a cousin, and the one i bought on ebay that same month went out within 2 months. So all i have now is 2 460s. Which is fine I just built a 2.5 ghz intel core quad, up and running, im just gonna have to do some moving around of video cards, and cd roms dont ask why, to get all my computers cpus crunching for world community grid harvard clean energy project. The energy saving 600 series as powerful as a 570 has not been released yet. Since I have four computers one being a laptop capable of crunching im looking hard at the 600 series to replace. So next month im making another purchase and that will be a 3820. I have to build my next computer in parts, but I think the technology for the price will pay for it. really im not so sure about my next purchase, just for sure not spending 200 dollars on ebay for a graphics card ever again. i mean world community grid is where i stuck my cpus, i love the opportunity, but its not schizophrenia research.

well the problem with my graphics card (570) was that it was giving me a weird colored screen, seems to be fixed now, so confused :\ see how it goes, makes me happy.

Have to agree. Love Seasonic. Just purchased a 1000W Seasonic platinum. Microcenter had it listed for 350 in their store. Showed them newegg had it listed for 220. They knocked it down to 240.

My 570->680 step up from EVGA will be completed in about a month. I will be putting that 680 in with my other two in my 3820 rig. Hoping to get 1st on the host list.

Looking forward to it. Can't wait to see this beast in action.