Is my 750 watt psu enough for my setup?

[Frenzic]

Hi TPU crew. I recently got a new graphics card Gigabyte R9-290X WindForce OC. Last night I was playing BF4 for about an hour and everything was fine until I exited the game, I then noticed slightly faint green and red flickering lines in the middle of my desktop I become worried and restarted my pc. When the pc got to the login screen I couldn't make anything out as it was all messed up but proceeded with entering my password, screen went black and then appeared normal but a box popped up saying "amd display driver stopped responding has successfully recovered" with a yellow warning triangle. My pc has been rock stable for ages (since I got the psu about 2-2 and a half years ago and with the gpu I had before (a Sapphire 7970 Vapor-X GHz) My 12v reading with my 7970 was always just over 12v but now with the 290x it's at 11.7v. I know you can't trust software readings but I have a feeling my psu is no longer supplying 750watt. TBH it's not the best psu OCZ ZS-750, do you guys think it a psu problem? as my system was totally stable before? cpu slight oc and memory at 1600MHz ive been running that from when I got MB/CPU, what do you guys think? Rig is in my sig and any help would be much appreciated, thanks people

 

[bobodori]

My bet is on bad gpu.Have you checked gpu temps,after restart?

 

[RCoon]

There's nothing wrong with the OCZ ZS series, I had a 650w that ran a file server 24/7 and it worked a treat. They aren't the best, but they certainly aren't the worst. I'd be checking the GPU in a different system if I were you, or test a different GPU with that OCZ PSU.

 

[Frenzic]

Yes, the temp when it crashed was 72c, after I restarted it was 37c, it idles at 30-32c. Highest ive seen temps after 2 or 3 hours of BF4 was 77c and from the reviews I have read is all good. I forgot to mention it has not done it since, I have switched DVI connectors and clean install of 13.12's and played an hour of BF4 today and temps got to 72c but it has me worried for the future.

 

[GreiverBlade]

There's nothing wrong with the OCZ ZS series, I had a 650w that ran a file server 24/7 and it worked a treat. They aren't the best, but they certainly aren't the worst. I'd be checking the GPU in a different system if I were you, or test a different GPU with that OCZ PSU.

^that

because i had a 700W psu with a i7-920@ 4.4 and 2 ASUS GTX580 Matrix@ 920/2500 and if a 700W can power that setup ... yours would be fine with a 750W and even have room for upgrades.

 

[RCoon]

Yes, the temp when it crashed was 72c, after I restarted it was 37c, it idles at 30-32c. Highest ive seen temps after 2 or 3 hours of BF4 was 77c and from the reviews I have read is all good. I forgot to mention it has not done it since, I have switched DVI connectors and clean install of 13.12's and played an hour of BF4 today and temps got to 72c but it has me worried for the future.

Could quite easily have been a corrupted driver. I wasn't referring to issues with the GPU temps though, could be a hardware issue with the card. By the sounds of things changing the drivers was the solution, as is the case with most AMD issues.

 

[Frenzic]

There's nothing wrong with the OCZ ZS series, I had a 650w that ran a file server 24/7 and it worked a treat. They aren't the best, but they certainly aren't the worst. I'd be checking the GPU in a different system if I were you, or test a different GPU with that OCZ PSU.

I can try my gpu in my brothers pc and see if it is stable, I wont be seeing him till next week, I have a big BF4 night tonight so it will get a damn good seeing too, going to monitor pc, does a psu degrade over time? less and less watts produced? thnx

 

[RCoon]

does a psu degrade over time?

They do, though usually it will take quite a number of years. You'll have replaced your PSU twice by the time this one actually degrades to a noticable level. PSU's are similar to HDD's - If they don't fail in the first 12 months, they generally just never fail.

 

[Frenzic]

Could quite easily have been a corrupted driver. I wasn't referring to issues with the GPU temps though, could be a hardware issue with the card. By the sounds of things changing the drivers was the solution, as is the case with most AMD issues.

yep I am going to Keep an eye on it and I did think my psu was plenty capable but since this has happened since gpu upgrade I thought it was either gpu (hopefuly not) or psu, I dunno its got me freaked out! If it happens again would you suggest trying an older driver

^that

because i had a 700W psu with a i7-920@ 4.4 and 2 ASUS GTX580 Matrix@ 920/2500 and if a 700W can power that setup ... yours would be fine with a 750W and even have room for upgrades.

Blimey that's a lot of hardware running on a 700watt, mine must be ok then

 

[RCoon]

Blimey that's a lot of hardware running on a 700watt

Not really, there's a guy on this forum that runs a GTX 690 on something crazy like a 550w PSU. People generally seriously underestimate how power efficient hardware is nowadays.

would you suggest trying an older driver

13.12 is stable, seems a good bet for sticking with it.

 

[Frenzic]

I will monitor pc and keep an eye on things tonight and if problem re occurs then I will test gpu in my bro's pc and report back here, thanks for all your valuable input, this place and you guys help me a lot

 

[Frenzic]

Not really, there's a guy on this forum that runs a GTX 690 on something crazy like a 550w PSU. People generally seriously underestimate how power efficient hardware is nowadays.



13.12 is stable, seems a good bet for sticking with it.

geez, im leaning more and more away from psu probs. Thanks I will stick with these drivers and report back here after tonights BF4 session

 

[RCoon]

geez, im leaning more and more away from psu probs. Thanks I will stick with these drivers.

This website is useful for estimating power requirements/usage for PC systems:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
Do note it over estimates, so you usually have a decent margin on top of what it calculates.

 

[Frenzic]

This website is useful for estimating power requirements/usage for PC systems:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
Do note it over estimates, so you usually have a decent margin on top of what it calculates.

Thanks I will have a look

 

[Frenzic]

Well I just filled in the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator and it come up with 579w and if it over calculates then I can see now that my 750 is or should be plenty so that pretty much rules out psu, I mite start looking closer at gpu.

 

[GreiverBlade]

This website is useful for estimating power requirements/usage for PC systems:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
Do note it over estimates, so you usually have a decent margin on top of what it calculates.

exactly what i use for my PSU calculation and my actual 530W will be on the limit if i choose to add a 2nd 270 to my setup

the recommended need is what you can consider as a safe middle between minimal and overkill
ASUS recommended a 700W as minimum for a Single GTX580 Matrix Platinum and i had 2 ... but a 690 on a 550W indeed is far more than what i did

@Frenzic : edit function no double post, thanks!

 

[Frenzic]

Sorry yes I forgot to edit post, thanks

 

[Frenzic]

Update: Well after 3 hours solid of BF4 I have no problems, I wonder if the clean reinstall of drivers fixed this? anyhoo I am happy but I will still keep an eye on things, thanks for your help guys

ps. sorry for the double post haha

 

[GreiverBlade]

And another double post