R9 390 on 600W 80+ Gold PSU?

The question says it all. I initially planned to get a GTX 970 and is still an option but the memory specs for the 390 are too appealing. I intend to use it for productivity. I am preparing for university and am going to be doing 3D modelling in Zbrush and Maya, there will be others but those are the two main ones.

Traditionally the AMD cards have had good OpenCl performance hence my interest in the 390, as well as the cost and the benchmarks arent that bad for gaming. it may not be as good as a 970 at 1080 but I couldnt care less about a few frames, im more interested about the productivity performance.

So, i want to fit this in a mitx case and my two options for psu are the 500w SFX-L silverstone or the 600w SFX variant. Both are Gold+ certified and I have found they can both handle a GTX 970 but I am worried about the power requirements for the 390. If I have to i will go for the 970 but I would like the 390.

Basically will 600w be fine for a 390?

I mean it depends what else you have in your system, but 600W should be more than enough. AMD GPUs use more power but the power requirements are so overblown.

From what I can see this offers 50 Amps on the +12volt rail. That with a 600watt rating will be fine for an R9 390 for a usual build with a 1 or 2 disks etc.

it'll be fine. i run a 290 overclocked and slightly overvolted on my 650w PSU. it runs great.

The rest of the system shouldnt be too taxing.

Xeon 1231 or 1241 v3
16gb ram
asus z97I mitx mobo
2x SSD 250gb and 500gb
1x HDD 2tb

It seems I will probably go for the 390

You will be totaly fine.

Those little sfx 600w units are bloody awesome ~ 50amps on the 12v rail. You will be fine with a 390.

i dont want to start a new thread about this, but im looking to buy a r9 290 but i only have a EVGA 600b 60+ bronze psu, not sure if its gonna be enough.

Full system specs:

FX8320 @ 4.2ghz
ASROCK 970 extreme 3
HYPER 212 evo
EVGA 600b 80+ broze psu
1TB SSHD
8gb g.skill ram @ 1600mhz
and a total of 3 chassis fan( including cooler)

and does a 70$ price premium over a r9 280x justify the price to the performance difference ?

Well, that PSU has a weak 12V rail but you should be fine.

Yes the 290 is significantly faster than a 280X. Has one of the best price to performance ratios out there.

first of all, im not a psu expert so i dont know what rails and stuff is/are and if it is weak or strong ( can u pls explain it in a nut shell) and second, well r9 280x is sitting at 300$ and the r9 290 at 380$ so is it like worth it, both are of club 3d brand and i dont know if for a 1080p/1440p the 80$ price premium is worth it.

Amperage or how much current it can deliver. It puts out 49A on the 12V rail. It is enough to drive that card.

$300 USD for a 280X? Where are you buying? You can get an R9 290 for like $230-260.

well i live in canada and i included the taxes and put out the final price or just take a look at this R9 280x and
R9 290.

oh and can u give me some useful links on where can i find more info on psus and rails and more in depth stuff?


my general rule of thumb

  1. who is the OEM of the psu - seasonic, flextronics, superflower is the most crucial point ~ bad OEM = hand grenade or higher likely hood of failure/issues
  2. <1000w units - strong single 12v rail, >=1000w multi 12v rails (lots of push (amps) on each)

I don't like that video personally. In fact it does matter. Some PSUs with a lot of weak multi-rails can have trouble running higher amp cards. I have seen it before and high power single rail units are not inherently more dangerous. I think there is better info out there.

There are a a lot of 1000W+ single rail PSUs out there.

oh well i thought seasonic was a good company, anyways opinions on my EVGA psu and combining it with a r9 290? or should i go with a r9 280x or 380 just to be in a safe place? and opinion on r9 290 royalking version, if u have any?

You linked the same card twice.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150697&AID=10657534&PID=3938566&SID=&nm_mc=AFC-C8JunctionCA&cm_mmc=AFC-C8JunctionCA-_-na-_-na-_-na&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_source=afc-%zn

I like this one. $344 is a good deal and the 290 is worth more. It will max most games at 1440P no problem and is even decent for 4K,

Your PSU is fine.

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fixed the links, and i would like to buy the xfx one you referred me to but with all the taxes and the addition 15$ shipping costs, i can go ahead and get a r9 290x instead

I'd go with the R9 290 I linked.I don't have much experience with that brand. I heard they are okay but I have used the DD and it is decent.

Of course, but the clip is a half decent starting point for OP to get their head around the concepts. Im the first to boycott low amp multi psu's, they're utter garb.

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