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trifire on 1200w?

Nephelim
Level 7
So for my build (wich started last year and still isn't done) I was planing on two matrix 7970 i crossfire, this instead shifted to 2 of the asus 290x in crossfire, wich worked like a charm until I noticed some coilwhine and sent them back for new ones.

I was toying with the idea of getting a third one but im doubting my PSU's power, so was hoping for some help.

Is it possible to trifire 290x on a 1200w Be-quiet dark power pro PSU

rest of the parts in the build is a
rampage IV B.E
4930k (stock) watercooled
3HDD and 2 SSD
2 D5 pumps
20ish be-quiet 120mm fans running at 40-50% (600-700rpm) for silence.

I do intend to watercool them all as soon as ek releases blocks for the DCII models


edit: The build is mainly for gaming in eyefinity mode and maybe flexing my epeen with benching scores, no extreme overcloking 🙂
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28 REPLIES 28

Nephelim
Level 7
Im getting very mixed results when googling it, some say 1200-1250w is fine aslong as its a quality PSU while some say the power consumption is so high with theese cards that they wouldn't try it with less than 1500w to leave headroom.

While running Unigine valley and prime95 I did not note any extreme wattages beeing pulled from the wall (before I shiped them back). But dont want to risk anything going boom 🙂

Myk_SilentShado
Level 15
What wattage numbers were you getting with 2 of them under load?

Nephelim
Level 7
I don't recall exact numbers, all I know it was not enough to make me go "holy cow". I think with one card it was around 400w and with 2 650-700w. I spent most of the time running them one at a time to see if I could get rid of the coilwhine.

With that wattage I reconed adding a third gpu and starting the GPU loop would equal atleast 1000w

This also seems to be in line with Guru3Ds benchmark
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/radeon_r9_290x_crossfire_vs_sli_review_benchmarks,4.html
with full system and 2 cards doing 661watts.


But there are alot of forum posts, reviews etc saying they would not use less then a 1000w supply for two GPUs since they all claim to have seen som crazy 290x numbers, or that 1200w for Trifire leaves almost 0 headroom and runing it like that will fry the PSU real fast etc.

Its just that kind of posts that got me on edge with adding a third 🙂

Chino
Level 15

Chino wrote:
As a minimum, you'd want a 1000W PSU for a R9 290X crossfire. Use that as your guide.


so for trifire thats another 300w wich is 1300w PSU? as minimum you say?

The 1200w I have is only 3 months old and already sleeved so no chance that's going out anytime soon. Maybe should switch to the green team wich has a 250w requirement per card instead of 300, lol.

Myk_SilentShado
Level 15
To be brutally honest with you mate, i'd suggest you get yourself a 1.5KW PSU for 3 cards, at least that way you'll have headroom for OCing, plus extra stuff, SSD's, HDD's, ODD's, fans, etc etc etc

Myk SilentShadow wrote:
To be brutally honest with you mate, i'd suggest you get yourself a 1.5KW PSU for 3 cards, at least that way you'll have headroom for OCing, plus extra stuff, SSD's, HDD's, ODD's, fans, etc etc etc


Yeah, I wish I would have gotten a 1,5Kw from the start, but ahwell. Maybe later when i do the next upgrade 🙂

Nephelim wrote:
Yeah, I wish I would have gotten a 1,5Kw from the start, but ahwell. Maybe later when i do the next upgrade 🙂


Pays to do full research and asking here will always give you an honest answer 🙂

Myk SilentShadow wrote:
Pays to do full research and asking here will always give you an honest answer 🙂


The plan was never to go trifire either, only matrix 7970 crossfire it was just a crazy thought I had 🙂

Honest answers is always best when it comes to expensive equipment.