520W Corsair + Which max GPU?

[Pyroblaze]

The PC has a 520W Corsair PSU in it and currently a 4850 GPU and i feel like upgrading something before i change from 1600x1200 to 1920x1080, so i'm wondering which GPU that the PSU would be enough for and would be enough of an upgrade to warrant the purchase. If a new PSU is needed instead then new GPU the following month then so be it, but please don't say its too low if it's fine for something that will give a decent upgrade as the 4850 is only just starting to lack and not very often tbh.

The rest of the PC consists of :
965p-ds3 mobo
e6850 (3Ghz) cpu running @3.85 just now but gets lowered to 3.5ish in the summer.
4gb ram
A single 250gb barracuda
External DvD re-writer (internal died on me recently during a reformat and that was all i could get in town as i needed it that day)
Peripherals 2 x mouse (1 has it's own power), saitek ecII keyboard.

So not a lot of power being drawn other than the CPU and any prospective GPU. I used to upgrade every 6 months to a year but all that stopped a couple of years ago other than the 4850 replacing a dead 8800GTX, as the upgrades just aren't necessary that frequent and the 'hobby' was costing me too much .

Edit - I don't overclock GPU's anymore either so power from overclocking them shouldn't be considered. I found i was overclocking them just for the sake of it most times, ooh look! +2 FPS!

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

An HD5850 or HD5870 should be fine with an HX520W.

An HD5870 1GB at load has lower power consumption than an HD4890 1GB:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ATI/Radeon_HD_5870/28.html

 

[Pyroblaze]

Thanks for that link fella, it's enlightening to say the least. Once upon a time i could have answered my own questions, but with not needing to upgrade over the past couple of years i stopped following everything. We had another tower last year with a 295 in it that we sold on and the power consumption on it was terrible, glad to see things headed back into back into normal territory.

Is the difference between 5850 and 5870 as decent as it was for the 4 series? There's not a whole lotta difference in price.

 

[RJC]

The 520w will be fine for the 5850 or 5870, my overclocked i7 system with 5850 in crossfire pulls around 430w ~ thought it was 480w but that was including the monitor.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Is the difference between 5850 and 5870 as decent as it was for the 4 series? There's not a whole lotta difference in price.

Since you are not overclocking there will be a larger difference but AFAIK when both are at the same clockspeeds there is not a massive difference.

The new GTX470 and GTX480 graphics cards are being released tommorrow and are entering retail in the next few weeks. If they perform well for the price it may mean cheaper HD5870 1GB cards. OTH,power consumption of these cards is rumoured to be relatively high.

 

[NormanPorkinson]

You can run 2 5870's in crossfire with a 520watt corsair. I know because I used to run two 4890s with a 500 watt antec and it ran fine!

 

[Pyroblaze]

5870 it is then, just ordered. For the first time i've just had a warm feeling from not upgrading this tower in the past. I'd some dread when i asked the question as i'd wrongly assumed i would be told... "No! You need more power Scotty!" as it used to be