"How many watts do I need"? Check Here!

[seon123]

15 minutes ago, stabs23 said:

In nvidia site I saw that some of those cards' Recommended System Power is 600W or even 650W. that's why I asked that.

So I'm suppose to be okay with 2700X and evga G2 550W with those cards?

Yes, absolutely. Just ignore their wattage recommendation. 

[DxRalph]

Looking for some info. As of right now I have my pc running a 2700x at stock with a gtx 1080 stock. My power supply is a 500W corsair 80+. I am looking to get a 2080ti (MSI edition) in the near future but am worrying about whether my PSU will be able to handle it. Any advice? Thanks!

[mariushm]

GTX 1080 uses up to 250 watts.

RTX 2080ti uses up to 260 watts. The regular RTX 2080 uses up to 225 watts (less than GTX 1080) , and RTX 2070 goes up to around 185 watts.

 

Basically, if your system ran with a GTX 1080, it will run with a RTX 2xxx series card.

 

//  2700x at stock will consume up to around 140-150 watts at 100% ... so 150w + 250w = 400w. Your power supply should provide more than this on the 12v rail, if it doesn't then you should go for a better power supply.

Note that when gaming, you won't have both your cpu AND your video card at 100% non stop, so your power consumption won't be quite that high.

 

[DxRalph]

15 hours ago, mariushm said:

GTX 1080 uses up to 250 watts.

RTX 2080ti uses up to 260 watts. The regular RTX 2080 uses up to 225 watts (less than GTX 1080) , and RTX 2070 goes up to around 185 watts.

 

Basically, if your system ran with a GTX 1080, it will run with a RTX 2xxx series card.

 

//  2700x at stock will consume up to around 140-150 watts at 100% ... so 150w + 250w = 400w. Your power supply should provide more than this on the 12v rail, if it doesn't then you should go for a better power supply.

Note that when gaming, you won't have both your cpu AND your video card at 100% non stop, so your power consumption won't be quite that high.

 

Thanks for the reply marius. The msi 2080ti states that the max power consumption would be around 300W. I guess that would still be ok or would you say I would be best off upgrading? Also, the psu i have now has 2 8 pin PCI-E connectors, but the msi trio uses those two and then another 6 pin i think. Do i need the third power connector?

[mariushm]

The MSI card has so many connectors for marketing purposes, and to make life easier for overclockers. It wasn't really needed to have 3 connectors.

 

In order to conform to pci-e standards (in order to be allowed to put on video card box pci-e logo and call itself a pci-e video card) the video card MUST NOT take more than 75 watts from a 6pin pci-e connector, or 150 watts from a pci-e 8 pin connector. In total, together with up to ~65w from the pci-e slot, the video card is not allowed to consume more than 300 watts (this rule may have been relaxed lately)

 

Physically, the connectors are capable of transferring a lot more power than 75w or 150w, but the standard restricts to those values for safety mostly.

In both connectors, there's 3 pairs of wires transferring 12v to the video card, and the contacts inside the connectors are rated for up to 9A of current, so electrically, the each connector can transfer up to 3 pairs x 9A x 12v =  324 watts.

So, with two pci-e 8 pin connectors, in theory a video card could take up to 650 watts from the video card.

 

In real world, because the connectors are so close together, and because at high current amounts the connectors will warm up, it's good practice to derate them, and you'll often see figures like 7A per contact thrown around... which still means the connector would be good for  3 pairs x 7A x 12v =  250 watts.

 

So why would your MSI card have 3 connectors? Well, if you'd overclock your video card and cool it with fancy cooling methods like liquid nitrogen or other methods that give you negative temperatures, it is possible to increase the voltage and get a power consumption up to 400-500 watts, which would close to what two 8 pin connectors would safely transfer to the video card. So for such overclockers, MSI added a third connector, which adds 3 more pairs of wires.  So, if the video card consumes 500w when heavily overclocked, each connector will only transfer around 165 watts, or around 4A through each pair of 12 wires ( because you have 3 connectors x 3 pairs per connector) and that's perfectly fine.

 

Anyway, if you're not one of those extreme overclockers, your video card is unlikely to consume more than around 300-350 watts even with serious overclocking, which makes two 8 pin connectors more than enough.

 

 

[DxRalph]

On 12/17/2018 at 6:44 PM, mariushm said:

The MSI card has so many connectors for marketing purposes, and to make life easier for overclockers. It wasn't really needed to have 3 connectors.

 

In order to conform to pci-e standards (in order to be allowed to put on video card box pci-e logo and call itself a pci-e video card) the video card MUST NOT take more than 75 watts from a 6pin pci-e connector, or 150 watts from a pci-e 8 pin connector. In total, together with up to ~65w from the pci-e slot, the video card is not allowed to consume more than 300 watts (this rule may have been relaxed lately)

 

Physically, the connectors are capable of transferring a lot more power than 75w or 150w, but the standard restricts to those values for safety mostly.

In both connectors, there's 3 pairs of wires transferring 12v to the video card, and the contacts inside the connectors are rated for up to 9A of current, so electrically, the each connector can transfer up to 3 pairs x 9A x 12v =  324 watts.

So, with two pci-e 8 pin connectors, in theory a video card could take up to 650 watts from the video card.

 

In real world, because the connectors are so close together, and because at high current amounts the connectors will warm up, it's good practice to derate them, and you'll often see figures like 7A per contact thrown around... which still means the connector would be good for  3 pairs x 7A x 12v =  250 watts.

 

So why would your MSI card have 3 connectors? Well, if you'd overclock your video card and cool it with fancy cooling methods like liquid nitrogen or other methods that give you negative temperatures, it is possible to increase the voltage and get a power consumption up to 400-500 watts, which would close to what two 8 pin connectors would safely transfer to the video card. So for such overclockers, MSI added a third connector, which adds 3 more pairs of wires.  So, if the video card consumes 500w when heavily overclocked, each connector will only transfer around 165 watts, or around 4A through each pair of 12 wires ( because you have 3 connectors x 3 pairs per connector) and that's perfectly fine.

 

Anyway, if you're not one of those extreme overclockers, your video card is unlikely to consume more than around 300-350 watts even with serious overclocking, which makes two 8 pin connectors more than enough.

 

 

Hi again Marius,

 

Ive done some more research and I found the card at max will draw 360W.  I also read that the 2700x takes more than 200W which is confusing me. Now you did say that the card and the cpu will never be drawing their max loads at the same time. Would this still be true at 4k gaming etc? I just want to confirm with you as you are knowledgable. Thanks again

[meenmeen1103]

53 minutes ago, DxRalph said:

Hi again Marius,

 

Ive done some more research and I found the card at max will draw 360W.  I also read that the 2700x takes more than 200W which is confusing me. Now you did say that the card and the cpu will never be drawing their max loads at the same time. Would this still be true at 4k gaming etc? I just want to confirm with you as you are knowledgable. Thanks again

With air and even traditional water cooling (non-chilled, ambient), you are unlikely to run into a 500W power limit before you run into a thermal limit on either the 2700X or 2080ti. The more important concern here is your PSU quality rather than rated max output (doesn't seem you stated which specific model you have); things like voltage ripple and protections should also be kept in mind especially when pairing the PSU with top end hardware like currently a 2080ti. I suggest you look at the PSUs from the subforums here or here and get a unit from the top two groupings (1/2 or S/A) from 500W-650W. More than 650W will be absolutely unnecessary unless you plan to do extreme sub-ambient overclocking.

[DxRalph]

7 minutes ago, meenmeen1103 said:

With air and even traditional water cooling (non-chilled, ambient), you are unlikely to run into a 500W power limit before you run into a thermal limit on either the 2700X or 2080ti. The more important concern here is your PSU quality rather than rated max output (doesn't seem you stated which specific model you have); things like voltage ripple and protections should also be kept in mind especially when pairing the PSU with top end hardware like currently a 2080ti. I suggest you look at the PSUs from the subforums here or here and get a unit from the top two groupings (1/2 or S/A) from 500W-650W. More than 650W will be absolutely unnecessary unless you plan to do extreme sub-ambient overclocking.

Hi Meenmeen,

 

Tha PSU i currently have is the 

Corsair - Builder 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply   Would you say that is fine for the 2700x combined with the MSI 2080ti gaming x trio? I will also be playing in 4k etc

[germgoatz]

Can we change the name of this thread to "Watt do I need?"

[meenmeen1103]

14 minutes ago, DxRalph said:

Hi Meenmeen,

 

Tha PSU i currently have is the 

Corsair - Builder 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply   Would you say that is fine for the 2700x combined with the MSI 2080ti gaming x trio? I will also be playing in 4k etc

It'll likely work, but I wouldn't advise running that setup. I have one of those exactly, green label CX500W, and use it mainly just to test other used PC parts/builds. Wouldn't personally use it long term with anything of more value than say a GTX 970. With your plan of running arguably the current fastest gaming card, I'd highly suggest pairing it with a top quality PSU. To reiterate, high wattage does not equal high quality. An EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G2 would be a good one for example.

[DxRalph]

21 hours ago, meenmeen1103 said:

It'll likely work, but I wouldn't advise running that setup. I have one of those exactly, green label CX500W, and use it mainly just to test other used PC parts/builds. Wouldn't personally use it long term with anything of more value than say a GTX 970. With your plan of running arguably the current fastest gaming card, I'd highly suggest pairing it with a top quality PSU. To reiterate, high wattage does not equal high quality. An EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G2 would be a good one for example.

What are the possible problems I could run into? I've been using it for about 2 years with a 1080 now and haven't had issues so I was wondering what could happen 

[DxRalph]

18 minutes ago, DxRalph said:

What are the possible problems I could run into? I've been using it for about 2 years with a 1080 now and haven't had issues so I was wondering what could happen 

What would you say about this one? https://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-evga-gq-series-80plus-gold-hybrid-modular-sli-crossfire-single-rail-54a-plus12v-1x135mm-fan-atx?gclid=CjwKCAiA3vfgBRB9EiwAkfpd3Fcm1ZzgH6vbuFZ9zF57xlEE-2TeLIPYkyD2zIR4CFfVoHEs-UiLqBoCFAYQAvD_BwE

[meenmeen1103]

2 hours ago, DxRalph said:

What are the possible problems I could run into? I've been using it for about 2 years with a 1080 now and haven't had issues so I was wondering what could happen 

Hard to predict what will happen; choosing a higher quality PSU is more of reducing the chances for potential issues, not avoiding them. Less voltage ripple can mean better stability at higher clock speeds (there's more variables outside the PSU like silicon quality), things like better capacitors can mean more power-on hours, and then there's the protections which at worst, though rare, can mean that during a failure, the PSU takes out other PC components with it. 

The main concern, again, is that you're talking about powering among the best GPU, worth easily over £1000, so why not spend an extra ~£20 or so to reduce the likelihood of other failures for even more years.

2 hours ago, DxRalph said:

What would you say about this one? https://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-evga-gq-series-80plus-gold-hybrid-modular-sli-crossfire-single-rail-54a-plus12v-1x135mm-fan-atx?gclid=CjwKCAiA3vfgBRB9EiwAkfpd3Fcm1ZzgH6vbuFZ9zF57xlEE-2TeLIPYkyD2zIR4CFfVoHEs-UiLqBoCFAYQAvD_BwE

That PSU is good, though this one https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/9q4NnQ/evga-power-supply-220g20650y1 has less ripple.

[DxRalph]

1 hour ago, meenmeen1103 said:

Hard to predict what will happen; choosing a higher quality PSU is more of reducing the chances for potential issues, not avoiding them. Less voltage ripple can mean better stability at higher clock speeds (there's more variables outside the PSU like silicon quality), things like better capacitors can mean more power-on hours, and then there's the protections which at worst, though rare, can mean that during a failure, the PSU takes out other PC components with it. 

The main concern, again, is that you're talking about powering among the best GPU, worth easily over £1000, so why not spend an extra ~£20 or so to reduce the likelihood of other failures for even more years.

That PSU is good, though this one https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/9q4NnQ/evga-power-supply-220g20650y1 has less ripple.

I appreciate all the help! I think I'll go with the gq for the time being as Christmas dents the wallet but I don't plan on overclocking anything etc so I'm sure it'll be fine. Thanks again! 

[iStink]

Thinking about getting a RTX 2070, is a EVGA SuperNOVA 550 G3 enough for it? Thanks! 

[mariushm]

Yeah, RTX 2070 uses less than 200 watts, so a power supply that can do 550w is more than enough to power it and the processor and other components you may have.

[therealablert]

So here's my situation: pc keeps shutting down, was getting asus anti surge protection warning until I disabled it. All signs point to needing a new psu(3 y/o system, gold rated 500w in machine). I'm in the USA and have amazon prime.

 

I have:

i5-4690k

msi geforce 1050ti

250gb samsung evo ssd

1tb hdd

16gb ddr3

asus z97-ar

 

would like to keep it under $100, amazon is ideal.

 

Thanks!

[Mattias Edeslatt]

@therealablert as you are posting in "how many watts do I need?"-thread my reply is that you don't need more than 500W for your current build and not for a newer one either if you don't go full ham on the high end parts.

 

[hollyh88]

so i have read the top pinned comment that had a list of recommended psu's. 

was that correct? i have a build with both a rtx 2070 (msi rtx 2070 gaming z) and 1 with a gtx 1070 (evga gtx 1070 sc).
and both use a cooler master 550 80+ bronze power supply. 

but i am thinking of upgrading the 2070 to the 2080. would that 550 psu still be enough? most people say yes but some say no. it would be great if someone had a definitive answer for me  

[dogwitch]

my build(other gpu on its way. so only 1 card atm in pc)
CPU: AMD - Threadripper 1950X 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor     
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U14S TR4-SP3 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler   
Motherboard: ASRock - X399 Taichi ATX TR4 Motherboard   
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory   
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive   
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU800 256 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive   
Storage: Western Digital - Black NVMe 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive   
Storage: Transcend - 512 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive   
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive   
Storage: Western Digital - 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive   
Video Card: PowerColor - Radeon RX 580 8 GB Red Devil Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)   
Video Card: PowerColor - Radeon RX 580 8 GB Red Devil Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)   
Case: Cooler Master - MasterCase H500 ATX Mid Tower Case   
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply   
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit   
Case Fan: be quiet! - Pure Wings 2 120 PWM 87 CFM 120mm Fan   

ok am asking .
am i at the limit of the psu? i reallly most like wont oc the cpu or gpu,ram

or should  go with a more powerful one.  seeing 12 hours a day this is under-load 100 load both gpus and cpu

 

[Spotty]

26 minutes ago, dogwitch said:

my build(other gpu on its way. so only 1 card atm in pc)
CPU: AMD - Threadripper 1950X 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor     
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U14S TR4-SP3 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler   
Motherboard: ASRock - X399 Taichi ATX TR4 Motherboard   
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory   
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive   
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU800 256 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive   
Storage: Western Digital - Black NVMe 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive   
Storage: Transcend - 512 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive   
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 4 TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive   
Storage: Western Digital - 4 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive   
Video Card: PowerColor - Radeon RX 580 8 GB Red Devil Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)   
Video Card: PowerColor - Radeon RX 580 8 GB Red Devil Video Card (2-Way CrossFire)   
Case: Cooler Master - MasterCase H500 ATX Mid Tower Case   
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply   
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit   
Case Fan: be quiet! - Pure Wings 2 120 PWM 87 CFM 120mm Fan   

ok am asking .
am i at the limit of the psu? i reallly most like wont oc the cpu or gpu,ram

or should  go with a more powerful one.  seeing 12 hours a day this is under-load 100 load both gpus and cpu

 

From memory the RX580 Red Devils are about 200-225W under load, so about 450W for the pair.
Threadripper 1950x would be another 200W.

Your PSU should be fine with the specs you have listed there.

[dogwitch]

ok. seeing their was 2 models of this card. and was not sure with power draws. also would i still be good with another ssd ,m.2 or both.(basic storage drives)

[Spotty]

2 minutes ago, dogwitch said:

ok. seeing their was 2 models of this card. and was not sure with power draws. also would i still be good with another ssd ,m.2 or both.(basic storage drives)

It'll be fine. SSDs are fairly low power draw. Your 860 evo for example is less than 3W while active.
For reference, for a HDD you're looking at about 3-5W while it's idle (spinning), and maybe 8-10W while it's active (reading/writing).

[dogwitch]

ah ok. yeah  the case only comes with a 2 drive  hdd holder. so even with current spec i mention.  that about what the whole pc will hold . for a long while.

like i said i might 1 day in the future oc the cpu(no gpu oc) and bump it up by 15 percent. i am  not wanting to oc to 4ghz on all cores with hs i have.

[LightParticle]

Ryzen 5 2600 (+overclock) + 4x8Gb 2666 (+Overclock) + GTX 1080 Ti +  additional (4 sata, 4 x120mm fan and peripherals) will be 550W  enough? For work&homemedia and rarely gaming.

p/s basic overclocking