How Many Watts You Need for Mid-Range Gaming PCs (2017)

[@GamersNexus]

Note: These numbers are before accounting for efficiency loss at the wall, as pointed out below, so you'd have a bit more headroom even than we're showing here. Shows how far you can get on 450W. This is clearly by no means fully comprehensive of all parts -- we're just focusing on a couple of popular configurations for today. For component-level power testing, check our individual component reviews. X299 and TR don't appear because they're HEDT parts that need more than 450W for decent performance. As stated herein, we wouldn't recommend a 450W unit for something like the OC 7700K + GTX 1080 system -- it was just to show where you top-out on capacity from the PSU. You want some extra room for spiky loads or for GPU OCing, joint 100%/100% load cycles, etc. We're just trying to see how far you can go at 450W. Article here: www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3036-how-far-can-450w-get-you-for-a-gaming-pc-wattage

[@uglyduckling81]

Really like my Seasonic Prime 650watt Titanium PSU. Cost a fair bit to buy but it should last me a long time and it's pretty much the best PSU on the market.

[@mohammadmiah]

Gamers Nexus is there a major change to wattage needed when the frame rate is limited?

[@gizsno]

Excellent presentation, thank you. I would love to see a video that validates efficiency claims from various PSU manufactures.

[@vincentvanrijn7469]

Gamers Nexus jou mightvwant to use corsair I seriers PSUs, they give power IN / OUT and effecienty in software via USB

[@MrEscanaba]

Gamers Nexus What about the efficiency of the Psu between 600 wattage to 1000 wattage usages?

[@justjoeblow420]

I would love to see a 2020 update for this.

[@wiedapp]

I second this!

[@goblinslayer5404]

yeh, maybe they can redo it later this year after next gen amd and nvidia products are released

[@xXBlackxMoonXx1]

I will give you my experience. My PSU is an old 450W Aerocool power supply bronze used for 5 years. I upgraded everything except the PSU to: Ryzen 5 3600 (has it's power with a 4 pin connector cuz my PSU is old BUT it's perfectly enough for this CPU) GTX 1660 Super (overclocked with 105% powerlimit. I don't recommend it tho) and no RGB lights at all except the keyboard and mouse. Oh and temps are normal, as advertised, no overheating.

[@jxb178]

Agreed!

[@xXBlackxMoonXx1]

@Tyrion Targarian damn, these parts are more power hungry than mine. I hope your PSU will be up to task on the long run.

[@mikesama5458]

My cousin bought an 850watts PSU with an Amd A10 apu and no gpu , like wtf?

[@Drega84]

Mike Productions That made me laugh a lot, now that's what I call overkill 😂

[@jakegarrett8109]

Man, I need to run my Raspberry pi 1 on my 1000w PSU just to top that. This is hilarious if its true!

[@eugkra33]

Mike Productions he thinks high watt will make it run faster.

[@nataliegray7703]

jeez, those things would run on OEM 200w psus.

[@twistednemo]

Lil Deadman He means no discrete GPU.

[@crazyjak56]

Damn, that's a good topic.

[@raven4k998]

700 watt is needed if it's a non 80 plus psu cause the psu then needs alot more power to operate which is why if he did this comparison with non 80 plus 80plus and so on and so forth youd see the power draw dropping as you went up to titanium which would make this much more informative

[@BAJF93]

I've got a G4560 and a 1050 Ti. Total system power consumption during load is around 100 W.

[@Simon74]

500W. _done_

[@wyvern4588]

That will run my Vega and the pump...

[@metamancer2775]

Wyvern You're clearly an Nvidiot. A 500 watt PSU can power a Vega card, a pump, *and* a 120 mm fan.

[@Najvalsa]

650W.

[@pewnice92]

I do not regret getting a higher watt PSU then what I needed when I upgraded my GPU

[@ThaexakaMavro]

500 is clearly enough ran a gtx690 with the cpu oc no problems

[@alexmouris2]

Seasonic G series (gold rated) starts at 360 watts. Perfect for low power systems.

[@AndrewTJackson]

alexmouris I agree! Office PC? One doesn't need more than that.

[@luishagner8120]

also fsp has some nice ones, i personally have a 450w gold rated psu from their hexa series

[@arekb5951]

alexmouris Or feeding a single Vega 64 :)

[@stephen_l1474]

arekb5 a vega 64 water cooled is already 345W ... leaves no room for oc lol

[@AndrewSmall963]

Agree. First came across the brand at work when we had a bunch of i7-4790k based number crunchers made. Did a bit of research and was impressed enough to use their G450 for a build and it oozed quality. Well packaged with modular cables supplied in a little draw string bag, with Velcro cable tidies. Seasonic don't seem to be mentioned often on the PC builder vlogs but I'd certainly choose one again.

[@WarriorsPhoto]

Very Good Findings. I am pleased to see someone showing us, how many watts we’ll really be using. No, wonder this 650 Watt has worked great for a few years already. (: BTW, my first PSU was a 500. I was able to Crossfire with it and never had any issues.

[@yivvo4568]

I am glad to be subscribed to your channel, I was wondering what I needed to push a 1080ti. You really put a lot of good info and do a great job at it. also you're sarcasm is priceless dude keep up the good work

[@blazbohinc5735]

YIvvO Gaming your sarcasm* 1080ti and a 7700k both OCed draw around 350-400W @ wall. If you're stress testing them.. sth like a 600W PSU Is more than enough.. for an SLI setup, sth like 750W territory is more suitable..

[@yivvo4568]

I have a 650W PSU but i had my doubts but now I know thanks for the info XD

[@WayStedYou]

YIvvO Gaming 650 is heaps

[@Madchris8828]

Gamers Nexus goes really in depth on statistics where as most Techtubers just want to benchmark for performance of gaming and applications :)

[@medec10667]

The kind of videos we actually need. Thanks for exploring good topics, GN.

[@erejnion]

YOU NEED 2000 WATTS: 7980XE with dual water Vega 64!

[@erlend1554]

7980xe with ln2

[@LiLBitsDK]

and a 1750 watt chiller to keep it semi cool

[@saada5369]

Soooooooo what’s for the high range then? 😅

[@ApexLodestar]

I was literally discussing about wattage needed yesterday. I absolutely adore this channel. Answers all my questions and always educational as well as entertaining.

[@carlos2004]

I've been running an i7 2600/ Rx 470 on a 240watt OEM powersupply and after four months, it has been doing just fine, so 450 should get be plenty for most. When I upgraded from the 750ti, I actually ran 2 psu's thinking such low wattage wouldn't be able to handle the 470. But after getting a bad card, I was forced to underclock and decided to try one PSU for the whole system. So in the end, the PSU is doing just fine with the 470, i7, hdd, ssd, and dvd drive. I tried overclocking the card just to stress test and was actually fine even then, but the card itself just wouldn't take the overclock.

[@GotrekGurninsson]

I run an i5-2500k @5ghz and two overclocked gtx 970's on an oem 400W psu never even thought about needing more power:) pc parts are like fishing gear. You don't really need it you just want it.

[@Jvman12]

Revisit? for 2019 hardware?

[@alfonsputzeys9228]

Idd, i was hoping to find info on zen2 and 5700xt hardware. Also, i am planning to re use as much of my components as possible when i upgrade the next time. 1st time builder, when i pulled it off. Doing my next system Will be easier. Some things i Will have to figure out on the go.

[@Kie-7077]

2nd that. I'd buy a power supply that can easily supply over double what the build needs because then the PSU can run quiet at all loads.

[@alfonsputzeys9228]

@@Kie-7077 same objective aswell, quiet as possible because of nearby bedrooms

[@alfonsputzeys9228]

@Ayy Yo degradation of components lowers your actual wattage

[@scoresandflames]

I have a Ryzen 5 3600 with a GBT 5700 XT Gaming OC on a Chieftec CPS-450S PSU (Bronze+). No issues at all!

[@DEeMONsworld]

considering my second build for a semi gaming rig, this is invaluable straight to the point info. Considering I'm going to be using mid to lower range components i5 9600K, on a Z 390 board, with a 1060 6gig GPU, I was going to use a 750W PSU, now, a 650 seems overkill. However, I will want room to upgrade the CPU and GPU in the future.

[@Cricketmane]

Started with a corsair 430w psu, ended up with an 850w thermaltake one because I got such a good deal on it. Still going strong after a few years. Currently powering an i7 3770 and R9 Fury

[@runevikan]

For more exclusive builds, fanless mode uder 50% load could be an argument for higher wattage PSUs, if you are going for silent operation.

[@JayJapanB]

You can buy completely fanless 520w PSUs from silverstone.

[@jurandfantom]

or seasonic - soon there will be even 600w option

[@balazstoth4740]

I had a Corsair VX 450 for an overclocked i7 860 + R9 290 build. It was running fine even during heavy gaming. I measured 370-380W at the wall. I eventually changed the power supply for a FSP Raider 550, because the Corsair was just too loud then for my taste.

[@zstation64]

1070Ti, R7-2700X, 1 HDD, 1 SSD, 16GB RAM on a B450 board. All running off a 350W Superflower PSU. Solid as a rock. :D

[@rdmz135]

That's cutting it super close

[@gloomyend1232]

Are you sure about it??

[@hasso9]

You re still alive?

[@gloomyend1232]

Buy atleast 500w

[@DeadPixel1105]

Really??? That's extremely impressive.

[@turb0j]

One thing to keep in mind is the GPU power cabling. Cheaper 450W PSUs may only ship with a single 6- or 8-pin GPU cable, while many "gamer" cards need more than one plug despite their lower power draw at stock.

[@germanikolaas]

Actually this is really true and probably overlooked, also the lower wattage power supplies have crappy cabling compared to the higher end ones they just look better. And to just buy the lower wattage and the cord separate sometimes will equal the same price if not more as if you just got the higher power supply to begin with.

[@ComfyShortz]

600w is the general sweet spot where you don't have to worry about it, the EVGA 600w 80+ white being my recommendation. It's a name brand power supply that can be had for $40 on best buys website. Though its not high end it passes all the baseline requirements for stability and longevity.

[@FlabbyTabby]

That thing crashed and died in less than 3 years. It's bad. Don't use it.

[@ComfyShortz]

@@FlabbyTabby Mine still works just fine.

[@sdr262]

Great my old 520W Cooler Master still going strong with a i7 2600K and GTX 1060 G1 Gaming hitting around the mid 200s it's perfectly balanced.

[@s.woberts6576]

I just realized something. This guy is the Jon Snow of the tech KZbinrs.

[@MrSeon123]

S.Woberts So he knows nothing?

[@OzanYasarOzan]

More like Samwell Tarly I believe.

[@tokekkk]

but he knows everything

[@s.woberts6576]

Ugh.. here he kinda looks like Kit Harrington in GOT to me lol..

[@pocpc1788]

Or winter soldier!

[@mohawkchris2766]

Dude you deserve a shit ton more subscribers. You are really smart and I love your testing methods. Thanks for the awesome content.

[@ilhammohd3077]

For me 550w more than enough

[@georgemorley1029]

ilham Yup, I'm thinking of a lower wattage, higher rating psu in future. Good reliability and efficiency but with enough power to cope.

[@Chukwu_TC]

ilham most people really..

[@cl4ster17]

Same. 550W DarkPowerPro11 is plenty for my 4790K and 1080Ti though I undervolted the latter to the point where it draws less power than a stock 1080.

[@spiderbruhhh]

ilham, silverstone 550w platinum on my R5 1600/1060 6gb system means I'm good when it comes to future upgrades. Hopefully lol

[@tclemens96]

Ya this video makes my 1300w power supply look totally overkill for my 4790k and sli 1080s

[@blacksilex86]

i've been using Seasonic G360 for 7 years now. it powered my GTX 660 Ti in 2012-2016 and GTX 1060 6GB in 2016-2019. Somehow it refused to die despite being abused by years of heavy gaming.

[@junkerzn7312]

That's a wonderful PSU. I had one sitting on my shelf for ages as I slowly migrated to modular PSUs (the G360 isn't modular), but I found a need for a 'short depth' PSU in the Windows box I just put together with the Fractal core 500 case. After the 500W FSX PSU I had wound up being too noisy, and my modular ATX PSUs wound up being too deep, I pulled the G360 off the shelf and it fits perfectly without the cables getting in the way of the GPU. AMD 2600 (not 2600X), tower cooler, RX 570 driving two 4K monitors... 160W at the wall while playing my games. Easily within the capabilities of the power supply and the thing is dead quiet. I can't imagine this system drawing more than 200W going full-out, frankly. Only issue is that, being old, it only has one 6-pin PCIe power connector. But it seems to work fine on the RX 570's 8-pin input so... I guess thumbs up for new systems not necessarily pulling more power than old systems... and in many respects, less power. -Matt

[@Remzly]

@@junkerzn7312 I've only has my psu for 1 year and I think its toast. After upgrading from a 1060 to 2080 I get asus anti surge warning after my pc shuts down randomly. Any ideas to why this is happening? I'm taking my computer to a repair shop soon but if I could get as much info before that, it would be great.

[@ryanredmond5559]

Remzly 0 maybe a bad psu or not enough powerfull psu or a motherboard stand of is touching the motherboard and causing short circting

[@junkerzn7312]

@@Remzly You need a fairly powerful PSU to run a 2080. You haven't said what power supply you have. If the problem is power, you can probably use nvidia's utilities to lower the power cap on the card and see if the system is more stable. I don't know the precise instructions, though, sorry. Another possibility is that something is overheating. -Matt

[@daniel-1976]

So a EVGA 550w Gold fully modular PSU with a R5 1600 and RX 580 8GB, would be fine for overclocking both the the CPU and GPU ? Edit : it appears I'm good to go. I sense a good cup of tea, some strawberry jam on toast, and an over clocking guide in my future.

[@iamsean92]

yea, dont even waste the money on a gold 80+ go for a bronze if you can it cheaper. sometimes they are only a few bucks apart tho.

[@iamsean92]

im sure white rating would even be fine

[@daniel-1976]

Cheers. I have already built this PC, but now I have run it in for a couple of months I'm thinking about pushing the CPU and GPU a little. The Aorus RX 580 doesn't seem to get much extra but it's worth a try.

[@xaecre9845]

+Sean O'Friel He said he's overclocking, he needs the gold rating. Unless I understand this wrong.

[@matthew4262]

If you use your computer a lot then it's not a waste, you'll almost make up the price difference in electricity in a couple years, you'll get a much much longer warranty, the ripple will be lower, and you'll have less of a chance of the PSU damaging your other components. Why would you get a piece of crap for $40 with a 1 year warranty when you can get something good for $60 with a 5 year warranty?

[@SagaciousEagle]

Just a few weeks ago, I fried my newly bought Enlight 400W that was powering my Phenom II X4 B50 @ 3.3GHz and a stock MSi GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II. The system shut off during gaming (played Fortnite for about 30 mins.). I now have a replacement PSU, bought an Antec VP600P 600W and it's been running alright even when gaming.

[@lufiron]

I got a 850 W power supply not for its peak output, but at 50% load, it gets over 90% efficiency as per jonnyGURU. I'm a sucker for high efficiency.

[@gergeoux]

lufiron same here with the rm850x

[@jort93z]

but you wont be running it at 50% load most of the time. and you should keep in mind that the efficiency drops DRASTICALLY below 10% load and stays rather consistant for the other load states. thats the case for most modern psu's. these sort of "myths" were mostly important back in the day. but if you look at the efficiency curve of a modern psu, you'll find that its pretty linear with the exception that it'll have big drop somewhere below 10%. a 80+ gold PSU is required to have at least 90% efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% load(at 100% load its actually 89% whats required, but you'll be at 90% in most cases). thats the case for 230 volts. its different on other voltages. Really, you just want to make sure that you do not drop below 10% load if you want to ensure that you got a good efficiency. also you should make sure you buy a psu with a good 80+ rating. www.hardwareluxx.de/images/stories/galleries/reviews/bequiet-pro-11-550w/effizienz_c.png thats for example a graph(its in german but should be easily understandable) showing the efficiency curve of the dark power pro 11(which got an 80+ platinum rating) compared to the dark power 10(which got a gold rating). both 550 watts. As you can see there is only 1% difference between 100% load and 50% load. the real difference comes below 10%. All modern PSU's have a graph similar to that one.

[@imo098765]

got the rm650x with a 1600X and 1070

[@Umbruh_Prime]

I like to have more than necessary just for peace of mind. I had an antec 400 watt "high voltage" psu and an i7 2600k along with an r9 280x. The r9 280x died and now only the fans spin but no video shows up

[@jort93z]

you might be confusing voltage with wattage here. voltage rating of a psu will generally be 120-240 volts because thats the voltage range you have worldwide. I dont think you'll be connecting your psu to a high voltage overhead powerline or anything. Wattage is voltage times the current. you probably meant that.

[@peterjansen4826]

550/650 W is ideal. You want some headroom and you want relatively silent operation and a good efficiency. With these two wattages you get a good compromise, not overkill but enough to be comfortable. Invest in a good quality PSU, you can still use it after 10 years, consequently it is a good investment.

[@dakotabradford4989]

I got the evga g1 650w fully modular power supply for only $70 on sale. It's overkill for the rig it's going in but oh well. Couldn't beat the price.

[@TheBilaras97]

its good to have for an upgrade in the future or sli-crossfire

[@Najvalsa]

Got My 850W G2 for $100. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Peak efficiency though.

[@WiiHaveDowns]

I recall a couple years back in a stream Sapphire Ed was catching a lot of flak because he had a dual 290x system running on a 450w power supply. People were going absolutely insane even though this guy who knows the hardware more than them was assuring them at absolute peak usage it would only hit around 370w. It's kind of insane the recommendations people make with such little information. Great video, extremely useful information.

[@XaviarCraig]

A couple friends are running 7700K with 1080 TI non-overclocked on evga/corsair 450 watt bronze 80 PSUs. Both builds occasionally peak for 200 or less milliseconds at around 540 watts from the wall outlet. Power supplies are rated for the power they put out, not the the power going in. Assuming worst case at 82% efficiency for 80 Plus Bronze, 540 watts going in translates to 443 watts output(540*0.82). Still safely within the 450 watt rating providing most of it is not on the 5v line!

[@ssssaa2]

It's just so hard to buy a higher rated power supply when you can find 80 plus bronze 450 watt for 20-25 dollars all the time.

[@ernestoheres1969]

@@ssssaa2 can a ryzen 3 2200g and rx 570 run on 430 watt power supply 80plus bronze

[@gfjfjufidi2880]

Ernesto Heres easily.

[@Daxter250]

in my country it doesn't matter if you buy a 650, 750 or 850 watts power supply from e.g. corsair focus gold+. they all cost the same: around 90 to 100 bucks. so might as well get the one with the highest watts, duh.

[@Yantonio7]

this was an amazing background.. really nice

[@TopSickLid]

I have a 1080ti and 450w psu and it runs perfectly fine

[@melbrando3425]

im peaking at 225watts gaming including the monitor, 4790k + 1080ti

[@yinitialize4930]

most ppl will suggest 650W for ur build, they say ur system easily draw 500W

[@HimmelWeint]

@@yinitialize4930 That's because the system can easily draw 500W. 225W peak is bull the processor itself can draw 130 watts under sustained load and spikes up to 160ish watts and the 1080ti can already draw over 250W even in lighter gaming loads. So unless they halved the processor's voltage and clocks along with the gpu it is impossible to peak at 225 watts just look at power consumption tests of the 1080ti and even my little brother's normal 1080 draws over 225W under gaming loads.

[@Diego92Souza]

This channel is a gold mine filled with good content... 👍

[@bluesquare23]

8:52 he gets the hiccups and I fucking lost it.

[@ChivalryE34]

I've had my Thermaltake TR2 550-NP 500w PSF500S-20 for probably close to 15 years and I've only just had to replace the fan this year because the bearings had worn out and I couldn't stand the noise. First used for a AMD Athlon X2 2300 socket A and maybe half a dozen other systems. I'm finally going to replace it for a Ryzen build. It has survived dozens of thunderstorms, lightning strikes, power surges, badly wired houses etc and never let me down. Aside from replacing the fan I've only ever had to open the case to clean the dust out once every so often. I won't be able to throw it away but probably cut the mass of wires coming out of it to give it the honourable death it deserves. RIP Thermaltake.

[@Medved_1337]

300 - 400 Watt PSU for 1050/560 up to 1070 with R3/R5 500 - 600 Watt PSU for 1080 up to 1080 Ti with R7/i7

[@Medved_1337]

be Quiet! Pure Power 10 is a very cheap and high quality PSU (here in EU at least).

[@Hansjoachimurst]

Medved 500 Watts are enough for 1080 Ti

[@sanctorum21]

400W is enough for an R7 1800X and a GTX 1080Ti.

[@user-bt9oo5gd6b]

You can throw the recommendation right into the trash. At normal gaming a system with 1080Ti + 1800X should pull about 400W.

[@sanctorum21]

That could be what you recommend, but it's not necessary. An R7/i7+1080Ti is going to pull around 350W, maybe up to 400W. A nice, good quality 550W PSU is perfect for a single 1080Ti system IMO. However, if you're buying a high end system like that, I'd get a nice 850W unit like an EVGA 850W G2, that way I have a great PSU that will easily last me 5-8 years, and I have SLI support with the 1080Ti. Also likely to still have SLI support and XFire support for a lot of GPUs in the future, like high end Volta/Navi, or whatever comes after those.

[@deviouslaw]

I gotta love my slightly oldwr Rosewill Capstone 450. Gold rated and perfect for my needs.

[@squizi7090]

my unknow 350 psu feed my i5 3470 and 3 hdd and a msi rx 480 gaming x 8gB yeah boi

[@TakumisBizarreRacingAdventure]

you the real OG lmao!

[@nicane-9966]

this is actually a good video and informartive for all that people who think you need a mosnter power supply to power high ends components, we are not in 2010-2013 anymore.

[@Jor0716]

When GN makes the recently released Science Studio video look like child's play

[@irishgiant5150]

Thanks for all the effort you put into these. It literally makes my day better. Maybe that says something bad about my days, but still, it's appreciated.

[@kingayvaz]

7700k + 1080 FTW average less than 300... I learned that i was seriously overcompensating. (While planing, i dont have a desktop)

[@KiraSlith]

alper ayvaz That awkward moment when you have to excuse a 1000w PSU by powering 30 HDDs.

[@jakegarrett8109]

+MortifiedDumplin I just say "what if I want Crossfire with everything under LN2?" That's the real reason I went with a 1000w, so it won't limit the madness. Saddly, my Ryzen sucks at overclocking, otherwise I would be keeping it sub-zero for every day use with phase change. Big waste of an X370 board since it can't even hit 4 Ghz, and even 1.45v is too much for my AIO to handle (no idea why, my 300+w FX was fine with it), paste has had perfect contact the last 2 times I checked and replied...

[@jakegarrett8109]

That's completely wrong... Your FX reports incorrect temps (mine showed below 10c at idle, I was using a regular AIO...). It also uses about 2-3x the power of the new Ryzen 8 core. So the new CPUs *create LESS heat* (because less power used), and *FX temps are wrong*. Also that's a very sub par overclock. I had 4.8 Ghz with an 8350 at 1.5125v on a $40 mATX motherboard with garbage 4 phase VRM (they litterally throttled at 4.5 Ghz and low voltage... I made a duct for my AIO fan to suck air with its high speed fan). That was without any LLC (my board did not even have that option).

[@jakegarrett8109]

Voltages set in BIOS were verified with multimeter at the VRM. I'm sure it dipped some, but I don't have an oscilloscope to check it (and I need at least an 800 Mhz scope to measure all my VRMs because of Nyquist frequency for sampling rate, but those are not cheap). But that 7700k looks pretty good. That looks like a good low number (assuming LLC off) and those temps are really nice.

[@Najvalsa]

When you OC both, you're looking at ~350W total system power consumption. With a 650W PSU you'd be at peak efficiency. Quality, modular, and high wattage PSUs are pretty cheap anyway, no need to skimp on one of the most important (if not the most important) components of your PC.

[@DeadPixel1105]

I use a 450w power supply in my gaming PC. My PC has an i5-8400 processor, GTX 1660 graphics card, 16gb of RAM, and a 1tb hard drive. A 450w power supply will serve you very well if you aren't using super high-end graphics cards, RGB lighting, multiple storage drives, etc.

[@omegabeta3305]

God damn i thought this was 2019. I was like, 1080ti? wtf he's talking about an old card?

[@Joostinonline]

I still wouldn't consider a 1080 Ti to be an old card.

[@spkt0r]

Thank you, this is exactly what i needed. I will now build my "Build".

[@thegirthquake8574]

The fact that AMD is using less power over the i7 is pretty funny. My how things have changed.

[@jakegarrett8109]

I know, it is impressive. My 8 core overclocked has insanely better cinebench score than the 6700k at 4.5 Ghz, and the power draw is incredibly close... Even stock vs stock, I think the Ryzen 8 core uses less power than the quad core. Its not my 300+w FX, lol, that thing used powa! Even stock it used 85-90 extra watts compared to my OC Ryzen. I don't really care about power consumption, after all, my serious CPU (or GPU) cooler has a 1/3 HP compressor on it, but the new generation of CPUs makes it easier to cool. And power efficiency isn't a bad thing.

[@lort6022]

amd uses less power because of much lower clocks. 1 ghz lower on average, which is why gaming performance is lower.

[@virgobro2025]

@@lort6022 its because XMP features you dipshit. It only uses the power it needs. You live under a rock with your Intel???

[@PropProfit]

@@virgobro2025 yes

[@DiceAir]

So happy i bought my corsair ax850w when i had my GTX 570 sli setup so I'm set fo a long time. Can use this for many years to come still. Thanks Gamers Nexus for this awesome article. Now I can show my friends this to educate them that you don't need a big PSU for the average build just a good reputable brand and that's it. I even have a 600W FSP 80+ gold in my work pc (6700k 4.5GHz, onboard graphics) just because i got it at a sweat deal and is a good brand and 80+gold. I even installed my 980ti hof in that system and the 600w was just fine.

[@Grand1Admiral]

I have a 450w psu that works perfectly for my 1070 and ryzen 1600

[@abhinav5765]

Are you sure? Because I'm going to do that same

[@justanotheryoutubeuser5029]

MAVRICK im doing 2600 and 1660 ti on 450w with no problems

[@manasijdhar2574]

I have a shitty psu. A corsair vs 450. I was planning to buy an rx 570 cause it's cheaper now. Will it pop my psu?

[@Dwiz4rd]

2600x and 2060 with 550W :)

[@justanotheryoutubeuser5029]

Manasij Dhar same psu. I have the 1660ti and 2600 with no problems. Hey at least its better than unrated ones.

[@2010frankieg]

thank you so much for this redo of topic. others do videos of same topic as you but they don't covers details like you so I always come to gamersnexus

[@lolakyle8]

430W 80+ Bronze user here, with 2500K OC and GTX 960, running like a champ!

[@TheShamiester]

Soooooo I would have been fine with 500w for my locked i5 and 1070 :D Oh well.

[@nerfminer1956]

I have i 7 and 1050 and only 400w

[@sufranabbas1317]

Mate, I have ryzen 3 2200g and I'm going to pair it with rx 580 4gb. Is my aerocool rave 500watts 80 plus good enough? B350m motherboard 2x4 2400mhz ddr4 ram 120gb ssd kingston 1tb 7200rpm 6 rgb fan with hub & remote 22 inch led monitor

[@sufranabbas1317]

@Neudicrous Gaming I still face the same problem. My display goes off. I need to restart so i can use my pc again. Should I change my power supply?

[@sufranabbas1317]

@Neudicrous Gaming is the Zalman ZM700-TX 700w 80plus any good?

[@sufranabbas1317]

@Neudicrous Gaming my ram doesn't let me use 3200mhz so i stayed at 2400mhz which is fine. My issue is my display goes black when i play games. Someone told me that 500w is enough. Some says not. Which is which

[@finlaymartins272]

These videos are really informative, keep up the good work!

[@MABFR01]

I have 850 platinum HX850i for my 1700X, 1080Ti... I guess I'm overkill but meh, at least it's silent ^^

[@therandomjohn463]

Marc-Antoine well atleast you could futureproof when you'll upgrade

[@nazar-pc]

800W PSUs often allows them to be silent in many use cases like even light gaming, which is also important to some folks.

[@tobygreenwood5036]

I think the corsair sf450 is probably the best psu for most people, excellent ripple and efficiency and you could always move it into an itx build

[@albertovicinanza]

Toby Charles It's a very good PSU indeed, I only wish Corsair included a SFX-to-ATX adapter. The 600W version is excellent too and can be found at good prices at times (at least in my country). They are the best SFX PSU's. Also the new TX-M series is incredibly good as well, it's semi-modular, 80+ Gold, and it's not excessively expensive.

[@tobygreenwood5036]

Alberto Vicinanza I completely agree about the bracket, £15 for a cheapo plate of aluminium just meant I went with an evga one instead, it completely skewed the price performance

[@johnbrowne3964]

A bit of extra info, when cpu or gpu changes power states the very rapid initial current spike (10-20ms) will load down the 12v rail up to 40-50% over the expected steady state draw until it settles- this can sag down voltage and trip UVP and crash pc. Your psu should be 40-50% over your steady wattage draw, or crashes may occur. If stock clock/voltages only this is enough, oc+extra volts, twice these measurements should help with any stability problems.

[@burney16]

I've been running a Seasonic 1200W Platinum PSU for years, way way way overkill but I got it on sale $150 and I used to run dual GPU's with it.

[@xninja83x67]

Andrew Burney I have a seasonic 1250x in one of my builds and a 1600 T2 in another. I like the fact that I will not need a bigger psu and the quality ones last forever.

[@robbeelsas]

Higher wattage also means you can set a less agressive fan curve and keep down the noise

[@josuad6890]

2020: GPU eats 500w, CPU eats upwards to 300w, and RGB on everything.

[@nunyabusiness896]

I'm glad someone did this. A) it makes me glad to know I'm actually not using all that much electricity and therefore contributing to a high electric bill and B) I knew something was wrong about the people recommending crazy high wattage power supplies for non-OC'd standard CPU/GPU setups with the chanted phrase "cheap power supplies blow up computers, you should get 800-1000W to be safe" when in actuality it's poorly constructed power supplies that are the issue in 99% of cases.

[@silverybound]

Cheap PSU always meant trash tier PSU brand. 500w peak power and 250w continuous.

[@nunyabusiness896]

@@silverybound There were lots of people thinking I needed 750w+"to be safe" on my i5/1070. 500W EVGA and it's been perfect for over a year now.

[@Jefferson-kd6it]

I have a 1080ti amd r7 1700x and 3 ssd , and 1 HDD with 32gb of ram on a 750 watt Gold PSU. Can I add another 1080ti and still have enough power ?

[@cl4ster17]

Could work if the PSU is high-end and not too old.

[@yosyp5905]

cl4ster17 Yup, it totally could.

easily

[@kunstderfugue]

DarkSoulz that one's gonna come down to whether the power supply has enough power connectors for both 1080 Tis. If it does and it's a quality unit I'd feel safe doing it, though be ready for it to be loud af.

[@Najvalsa]

You're already looking at ~380W total system draw with basically a stock 1080 Ti, so with another one you'd be at the safe limit of 80% power draw.

[@Xandro_B20]

My 8 year old HEC Winpower+ 550w still kicks ass with my i5 4690k, 16GB and GTX 1070.

[@3nvyus743]

is an fractal design 400w psu enough for an Sapphaire Radeon RX 580 Nitro+ OC and amd fx 6300 :) ?

[@Jamoie.]

haze nation I dont think so the fx line of cpus need alot of power but I dont now to much about them as I just got in to PC gaming and build in the last 3 years but I would opt for a 500w which should do good and give u extra wattage for overclocking

[@pbjracing14yearsago49]

Here's a 500w psu for $40 right now: www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Certified-Continuous-cooling-PS-SPD-0500NPCWUS-W/dp/B014W3EM2W/ref=mp_s_a_1_2_sspa?keywords=500w+psu&qid=1563816710&s=gateway&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1

[@Felix-jz9mq]

I bought a 500W PSU in 2014 and multiple PC upgrades later I'm still using it

[@eg9847]

Is 1000w enough for my power hungry toaster?

[@kevinyoliveira68]

RTX 2080 T.I + i9-9900K?

[@helmholtzthemulewatson4763]

I put a 960 4gb running on a 430w PSU I literally found on the side of the road, works great. Got a Thermaltake toughpower 1500W in my main rig XD

[@Diabl0_]

someone tell me if I can use a 450W for my i5 9th gen and RX 570

[@AmCanTech]

I'd go with 550 at least for future upgrades

[@stressohnegrund1933]

I have a Corsair CV450 and it's powering my Gigabyte RX570 and I5 -10400 with absolutely no issues. You should be good.

[@ainzooalgown7589]

i have a Seasonic 850W 80+Gold buts its now 8 years old, old system was a i7 2600k and gtx580 sli, now i7 8700k and gtx980ti

[@jonas6293]

R 5 1600 rx 580 stock 450w enough?

[@MultiKillme123]

Its more than enough bro

[@meistrimeez]

Also lower wattage psu-s tend to be more efficient as for most people the power usage is likely to be more closer to the 50% load sweetspot.

[@gaunterodimm8120]

My pc specs- I5 8th gen paired woth rx 580 8gb...will a 450 watt psu work?

[@abcdefg9613]

You are not reaching 350w so you are fine.

[@gaunterodimm8120]

@@abcdefg9613 thnx

[@berdonhowardkeith6199]

@@gaunterodimm8120 rx 580 recomended watts is 550 tho

[@berdonhowardkeith6199]

500*

[@justanoman6497]

You should show stress test power draw for OC system. Because part of the OC process require running stress tests to test stability, which probably pulls more than any real workload. It's not like most people can swap the PSU after doing the tuning. I for one don't have the foggiest clue just how much extra stress test would pull over the applications shown.

[@icu4502]

Well i dont know but i choose 600w psu for my build Ryzen 5 1600 Msi b350 krait 32gb ram Nzxt kraken x62 Samsung 960 evo m.2 250gb Samsung 850 evo 500gb Wd blue 4tb Asus 1070 rog strix Nzxt hue + (with lighting) And the case is nzxt s340 elite So help me this is my first time

[@thaDARKW0LF]

Gamer Boy More than enough power for that build. You're good to go.

[@Mildly_Amused]

I picked up a 760 watt 80+ Platinum Seasonic modular power supply for under $130 last year from Amazon. I'm pretty sure you can find a 600+ watt 80+ Gold Seasonic modular power supply for about $80. These days I'd find it hard to want to be cheap on a power supply because saving $20 hurts you in the long run.

[@hollowkid97]

how many white children on a giant hamster wheel would i need to run a pc?

[@BeastOrGod]

more than black children, that's for sure.

[@mitchmarvinmartian]

For the most part white children cant run well/long enough for your pron needs. I would suggest you source some African children.

[@hollowkid97]

damn, i thought white people were better at marathons.

[@Thunterise]

Why specifically white though?

[@BeastOrGod]

It's not racism if you discriminate white people, everybody knows that!

[@demonwares]

Would love to see a video where you overclock a computer using a really good PSU and then swap PSU for an inferior one and an inferior one to test stability.

[@sajidrh]

So I can install a 1080ti in my pc ( g4560 + 450w psu?

[@yosyp5905]

Sajid Rahman It depends on the model. I highly doubt a high quality, high efficient PSU would have problems, but I would add a little bit more.

[@helvetica7115]

Your cpu will bottleneck the 1080ti

[@mika2666]

Sajid Rahman psu yes cpu absolutely not

[@GameMaker2014]

Why are you pairing a g4560 with a 1080 ti for the love of god

[@petrdolezal2604]

I would say that 1060 is max that this cpu wont bottleneck. With 1060, it will be totally fine.

[@Omaricon]

Honestly the biggest reason to have a high watt PSU which wasn't mentioned in this video is noice. Many PSU's today have an option where the fan only turns on after the 25% mark or when reaching certain temperatures. Which means that a 1500 W psu could in theory be silent in most of the configurations here under full load.

[@joshgranstrom4689]

Now I regret my 850 watt power supply

[@AtomicAJ74]

It's not worth regretting. And if you want the extra headroom or just want to operate at peak efficiency, that's fine. The problem I see is users telling others "You need *at least* a 650 watt PSU for your 6700K and GTX 1070." That's exactly what I have and overclocked at peak load I pull about 300 watts from the wall. There are users convincing others to waste their money.

[@ssssaa2]

@@AtomicAJ74 Only advantage is slightly quieter (although not fanless unless you use only like 30% of max wattage) and peak efficiency is usually at or just over 50% draw.

[@caleb4863]

I have a 450w and my Ryzen 5 1500x with a GTX 1060 and it works with no problem.

[@03Edgar]

got 100 more fps with my 2000 watt psu! jk jk

[@mjlyco9752]

Another reason to go higher wattage is if you want to stay inside the passive "fan off" mode if it has one. (Less noise)

[@JayJapanB]

Why not just buy fanless?

[@radarnoz19]

I run a lot of distributed computing applications which use 100% of the system resources, having an overkill PSU makes sense because I don't need to worry about hammering the thing by running it to an inch of it's life. My systems consist of multiple high end video cards and high core count CPUs.

[@zig131]

I'd recommend the BitFenix formula series which ranges from 450 to 650 Watts. Well reviewed, very affordable and efficient.

[@alrecks619]

there definitely needs to be a 2023 revisit of this, given the concerns of transient spikes and whatnot.

[@beyblayder]

Another good argument for a larger supply is Fanless mode (limited to under 50% usually)

[@deneb_tm]

I have a 500W Enermax MaxPro 80+ in my machine with an overclocked i5-2400 (95W TDP) and HD 7950 (200W TDP). Runs just fine.

[@philipwong9655]

Thank you so much for this video, I wasn’t sure my 450w psu was gonna be enough but now I’m much more confident it will 🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@user-oz8wn7wl6p]

What card did you choose?

[@JarrodsTech]

Thanks for the in depth tests as usual, I expected the 7700k/1080 to use more power than that, guess a 450w really can go a long way!

[@DanielRichards644]

I could get away with 600 watts on my overclocked 1080ti, overclocked 6700k build, that is true (peak draw full stress testing only draws 430 watts from the wall) but the 750 watt PSU means basically ZERO FAN MODE ALL THE TIME under normal use, so no more noise then is needed.

[@ClassicBMWFanInQuebec]

The EVGA Supernova 550w is IMO the best value in low-powered-ish power supplies. Reliable, 80+ Gold efficient, modular, Eco mode with 0db fan curve... It's a great unit for the low price.

[@morpheus_9]

I have an EVGA 550W G2 and it is a super nice PSU.

[@MasterChief0093]

I would like to see an update for this. Especially with SFX builds.

[@billthecat2410]

I buy power supplies in the 600-700W range. I always felt it's better to go on the higher side than the lower side and more so when you are always playing with upgrades. One thing I really hate is to buy something more than you need to. Like having a computer that you want to upgrade to a new Video card that can max out or come close to maxing out the current power supply and have to replace it. One point that you made that should be stressed about power supplies is just how stable and clean it can supply your system. I've had my share of low quality power supplies that caused erratic systems so I learned that lesson long ago to buy the highest quality power supply you can afford because in the long run it will effect the entire system so it needs more care when building systems. Now my only worry is about dried out Capacitors ect.. because my newest power supply is around 10 years old of constant use. I don't know how they are today, but a while back I was buying PC Power and Cooling P/S as they had the best rated supplies on the market but they got bought by OCZ I think and I've not heard much from there. Too bad, they had the best out there and it cost a bit more for them but it was rare to see one that didn't have the cleanest ripple and they could supply a lot of current surges with little effect. It's kind of a drag if their quality has taken a drop, don't know but sure don't hear about them these days. It's mostly who gets one for show on the internet review sites and if your not sure, you sure know all about corsair power supplies as it seems to be the most visible on these sites. It would be a nice change to get some more intense and wide brand reviews on power supplies because it is the most important part you buy for computers. This was one area that got a lot better look at in the PC Mag. days. And that is a real drag..

[@Daves-Channel-YT]

Excellent Research the store still tried to sell me a 600w psu but i got the 450w one and it is doing fine.