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Optimal PSU for a GTX 970?

X

xFlankerx

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 30, 2005
Messages
259
I'm building a gaming PC for my brother but I've been using laptops since about 2008 so I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to certain important parts.

The GTX970 seems like an amazing value but I'm unsure about what kind of PSU would be a good fit for a system with one of those cards. I'm looking at a Haswell i5-4670K CPU, one SSD, and 8 gigs of memory. I expect to do some minor overclocking, nothing extreme, just to wring some extra performance out of the system.

I'd like to keep the PSU under $100, currently I've got a $65 Antec 550W in my projected build.
 
You're looking at a sub 400 watt system. With overclocking, the 4670k will probably be at ~125 watts, the GTX 970 will be ~200 watts, and the rest will be about 50 watts.

Just pick a 500-600 watt power supply that gets good reviews from JonnyGuru. The XFX 550w occasionally goes for ~$25 AR.
 
I've got a Corsair 750W and just dropped the EVGA GTX 970 in my rig. I'm running a Ivy Bridge I7 3770K with some mild OC, 16gb ram, one SSD, 2 regular platter HDD's. So far everything seems to be running fine.
 
Thanks for the responses guys. What concerns me is the load power consumption, which on a single stock GTX 980 is pushing 300 Watts. I imagine the GTX 970 isn't too far behind, especially when overclocked. I realize the rest of the system isn't very power-intensive, but it still makes me uncomfortable to have the GPU pulling ~66% of the computer's total power consumption at load. Is this normal? I upgraded to a Corsair 600W PSU, the +12V rails having a combined 46 Amps (effective 552 Watts), which I'm hoping should be enough headroom. I know I'm not leaving much room for upgrades; another GTX 970 would push the system beyond its limits.

Edit: I should probably learn to read. The Anandtech article says that they measure at the wall, so that's 300W for the entire system. 550W should be just fine.
 
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300 watts, remember to account for efficiency as well. 90% efficient is a safe high assumption, so in reality, the actual pull from the power supply is less than 270 watts.
 
What concerns me is the load power consumption, which on a single stock GTX 980 is pushing 300 Watts.
Click to expand...
Yeah do pay attention when you look at those load charts, it says right there that it's total system load including an overclocked 4960x. Your system probably won't break past 300W with gaming loads.
 
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