Wattage by card
| Card | Card draw | Whole machine | Power supply | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 5050 with Ryzen 5 9600X | 130 W | 345 W | 550 W | 550 W |
| RTX 5060 with Ryzen 5 9600X | 145 W | 360 W | 550 W | 550 W |
| Arc B570 with Ryzen 5 9600X | 150 W | 365 W | 550 W | 550 W |
| RX 9060 XT 8GB with Ryzen 5 9600X | 150 W | 365 W | 550 W | 550 W |
| RX 9060 XT 16GB with Ryzen 5 9600X | 160 W | 375 W | 550 W | 550 W |
| RTX 5060 Ti 8GB with Ryzen 5 9600X | 180 W | 395 W | 550 W | 550 W |
| RTX 5060 Ti 16GB with Ryzen 5 9600X | 180 W | 395 W | 550 W | 550 W |
| Arc B580 with Ryzen 5 9600X | 190 W | 405 W | 550 W | 550 W |
| RX 9070 GRE with Ryzen 7 9800X3D | 220 W | 490 W | 650 W | 650 W |
| RX 9070 with Ryzen 7 9800X3D | 220 W | 490 W | 650 W | 650 W |
| RTX 5070 with Ryzen 7 9800X3D | 250 W | 520 W | 700 W | 750 W |
| RX 7800 XT with Ryzen 7 9800X3D | 263 W | 533 W | 700 W | 750 W |
| RTX 5070 Ti with Ryzen 7 9800X3D | 300 W | 570 W | 750 W | 750 W |
| RX 9070 XT with Ryzen 7 9800X3D | 304 W | 574 W | 750 W | 750 W |
| RTX 5080 with Ryzen 7 9800X3D | 360 W | 630 W | 850 W | 850 W |
| RTX 5090 with Ryzen 7 9800X3D | 575 W | 845 W | 1,100 W | 1200 W |
The sum: processor, card and 150 W for everything else, plus 30% of headroom, rounded up. It is the same one the calculator does. 700 W and 1,100 W units barely exist in shops, so the button takes you to the next size up.
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Before you buy anything, look at the one you have
Open the case and read the label on the side of the unit. It gives the brand, the model and the wattage. If the wattage reaches the figure in the table, the brand is a known one and the unit is under seven or eight years old, keep it. A power supply does not perform better for being new.
Replace it if you cannot tell what brand it is, if it came bundled with a cheap case, or if the machine cuts out when a game gets heavy. That last symptom is nearly always the power supply.
The connector
There are two kinds. The familiar 8-pin is used by nearly all AMD and Intel cards and by the cheapest RTX ones. The newer 16-pin (12V-2x6) is used by the RTX 5070 and everything above it, and by the odd AMD model.
Each maker decides the connector for its own model, so check the listing for the exact card before you buy the power supply. With the 16-pin, push it all the way home: many of the burnt connectors in the previous generation were traced to plugs that were only partly seated.
What to look for when buying
- 80 Plus Gold. Bronze works too, but it wastes more electricity as heat and the price gap is small.
- ATX 3.1, which includes the 16-pin cable as standard. It will do for your next card as well.
- A long warranty. Makers give seven or ten years on the units they trust and a good deal less on the cheap ones.
- Modular cables, if the case is small. It changes nothing about performance, only how easy the build is.
Two mistakes that cost money
Do not reuse the modular cables from another power supply. The sockets on the unit side have the same shape on nearly every brand, but the pin order differs. A cable from another model can put 12 volts where a drive expects 5, and the drive does not survive it. Use only the cables that came in the box of the unit you are fitting.
And do not feed a 300 W card from a single cable that ends in two 8-pin plugs. Use a separate cable for each socket on the card. That way the load is shared between two cables and neither runs hotter than it should.
What about a different processor?
The table uses a Ryzen 5 9600X for the small cards and a Ryzen 7 9800X3D for the big ones. With a hungrier processor the sum barely moves: an RTX 5090 with a Core i9-14900K goes from 1,100 to 1,150 W. For your exact pairing, the calculator shows the estimated draw and the recommended power supply next to the result.
Work out your own machine
Pick a processor and a graphics card and the calculator gives you the draw and the recommended power supply.
Common questions
What power supply do I need for an RTX 5070?
NVIDIA asks for 650 W as a minimum. Our sum, with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, comes to 520 W of draw and recommends 700 W. In a shop that means a 750 W unit, because 700 W ones are barely sold.
Is a 650 W power supply enough for an RTX 5070 Ti?
It will run, but it is tight. The machine draws about 570 W under full load and NVIDIA recommends 750 W for that card. If you already own a good, recent 650 W unit, try it. If you are buying, buy the 750.
Do I need an ATX 3.1 power supply for an RTX 50 card?
No. Cards with the 16-pin connector come with an adapter for the 8-pin cables of an older unit. An ATX 3.1 power supply has that cable as standard and saves you the adapter, so if you are buying new, make it ATX 3.1.