Hi, looking for some help regarding an upgrade I plan to make tomorrow. Essentially I'm wondering whether my current PSU is up to the task for either 770 or a 780GTX GPU. I'll list my components to give an idea of the power draw as well:
 
i5 4690K @4.6ghz (only 1.169v though - I got lucky)
MSI Mini ITX Z97 AC Mate MOBO
8GB Corsair Vengeance Ram (2x4GB modules)
Samsung EVO 840 120gb SSD
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB HDD
MSI R9 270x Gaming Edition (Current GPU)
MSI Dragon Closed Loop CPU Cooler
1 x 140mm Corsair Fan
2 x 120mm Corsair Fan
2 x 80mm Antec Fans
EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze PSU (2 x 6+2 Pin Connectors)
Corsair Obsidian 250D case
NZXT Sentry 2 Fan Controller
(No DVD drive)
 
All components are 3 months old, with the exception of the CPU and Motherboard. So, I know that it's below the recommended requirement but obviously Nvidia have to cover their bases in case someone buys a really crappy PSU - is mine up to the task, given that it's 80+ rating?
 
Thanks for any explanation/advice you can give. Small side note, if you could explain why mine would/wouldn't be usable I'd be grateful as it's an opportunity to learn for me, as I don't have any experience with PSU's.

cwburke2
I believe you need 650W for GTX780.

No offence but that doesn't help me in the slightest. Anyone else able to offer some insight into EITHER of the GPU's, please?

cwburke2

Bellcheese

cwburke2
I believe you need 650W for GTX780.

No offence but that doesn't help me in the slightest. Anyone else able to offer some insight into EITHER of the GPU's, please?

Well, I am a bit of a novice, but I think it's always better to err on the side of caution, especially if you are a gaming enthusiast and want to get the most of your investment. For what it's worth, I would recommend purchasing at least 650-700W PSU. 500W just seems to be cutting it too close.

I appreciate you're trying to help but I'm looking for someone who has knowledge that is far beyond my own. 600w would be more than enough for either card by the way, assuming it was a highly rated PSU. I'm asking for someone who has extensive knowledge in this area and understands the power requirements along with what my PSU is capable of supplying through the PCI-E connectors. Understand that it isn't as simple as taking Nvidia's requirements and going 'OH OK SO I NEED THAT'. They have to sit on the side of caution, you might have an AMD FX CPU (which I just upgraded from) which absolutely buggers your wall socket to death when overclocked, you might have a PSU that was intended for over a decade ago and you're using PCI-E connectors for it just to hook it up to a modern GPU. 400w/500w/600w your point isn't relevant, I'm asking for someone to specifically LOOK at what mine can supply on the rails and whether it will work given that it's a Bronze rated PSU. Wattage isn't a lone indicator of whether something will work or not.

I was polite the first time, I thought I'd made my point clear. I'm looking for an answer to my solution and I found his to be insulting - with a system and custom build such as mine I would be surprised if someone lacked the basic knowledge to realise they could look on the manufacturers website for their (one size fits all) bare minimum. It wasn't what I asked and I thought I made myself clear, apparently not.
 
Either way, thank you for your advice it IS much appreciated. Would you be able to help me out a little more and recommend me an affordable power supply that could accommodate something as demanding as the 780, please? I will most likely purchase the 770 now given the extra money I will need to spend on a power supply but if I shoot for something that has some wriggle room for future upgrades I won't put myself in this situation again. To be clear I'm from the UK and live close to this store: Scan.co.uk (it edited it out, guess in case of spam). So if you're able to find something on there for me that'd be awesome.
 
Thank you for your help, you've been great.

What exactly do you want to know? The EVGA "bronze" PSU is not exactly the "best" PSU being its cost does not allow for a great unit. 500 watts with what you have is probably enough to get you by with no OCing. But if you want a high QUALITY PSU, then be prepared to look at the gold/platinum rated units that are KM3(Seasonic built) or Leadex(Superflower built) based, or anything basically manufactured by Delta. If this is a single gpu card ONLY setup and you want to have a lil OCing ability with some HEADROOM, then I would like at a PSU in the 6-800 watt range. Something like the EVGA Supernova G2(not G1) 750w unit would be great for a high performance 1 gpu card based system. That PSU is a rebranded Superflower Leadex PSU. Top tier with a 60a plus 12v rail. If you plan on doing eventully a xfire or SLI 2 card gpu setup then look for a PSU in the 850-1000w range.
 
  The above links show good PSU minus the Corsair RM 750 which uses really cheap parts. It tested out on a few reviews OK in terms of performance, but that's with a brand new PSU. Id be skeptical of how well it performs on a test bench after aging for a year or 2 with all the cheap parts it uses in the mfg.
 
  As far as rating goes, I stick with only select brands of Gold/platinum rated units. The Bronze/Silver rated PSU's etc normally use much cheaper parts overall and build quality tends to suffer as well. You get what you pay for normally. Plan on spending in the $100-150 range for a high quality top tier unit.

Cheers for the responses, I'm not interested in Sli as I use a Corsair Obsidian 250D case and there is no option to do so. However, I am looking at purchasing a 770GTX with a PSU as well that will allow me to upgrade my GPU next time round without having to upgrade PSU. Although at this point I'm wondering whether to just wait out Maxwell 800 Series from Nvidia and see what power requirements they bring (partner has the 750ti and it's ridiculous how little juice that thing needs to run).
 
I guess I have some thinking to do, thank you all for your responses and help.

Bellcheese
Cheers for the responses, I'm not interested in Sli as I use a Corsair Obsidian 250D case and there is no option to do so. However, I am looking at purchasing a 770GTX with a PSU as well that will allow me to upgrade my GPU next time round without having to upgrade PSU. Although at this point I'm wondering whether to just wait out Maxwell 800 Series from Nvidia and see what power requirements they bring (partner has the 750ti and it's ridiculous how little juice that thing needs to run).
 
I guess I have some thinking to do, thank you all for your responses and help.

If its only a 1 gpu system, then a 600-750w unit is all you will ever need. Again, what matters is the PSU design and parts quality used, not who rebrands it. Most PSU's by the big names in PC part mfg's is just a rebranded unit with their sticker/logo slapped on it. A top tier Maxwell gpu will require no more power than the top offer cards by Nvidia right now so basically give or take 50 watts in reality over the 770/780/Titans out now. So basically expect the next gen cards to need a max of around 200-350w. So as long as the 12v rail is in the 50-60a range you will be fine and dandy. Again just make sure your looking at KM3/Leadex/Delta based PSU's. If your trying to buy for future proof and 2 quality PSU's are available for roughly the same price, always go with the larger unit. Never hurts to have a PSU that's rated higher than what you actually need.
 
  For example. I originally had an XFX BEFX 850w PSU(Which is a rebadged Seasonic KM3 unit). On Ebay I found and was able to score a basically brand new Cooler Master V1000 for $73 bucks shipped basically. Its also a Seasonic KM3 based unit. I slapped that into my media rig and now have the 850w unit as a spare. My dual gpu setup(2 780ti's in SLI)only required around 750-850w and still had some headroom, but for the cheap price I scored the 1000w unit for there was no reason to not toss it in there and keep the other as a spare, or one I may use for a future PC project. The 1000w unit just gives me that much more headroom and will be a bit more efficient at the same time, but it wasn't needed at all.
 
 Cooler Master's V700/v850/v1000 PSU's are all KM3 units. The nice thing about them is that they are all very compact and small with a depth of only 6.7"(170mm) which is GREAT for small form factor builds like my Matx case. My XFX BEFX 850w unit is even a bit smaller at 160mm/6.3" long. Which is another reason why I originally bought it besides the fact it was a KM3 unit. 3rd was the killer sale price I got it for at the time too a few months back.

Speedrookie
Well if you need it just use a PSU calculator that will tell you what you need to know.
 
 

... Sigh

A 500w PSU is more than enough for a system with a GTX 780
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_780_review,9.html
 

Onew4vz
Hello,
 
Very interesting thread here. I think I found the cause of my problem but wanted to ask for confirmation.
I am running an EGPU with EVGA GTX770 2gb. Under load (even netflix) I get Freeze restart. I am suspecting to have bought the wrong PSU...
 
this is my PSU, can you please check for me, it says 16A on the 12v rail if I understand well :S Under powered for just one card ?
 
Edit: I cannot post the eBay link because of forum rules apparently sorry
It is a powerful 550W Modular Powercool Black PSU 80 Plus 12cm Fan SATA Power Supply PC-550AUBA-M bought on Ebay
 
Thank you in advance
 

550w is more than enough to handle a system with a GTX 770. The problem is, the quality of that power supply. Powercool is not a high quality brand, they use cheap components. You are probably seeing PSU failure rather than not enough power. I'd recommend getting a better brand, like Seasonic, Corsair or EVGA.

A i7 3960X system, overclocked to 4.6GHz and a GTX 770 barely break 300w under load.
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_770_review,5.html
 
That's 55% load on a 550w PSU... and you are probably not running a overclocked i7 3960X, so it's probably even less than that.