Pc Graphics card and power supply

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

I am upgrading to an nvidia 3070ti founders edition. I have a decent EVGA 650w power supply. 
 

Would you go bigger?

no overclocking, i5 quad

[Gloves | 11,771]

Nvidia recommends at least a 750w for that card; it takes around 30% more than a non-ti. I'd upgrade. 

[a3quit4s | 4,096]

16 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Nvidia recommends at least a 750w for that card; it takes around 30% more than a non-ti. I'd upgrade. 

If this is the case I would upgrade as well, obviously it’s recommended and having an underpowered PSU will put the rest of the system at risk. 

[Tanooki | 4,932]

I'm going to likely be looking into a new PC too within probably the next 6 months unless there's good reason to hold out a little longer (or less.)  My i7 is like 7 years old now, and while it and the nvidia 980 within it work fine still, little things are starting to crop up on this gaming laptop leading to age creeping into things.

I likely could see myself going back to the group I got this off of since it's DIY with a warranty, just they assemble it for said warranty which is worth it to me but after like a dozen years I'm getting an actual desktop again, laptop is a waste with how good mobile devices are now vs then.

I'm curious if I went with a 3XXX card what kind of life I'd get out of that vs expense or the 2XXX would be enough for the time being.  I know the prices are pretty terrible due to coin mining fools among other factors making things expensive.  That and I've always gone with intel, but I see things about ryzen being fantastic too which definitely is not them.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

1 hour ago, Gloves said:

Nvidia recommends at least a 750w for that card; it takes around 30% more than a non-ti. I'd upgrade. 

Sold!

I wonder if its worth it to go with a 950. The power supply prices are not that bad. Not nearly as bad as GPUs

[Gloves | 11,771]

1 minute ago, MrWunderful said:

Sold!

I wonder if its worth it to go with a 950. The power supply prices are not that bad. Not nearly as bad as GPUs

950 would work well. TBH you can have too little, but not too much, so go for it.

[Teh_Lurv | 254]

16 hours ago, MrWunderful said:

Sold!

I wonder if its worth it to go with a 950. The power supply prices are not that bad. Not nearly as bad as GPUs

You can go too large with PSUs. It won't hose your PC or anything like that, but if your system only ever draws 30-40% of the PSUs rated max, you wasted money on unneeded capacity and your PSU won't be operating at it's most efficient (which will result in wasted electricity cost over time).

PSU recommendations for graphic cards tend to be inflated to account for people who have garbage PSUs in their systems. Checking Nvidia's spec page for the card, it comes with this note in the fine text at the bottom:

4 - Requirement is made based on PC configured with an Intel Core i9-10900K processor. A lower power rating may work depending on system configuration.

A 3070ti consumes about 300w by itself, your i5 CPU is probably another 65w, and throw in another 100w for everything else, that's about 470-500w at full throttle. So a high quality 650w PSU probably could handle it.

Keep in mind though PSUs do degrade with age and use. If you're 650w PSU is already a couple of years old, it might have problems with the increased power draw. Since you're getting an expensive new card, I'd say swap out the PSU for a new 650-750w unit while you are at it.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

@Teh_Lurv Great advice thank you. I looked into the 80% efficiency Rating levels and that is also going to help guide my decision. The higher the rating tier the more efficient they are even under low loads.