I may be buying a GTX 970, how much power do I need to run it?

Jasper Farmer · Jul 4, 2015

I'm currently using a 600W power supply which is running an i5-3570k @3.40Ghz; An R9 280 3GB; 1TB HDD; 128GB SSD; 8GB RAM.

Would 600W be enough to power a 970 instead of the R9 280?

kasol kay · Jul 4, 2015

definitely enough juice, Here's a review http://www.anandtech.com/show/8568/the-geforce-gtx-970-review-feat-evga/15 , go to power consumption and you'll see it's more than enough. I'm still using a r9 280x though, wonder if it's worth getting something better. Best of luck i'm a 100% certain it will work if it's a decent power supply, and can already run an r9 280. Edit: it shows overall power consumption not just the GPU's, just to avoid any confusion.

kasol kay · Jul 4, 2015

Can I ask you a question? Do you notice any difference using an SSD over a regular mechanical?

photonboy · Jul 4, 2015

kasol kay :

You may want to rephrase the question.

Are you asking him about Windows bootup and general experience, or are you asking about GAMES?

He hasn't stated how he has things setup and based on the size of the SSD there's a pretty good chance he has games on the hard drive.

(Speaking of which, the SSD mainly affects LOAD times so for most games it's not worth the extra money IMO. It's the most benefit to games like SKYRIM with frequent loading such as map points etc. My advice to the OP would be to get a 250GB SSD at some point for about $100USD and assign a STEAM folder to it.

You can actually MOVE games easily between Steam folders. For example, if Skyrim was on the HDD then backup the game in Steam, delete local content, then RESTORE the game but choose the SSD folder. You can assign one Steam folder per SSD)

photonboy · Jul 4, 2015

*I put some GAME TWEAKING TIPS below the power....

Power:
Yes as said, and for easy reference you can simply look at the 6-pin and 8-pin connectors for PCIe. Compare that to your graphics card.

You might see a "6+2" connector which can be used for either a 6-pin, 8-pin or 2x6-pin (2x6-pin with adapter).

*To "Kasol Kay" here's relative performance:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_980_Ti_G1_Gaming/30.html

**GTX960:
I have a GTX680 which is fairly similar (maybe 10% faster but if you use MFAA and/or overclock you might get about the same performance). I'm not feeling the need to upgrade as I get really awesome performance in most games.

I find ADAPTIVE VSYNC has come in handy a few times. Definitely want to learn to TWEAK GAMES correctly. Here's how:

(Decide on VSYNC OFF or VSYNC ON (screen tear with OFF but it varies. with it ON no tear but it can be slightly sluggish))

Example: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood:
*I found this game kept STUTTERING with VSYNC ON which turns out it happened every time I dropped below 60FPS (60Hz monitor) which causes the monitor to toggle between 1/60th second and 2/60th second frame times as it misses the update to some.

So I decided to use ADAPTIVE VSYNC which automatically turns off VSYNC if you can't output 60FPS (to 60Hz monitor). Thus,

1. Started FRAPS
2. Started AC Brotherhood
3. VSYNC OFF
4. Tweaked settings for best experience which gave me 60FPS over 90% of the time.
5. Forced on Adaptive VSYNC in NVidia Control Panel ("Manage 3D Settings->..."ADD" game->... "adaptive VSYNC" and save)

Result was any time I dropped below 60FPS I got screen tear instead of STUTTER. Then:

6. Screen tear got to be too often so I dropped a few settings (like 8xMSAA to 4xMSAA) which raised the frame rate enough to maintain this.

OTHER GAME: MAX PAYNE 3
This game would lock to 60FPS (for 60Hz monitor) then drop to 30FPS exactly if I couldn't output 60FPS. This avoids the synch mismatch that causes stutter but it really is jarring in the game as it is far more sluggish.

Most games do NOT do this. Very few (newer Spider-Man games do and a handful of others.)

SOLUTION?
I did the Adaptive VSYNC method I outlined above and that worked great. Instead of plummeting to 30FPS when I dropped into the 50's FPS range I just got screen tear for those few seconds. What a HUGE difference!

(I'll stop talking now... cheers and have fun)

kasol kay · Jul 4, 2015

photonboy :

*I put some GAME TWEAKING TIPS below the power....

Power:
Yes as said, and for easy reference you can simply look at the 6-pin and 8-pin connectors for PCIe. Compare that to your graphics card.

You might see a "6+2" connector which can be used for either a 6-pin, 8-pin or 2x6-pin (2x6-pin with adapter).

*To "Kasol Kay" here's relative performance:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_980_Ti_G1_Gaming/30.html

**GTX960:
I have a GTX680 which is fairly similar (maybe 10% faster but if you use MFAA and/or overclock you might get about the same performance). I'm not feeling the need to upgrade as I get really awesome performance in most games.

I find ADAPTIVE VSYNC has come in handy a few times. Definitely want to learn to TWEAK GAMES correctly. Here's how:

(Decide on VSYNC OFF or VSYNC ON (screen tear with OFF but it varies. with it ON no tear but it can be slightly sluggish))

Example: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood:
*I found this game kept STUTTERING with VSYNC ON which turns out it happened every time I dropped below 60FPS (60Hz monitor) which causes the monitor to toggle between 1/60th second and 2/60th second frame times as it misses the update to some.

So I decided to use ADAPTIVE VSYNC which automatically turns off VSYNC if you can't output 60FPS (to 60Hz monitor). Thus,

1. Started FRAPS
2. Started AC Brotherhood
3. VSYNC OFF
4. Tweaked settings for best experience which gave me 60FPS over 90% of the time.
5. Forced on Adaptive VSYNC in NVidia Control Panel ("Manage 3D Settings->..."ADD" game->... "adaptive VSYNC" and save)

Result was any time I dropped below 60FPS I got screen tear instead of STUTTER. Then:

6. Screen tear got to be too often so I dropped a few settings (like 8xMSAA to 4xMSAA) which raised the frame rate enough to maintain this.

OTHER GAME: MAX PAYNE 3
This game would lock to 60FPS (for 60Hz monitor) then drop to 30FPS exactly if I couldn't output 60FPS. This avoids the synch mismatch that causes stutter but it really is jarring in the game as it is far more sluggish.

Most games do NOT do this. Very few (newer Spider-Man games do and a handful of others.)

SOLUTION?
I did the Adaptive VSYNC method I outlined above and that worked great. Instead of plummeting to 30FPS when I dropped into the 50's FPS range I just got screen tear for those few seconds. What a HUGE difference!

(I'll stop talking now... cheers and have fun)

Thanks for the reply, posting as fast as possible i'll read it now, thanks again. Edit: read it now I was just interested in general use, thanks again the link came in useful. Some games don't run great, I can only play Witcher 3 on medium 1080p 60FPS doesn't really matter, I mainly play CS:GO, I always have Vsync off and freesync doesn't work on my card, i'm DMG by the way ;D. Have a wonderful day, again thanks for the detailed reply.

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I may be buying a GTX 970, how much power do I need to run it?

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