I opened my cheap ASUS PC that's supposed to have a 400W PS in it only to find a 300W PS in it's place. I installed my new gtx 1060 3gb and prayed that it would work. After several hours of Witcher 3 on Ultra it seems to be running fine. I have an i5 6400 with 1x8 gb ddr3l and 2 mechanical HDDs. I do notice that my voltages are going up and down by .1 volts every few seconds at 12v and 5v in my bios on startup. I think they were stable before. I'll be looking to upgrade eventually but I haven't had any problems so far. Is this safe in the medium term or should I upgrade immediately?
Power supply question
- Thread starter Zumwalt
- Start date
Solution
- Mar 21, 2015
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So, the PSU gods did hear your prayer and made your gaming PC work on 300W PSU.
GTX 1060 is 150W GPU, add the rest of the system at about 200W (usually less) and max combined power draw is about 350W.
My guess is that your PSU operates at about 95% capacity, outputting about 285W. Though, it is possible for PSU to output more than it's rated wattage (called peak power) but only good quality units can do that and that too for a short term.
While your PC seems to run and game fine for the time being, pushing your PSU that hard will shorten it's lifespan considerably, up to the point when it fails completely. And when PSU fails, it can fry your entire system too.
For best longevity for a PSU, it's best when the load on PSU is kept between 50% and 80% of it's total rated wattage. PSUs are also most efficient in that range.
So, i suggest you get yourself a new PSU. Anything from Seasonic will do just fine, in 500W range. E.g S12II-520, M12II-520 EVO, G-550 or Focus+ 550,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/bkp323,TgW9TW,fZyFf7,DPCwrH/
Focus+ is the newest PSU series from Seasonic and they come with 10 years of warranty. While the other listed Seasonic PSU series come with 5 years of warranty.
As far as voltage variation goes, no PSU at current date can sustain solid 12V, 5V or 3.3V at any given time on any given load. Voltage can vary up to 5% on all rails (10% on -12V and -5V rails), according to the ATX PSU standard. On +12V rail, it's safe for voltage to vary between 11.6V and 12.4V.
Even the Seasonic PRIME 650 80+ Titanium PSU, which is the best 650W PSU money can buy at current date, has voltage variations in it. Though, due to the extremely tight voltage regulation, voltage varies only by 0.5% and not 5%.
My Skylake build is powered by Seasonic PRIME 650 80+ Titanium PSU, full specs with pics in my sig.
GTX 1060 is 150W GPU, add the rest of the system at about 200W (usually less) and max combined power draw is about 350W.
My guess is that your PSU operates at about 95% capacity, outputting about 285W. Though, it is possible for PSU to output more than it's rated wattage (called peak power) but only good quality units can do that and that too for a short term.
While your PC seems to run and game fine for the time being, pushing your PSU that hard will shorten it's lifespan considerably, up to the point when it fails completely. And when PSU fails, it can fry your entire system too.
For best longevity for a PSU, it's best when the load on PSU is kept between 50% and 80% of it's total rated wattage. PSUs are also most efficient in that range.
So, i suggest you get yourself a new PSU. Anything from Seasonic will do just fine, in 500W range. E.g S12II-520, M12II-520 EVO, G-550 or Focus+ 550,
pcpp: https://pcpartpicker.com/products/compare/bkp323,TgW9TW,fZyFf7,DPCwrH/
Focus+ is the newest PSU series from Seasonic and they come with 10 years of warranty. While the other listed Seasonic PSU series come with 5 years of warranty.
As far as voltage variation goes, no PSU at current date can sustain solid 12V, 5V or 3.3V at any given time on any given load. Voltage can vary up to 5% on all rails (10% on -12V and -5V rails), according to the ATX PSU standard. On +12V rail, it's safe for voltage to vary between 11.6V and 12.4V.
Even the Seasonic PRIME 650 80+ Titanium PSU, which is the best 650W PSU money can buy at current date, has voltage variations in it. Though, due to the extremely tight voltage regulation, voltage varies only by 0.5% and not 5%.
My Skylake build is powered by Seasonic PRIME 650 80+ Titanium PSU, full specs with pics in my sig.
I did a PS estimate and got 286 watts. I've got to be running at the edge, but this particular unit is handling it like a champ so far. The voltage variation info is very interesting. My 12V usually sits at 12.53V which I thought oddly high. I've never swapped a PS before but I guess I probably should learn. Thanks!
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