250w PSU VS GTX 1050Ti

If you are running a 750ti in it already, the 1050ti might be fine as we are only talking about an additional 15w TDP... but that is a lot of stress on that PSU with the 4770 as well. I'm surprised it is running as it is. You really need to upgrade the PSU. The thing is probably running full bore when you game and that really increases the risk of catastrophic failure. Companies like Seasonic, EVGA, Antec, FSP, and others have reasonably priced 450W PSUs that would be a good minimum for your system. The harder a PSU has to work the shorter its lifespan (and maybe the lifespan of your entire PC if it explodes).

That 17A rating on the 12V rail only offers 204W total. So, the total wattage rating of 250W is somewhat misleading on this PSU.

The CPU has a TDP rating of 84W. The 750Ti has a max 60W TDP. Those two alone would bring your theoretical max total to 144W. Add in the motherboard, RAM, maybe a cooling fan, a HDD, and you might be pushing this thing right on the ragged edge of disaster.


That Max Wattage doesn't sound like it can possibly be right, but if it is right, it's VERY alarming, as the CPU by itself would come close to that.


Is this PC a small form factor, with an odd/unusual power supply physical size or shape? That could make it harder to find a good PSU for it.

In any case, the 1050Ti (75W TDP) is going to increase your power draw of just the CPU and GPU alone to 159W. I don't think your current PSU is going to live very long with that, if it doesn't fail completely the first time it's pushed hard.

Ok, so at least we have that "Max Wattage" issue out of the way. Still, that the PSU only provides 17A on the 12V rail is what's concerning, as the 12V rail is really the most important aspect of it.

12V x 17A = 204W on the 12V rail.

You're right in that the 1050Ti, drawing only 15W more, is close to the 750Ti, but that might be enough to push you over that 204W edge.

But, as you need this system to be reliable, I'm not sure I would take such a gamble. It's far too close for comfort.

Honestly it's a risk I can't really evaluate. That PSU could fail tomorrow with the 750ti, or last years even with the 1050ti.

As for the next build, I'd go from scratch if you could. By mid-2019 we should have a new generation of CPUs and GPUs that would make it more than worth it.

Well, let me ask it this way: If your current PC died tomorrow, would you be able to go without a PC for a year? If not, then I would not take the risk on the 1050Ti.


As for next year - if you have DDR4 RAM in your current PC, you MIGHT be able to carry that over. Most likely, though, you'd be looking at a new motherboard, new RAM, and a current generation CPU.

Delta is a very common OEM for those small wattage psus. The thing about Delta is they do build an excellent quality psu and it's almost always under rated. Most psus if they say a 17A rail @204w, figure that's pushing it, it's more likely less than that. With Delta, it's probably accurate or even less than what's possible.
At 204w Thats plenty for a 100w i7 and 60w gpu and the last watts pushing a minimal build. It'll rarely ever need the full wattage, figure on @70% at best. At 100w for cpu, 100w for gpu, @50w for pc, a 250w psu is in trouble (not all cpu voltage is 12v). If it's a Delta or even Seasonic OEM unit you'll probably be ok, for normal usage, but under stressful situations I'd be worried about starving. If it's an El-cheapo Chinese knock off psu, don't even try it.
https://youtu.be/f6snWfd1v7M

You are putting 100% reliance on the fact that what is claimed and printed on that psu is reality. As shown in the posted video, and is reality for many psus, what's printed and what's real are quite often 2 different things.

If you ask, and many have, every single person answering will say 1 thing above others. Quality psu. The reason for this is quality psus, no matter the actual wattage, will live upto their claims.

It's quite possible, even probable, that for as hard, 40% on your average, as you have been able to push your cpu having not only a higher wattage gpu and it's consequential ability to raise settings you'll increase cpu usage. Instead of being held back at 40%, you'll be looking at 50% or better average usage.

Basically moving from a 100-150w average usage for the entire pc, to something higher, possibly approaching 150-200w.

With so many units failing at between 50-60% of claimed wattage, you can see the concern.

And no. It's not 100w cpu. The TDP of a cpu is thermal design power. Thing about temps and actual power used is they are different, but usually so close, within 5 watts generally, that the temp was adopted as the same as power output. TDP itself is a number based on actual power used by a cpu during the process of running an intel standard set of applications. It's not the maximum power available for use, but generally considerably more mediocre. For maximum power usage, Peak Power, it's mostly @1.5x-2x TDP. For i7's it's closer to 2x, i3's it's right at 1.5x. So figure maximum power with all 8 threads running at 100% will draw pretty close to 200w at stock voltages.

What that means for you, at 40% cpu usage is your cpu is actually using somewhere around 80w from the start.

If you figure that the gpu is capable of running @60% that's @60w. Add another 50w from the pc in general between ram, drives, motherboard, fans etc. 80w +60w +50w during a good gaming session puts you at @190w usage. If the cpu is pulling 50%, that's @200w usage on a 250w questionable psu that has a maximum of just 204w on the 12v rail.

Simply, it may work well, but the chances of catastrophic failure are way to high to have any recommendation.

CPU power usage doesn't scale linearly, and is constantly in flux. Sure, it won't be drawing full power all the time, but it could be drawing an average of 60% power at 40% usage simply from the overhead of having the CPU active, having to power the memory controller, having the on chip graphics, holding information in the cache, etc.

A power starved computer might not crash the system right away either. Performance could suffer, flaws could be written to the drives, RAM information could be lost, or any number of other things before it blue screens.