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Started by dachoppa | | 22 answers
Overclocked i5-4690k and MSI GTX 970: how much power is enough?
Hi all

I'm building a rig with an ASRock z97 extreme6 mobo, an i5-4690k CPU and and and a single (for now) MSI Gaming TFV GTX 970.

I'll be OCing the CPU and GPU, and I'm wondering what to go for in terms of PSU. I've been looking at a 750w seasonic G-series but honestly it's a little more than I really want to spend.

Am I overkilling the power supply? Would 650w be enough? And even if I stick to 750w, is there an option that costs a bit less without compromising on quality?

I should mention I might want to add a 2nd 970 at some point in the future.

Thanks in advance.
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October 12, 2014 6:28:46 AM

750w is recommended indeed
a b K Overclocking
October 12, 2014 6:26:44 AM

Yes, I'm saying that exactly =) A 750W would be recommended, a 650 could work but might be a risk.
October 10, 2014 10:57:18 PM

This is a complete new build. Spend an extra $20 or whatever it's going to cost in your country and just get a 750W supply.
A good quality psu will handle the spikes. I'm using a CX750M. Spikes haven't blown my system to bits (yet) lol.
a b K Overclocking
October 10, 2014 10:40:02 PM

I believe that a highly overclocked i5 4670/90k would take about 120W.
I also believe that 970s tend to draw little power on average, but can spike quite high, as shown by tom's review. Spikes that would only be detected with fast sampling equipment.
If running SLI, I think that it wouldn't be strange that both cards power-spiked at the same time, and when the CPU is on a high load.
And if you overclock those cards (since they can be overclocked quite high), the power draw would even be higher.

Given that info, I would not take the risk of the cards spiking its power consumption. A good quality PSU would handle that, but it could degrade over time, or just throttle. A bad quality PSU would maybe even shut down.

That's just what I believe, though.
October 10, 2014 10:36:42 PM

Oh and give me the best solution pls and thanks rofl kidding.

Like i said earlier. Knowledge without milage is bullshit. Do you have GTX 970's in sli and power consumption monitoring tools? No you don't. Is my tool state of the art? No. But I don't need accuracy down to a 0.0001% to be able to tell him 650w is enough for his build.
October 10, 2014 10:35:10 PM

Measured power consumption GTX 970 2-way SLI

System in IDLE = 123 Watts
System Wattage with GPU in FULL Stress = 439 Watts
Difference (GPU load) = 316 Watts
Add average IDLE wattage ~10 Watts
Subjective obtained GPU power consumption = ~ 326 Watts

This is guru3d's power consumption test.

ALSO NOTE THIS:
. Our test system is based on a power hungry six-core Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition Sandy Bridge-E based setup on the X79 chipset platform.
This setup is overclocked to 4.60 GHz on all cores. Next to that we have energy saving functions disabled for this motherboard and processor (to ensure consistent benchmark results).

Compare this to what the OP is planning on running.

Now please, shutup
October 10, 2014 10:30:10 PM

fkr said:
maybe you are not running the same overclock as hard OCP is. does your card have both the 8 pin and the 6 pin connectors are you running vddc of 1.2. there equipment and tom's equipment are top of the line and it is hard to argue with what they are reporting.

how do you explain the differentiation between your numbers and theirs.


I'm just going to facepalm myself all day here.
As stated, and I will state again for the 3rd time now, my systems details are in my signature. Now you will see I'm running GALAX GTX 970 EOC in sli. You've already proven you're quite good at digging through junk online, surely you can dig through and see I do indeed require a 6 and 8pin connector for each of my cards.

OP, 650watts is enough. Get a 750w if you want more headroom. FKR is going to driver you insane, ignore him.

a b K Overclocking
a b ) Power supply
October 10, 2014 10:26:14 PM

well, a classified 780 has the potential to draw about 550w if you overclock it to about 2.0ghz with a 1.50v vcore. so for that arguement, a 1000w power supply is not nearly enough for sli 780s and a 650 isn't even enough for a single card. this is going nowhere. normal voltages with a modest overclock with whatever air cooler supplied will limit you to 225w max <80c gpu core on the 970. 750 still should be the aim, but if you are not extremely aggressive with your overclock and you dont run prime95 and furmark at the same time for a long period, you would be fine with a 650w.

if you get classifieds with ek blocks with a custom bios and an unlocked 1.50v vcore, you really should have no less than 850w power supply for both 970/980. but this is not common an never assumed if a common sli question.
a b K Overclocking
a b ) Power supply
October 10, 2014 10:22:39 PM

maybe you are not running the same overclock as hard OCP is. does your card have both the 8 pin and the 6 pin connectors are you running vddc of 1.2. there equipment and tom's equipment are top of the line and it is hard to argue with what they are reporting.

how do you explain the differentiation between your numbers and theirs.
October 10, 2014 9:10:22 PM

fkr said:
I do not know what you are arguing about. I also agreed that a 650 watt PS is perfect for the current build and a 750 would be needed for a SLI config.

you even copy pasted it in your last post so relax. you really need to stay away from profanity in your posts. It only makes you look immature.


I understand that you are probably good with computers and tech in general but please in the future just read the responses before going off.

all i did was collate some info from trusted websites and try to inform somebody. I know my tech also since i am almost 40 and i have 2 degrees (one of which is a SW engineering degree). I was using the internet at 14.4 baud and my first PC was a tandy, i had others before that but they were shared.


There is no profanity in my posts.

I'm arguing with the fact that you're stating he will need 750w for sli 970's. I'm running 970's in sli as I've stated multiple times.

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