550w psu enough for OC

cmt95

Member
Oct 15, 2014
28
0
0
Hi

would sea sonic g550 be enough for over clocking the cpu

this is the build that I'm going to buy

I5-4690k
MSI GTX 970
G.Skill TridentX 2x4 GB
Corsair Carbide Air 540 Cube Case
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB
Asus z97-a
 

Bubbleawsome

Diamond Member
Apr 14, 2013
4,834
1,204
146
You'll be good all the way. The 970 is very energy efficient and the i5 honestly doesn't suck power either.
 

Z15CAM

Platinum Member
Nov 20, 2010
2,184
64
91
www.flickr.com
Seasonic g550
Bare minimum, in my opinion, if you're not running extra peripherals.

Suggest an XFX 750W Black Edition KM3 BEFX for about $100 to 120$ and will allow you room for OC'g.
 
Last edited:

Bubbleawsome

Diamond Member
Apr 14, 2013
4,834
1,204
146
The 970 uses less power than my 7970 and 550w is recommended for the 7970. More wattage is ok, and if it's cheaper that's even better, but you only really need 550w for that machine+overclocking.
 

toyota

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
12,957
1
0
some of you fell for the marketing and give way too much credit to the Maxwell cards being efficient. if that is a Gaming 970 card then it actually uses MORE power than even the 780.


image free hosting
 
Last edited:

Bubbleawsome

Diamond Member
Apr 14, 2013
4,834
1,204
146
some of you fell for the marketing and give way too much credit to the Maxwell cards being efficient. if that is a Gaming 970 card then it actually uses MORE power than even the 780.

I could have sworn I saw a card with a TDP of 145w. Turns out this card maxes at 200w. If you add 100w for an overclocked i5 you've still got 250w for the extras.
 

know of fence

Senior member
May 28, 2009
555
2
71
I could have sworn I saw a card with a TDP of 145w. Turns out this card maxes at 200w. If you add 100w for an overclocked i5 you've still got 250w for the extras.

According to HardOCP:
342 W minus 90 W idle times 0.88 Efficiency equals around 220 W, that's about right. Seems like (factory) OC completely defeats Maxwell's touted high efficiency achieved through finely grained throttling, quickly reaching the hard 250W cooling threshold of heat pipe GPU heatsinks.

That said around 350W consumed would call for a 650-700 W rated PSU.
 

cmt95

Member
Oct 15, 2014
28
0
0
I'm confused now, is sea sonic g550 enough? or i can pay like about 1$ more and get evga supernova 750w g2 (why is the evga cheaper when G2 series are tier one and seasonic G-series are tier 2 A)

and will the gpu need more psu if i over clock the msi gtx 970 gaming with afterburner

but let say the gpu when oc'ing need 380W + cpu when oc'ing needs 120W = 500w, so is it bad for the system that there is only 50w back
 
Last edited:

Bubbleawsome

Diamond Member
Apr 14, 2013
4,834
1,204
146
The 970 can only use about 200w. I think it can go up to ~215w with powertune. You will have a hard time getting an i5 to go near 100w. You only need 550w. However, if the g2 is really that cheap go ahead and get it.
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
^ What he said (as long as you don't count stress tester programs with AVX2, anyway).

Different GTX 970 cards have different power limits. Assume any factory-OC model has a higher TDP than the official spec.
 

Greenlepricon

Senior member
Aug 1, 2012
468
0
0
If you're only pulling 350W from the outlet, why would a 650-700W power supply be needed?

You don't need it per say, but to get max efficiency from your power supply you want to go for about double your power draw. At least it's pretty common for this to be the recommendation. I always shoot for about 75% instead after overclocking and everything else considered as I don't need the overhead for upgrades and buy efficient PSUs. A 400w would work almost as well for 350w draw, but would run hotter and less efficiently, and leave little to no room for upgrades or overclocks.

I personally would go for the g2 if it's that cheap, but if there was any reasonable price difference then the Seasonic would probably win me over.
 

TemjinGold

Diamond Member
Dec 16, 2006
3,050
65
91
In today's age of Gold/Platinum/etc. PSUs, that old adage isn't quite as needed anymore. Plus to be honest, if you are shooting that high for efficiency, know that it would take decades to make up in efficiency savings the difference in price between the two units.

OP: You're asking about a SeaSonic, which like most reputable brands will put out the rated wattage and continuously so. You will have zero problem with that PSU and that system.
 
Last edited: