Best Graphics Card for 450w PSU

[ArachnidGoat]

So here's my overall system.

Intel i5-6400 2.70GHz
16g Ram
x64 OS Windows 10
Gigabyte GA-h170-gaming 3 Mobo
Acer 114hz Monitor
450w EVGA Bronze PSU
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438130&Description=evga%20450w%20bt&cm_re=evga_450w_bt-_-17-438-130-_-Product

I currently am running a Rx460 4g GPU and would like to upgrade.
What i am seeing though is that the rx580 8g requires a minimum 500w PSU. And i've found one for less than 200.

I've looked up some comparisons for GPU's that work well with 450w supplies, like the 750ti, but the benchmarks say that my 460 is better.

Any advice? Suggestions?
Should i just save up and buy a new PSU then get a beefy GPU?

 

[vapour]

what model is the psu? 450 does not tell you everything. some 450 is junk and can not provide ~400 reliably.

 

[ArachnidGoat]

what model is the psu? 450 does not tell you everything. some 450 is junk and can not provide ~400 reliably.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438130&Description=evga%20450w%20bt&cm_re=evga_450w_bt-_-17-438-130-_-Product

 

[jay32267]

A GTX 1060 will more than double your graphics capability and will run on a 400 watt PSU....but yes....as mentioned above....the quality of the PSU is important.

 

[ArachnidGoat]

A GTX 1060 will more than double your graphics capability and will run on a 400 watt PSU....but yes....as mentioned above....the quality of the PSU is important.

Now why is it that the 1060 can run on a 400w, while its equiv of the Rx580 needs 500w? Is there something im missing?

 

[jay32267]

I'm not sure in this specific case....but electronics have gotten more efficient over the years and newer equipment tends to use less power to do the same thing....but after looking at those AMD cards...they don't appear to be that old....so I'm not sure.

 

[gunndykol]

500W for a RX 580 is not accurate. The RX 580 is a 185W TDP part. Even if you overclock it you are not going to draw more than 300W of power. If you add to that 65W for your CPU and ~50W for memory, drives and fans you are sitting at around 400w of power draw when overclocked normally. A 450W PSU would be enough for that. Since you have a 80+ bronze unit, that 450 watts should be enough to drive a single budget to mid tier GPU, MB, ram combo without issues.

If you are looking into the upper end parts or going with exotic cooling, large number of storage drives, etc....then you may want to look more in the 650-800 range.

 

[ArachnidGoat]

500W for a RX 580 is not accurate. The RX 580 is a 185W TDP part. Even if you overclock it you are not going to draw more than 250W of power. If you add to that 65W for your CPU and ~50W for memory, drives and fans you are sitting at around 350w of normally. A 450W PSU would be enough for that. Since you have a 80+ bronze unit, that 450 watts should be enough to drive a single budget to mid tier GPU, MB, ram combo without issues.

If you are looking into the upper end parts or going with exotic cooling, large number of storage drives, etc....then you may want to look more in the 650-800 range.

So the rx580 would work? I like the fact the 580 has 8g of ram while the 1060 only has 3.

 

[gunndykol]

500W for a RX 580 is not accurate. The RX 580 is a 185W TDP part. Even if you overclock it you are not going to draw more than 250W of power. If you add to that 65W for your CPU and ~50W for memory, drives and fans you are sitting at around 350w of normally. A 450W PSU would be enough for that. Since you have a 80+ bronze unit, that 450 watts should be enough to drive a single budget to mid tier GPU, MB, ram combo without issues.

If you are looking into the upper end parts or going with exotic cooling, large number of storage drives, etc....then you may want to look more in the 650-800 range.

So the rx580 would work? I like the fact the 580 has 8g of ram while the 1060 only has 3.

Yes, the 450W PSU you have should work fine. Just double check that you have the right number of PCIE connectors needed for the RX 580 card you are getting. Just know that if you look to get a new mb and overclockable CPU in the future you will need to then look at starting to increase the PSU for your systems as well.

If you use pcpartpicker to throw all of your parts on a build sheet, it gives a pretty good gauge of power draw. Optimal PSU sizing for a quiet system would be 2x the expected power draw so that the PSU operates in the 50-60% range. That is generally where they are the most efficient and many of them don't even kick the fan on in that range. You can go over that, but once you start getting to 80%+ of the PSU nominal operating range, you are starting to push things.

A 450W PSU can output 500+ watts of power in shorts bursts if need be, but if you operate it at over ~420w for extended periods of time you will wear out the components faster an may not last through your warranty.

 

[vapour]

that one is actually decent, 1060 is fine.

 

[shrapnel_indie]

I wouldn't buy a GPU with less than 4GB now days... 6GB or more is more preferable. We should hear more about the NVidia GTX/RTX line up here shortly, I would assume next week. (As well as AMD's RX-3xxx lineup, which is claimed in leaks to sip power and perform well at a low price point. Time will tell.)

I'm not sure of the EVGA BT series of PSUs, double check it and its claims to make sure it isn't like some of their older stuff: poor quality.

Another possible upgrade is the CPU... running 4 cores/threads @ 2.7Ghz is a little on the weak side in today's world. If you jump from 6xxx series to something newer, be prepared for at least a possible MoBo upgrade.

 

[gunndykol]

There is nothing wrong with skylake parts in 2019. They are still perfectly valid and work fine for 99% of the titles out there. We just recently started seeing Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge chips starting to show real repeatable bottlenecks with 10 series GPUs and those are 2012 models. If the CPU you currently have is not sitting at 100% utilization full time while playing the game you like playing, then you don't need to worry too much about it. Some people feel that anything 4+ years old is too weak for gaming today, but the GPU is 80% of the performance of a system used primarily for gaming. You would be amazed at how long you can actually ride the same CPU/MB architecture (as long as they don't update the GPU interface AGP>PCIE) and still have a perfectly acceptable gaming experience. Especially if you end up gaming at a resolution higher than 1080p and swing the bottleneck back towards the GPU.

 

[ArachnidGoat]

Thanks everyone!

 

[shrapnel_indie]

There is nothing wrong with skylake parts in 2019. They are still perfectly valid and work fine for 99% of the titles out there. We just recently started seeing Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge chips starting to show real repeatable bottlenecks with 10 series GPUs and those are 2012 models. If the CPU you currently have is not sitting at 100% utilization full time while playing the game you like playing, then you don't need to worry too much about it. Some people feel that anything 4+ years old is too weak for gaming today, but the GPU is 80% of the performance of a system used primarily for gaming. You would be amazed at how long you can actually ride the same CPU/MB architecture (as long as they don't update the GPU interface AGP>PCIE) and still have a perfectly acceptable gaming experience. Especially if you end up gaming at a resolution higher than 1080p and swing the bottleneck back towards the GPU.

Not saying anything is wrong with Skylake... Just that the OP's particular CPU is a little weak with just 4 cores and clocked at 2.7GHz, if they can find an i7-6700(K) it will also show improvements... and not need to worry about upgrading MoBo or RAM... (unless they decide to OC later.)

 

[Syous13]

I actually have the same PSU (EVGA 450BT) with a MSI b350 Gaming Plus, Ryzen 5 1400, 2x4gb 2133mhz. What GPU would you guys recommend? Would a 1060 be good?