[SOLVED] Is 275w enough for a 750ti?

[smmm]

Just a quick question, is a 275w psu enough to power an Evga GTX 750 ti? I'm thinking of putting one in an Optiplex 9010 MT with an i5-3470. Evga recommends 300w, but can I get away with the 275?
Thanks!

 

[Darkbreeze]

No. It is not. Especially not if that unit, which it likely has, has been around the block a few times.

EVGA's recommendation aside, you need a PSU with at LEAST 350w, and 450w would be a lot better based mostly on the fact that you're not going to find a good 350w unit for less than you could a 450w model anyhow, but a good 350w unit would be acceptable in most cases, unless it is a 750 ti model that requires a supplemental PCI power connector.

At 275w you are talking about not only a lack of sufficient capacity, but almost certainly also a VERY cheap, low quality power supply in addition. Get a decent 450-550w unit, because you aren't going to find anything of acceptable quality in a capacity lower than that, that isn't some kind of specialized or high efficiency model that is more expensive anyhow, or just a really cheap piece of dumpster fire garbage.


I think the biggest problem you are going to run into here is that there are several sizes of that unit, but they all use various SFF power supplies, which in fact are not cheap. Can you verify exactly which form factor of power supply you have? What is the exact model as printed directly on the specifications decal of the power supply itself?

 

[smmm]

No. It is not. Especially not if that unit, which it likely has, has been around the block a few times.

EVGA's recommendation aside, you need a PSU with at LEAST 350w, and 450w would be a lot better based mostly on the fact that you're not going to find a good 350w unit for less than you could a 450w model anyhow, but a good 350w unit would be acceptable in most cases, unless it is a 750 ti model that requires a supplemental PCI power connector.

At 275w you are talking about not only a lack of sufficient capacity, but almost certainly also a VERY cheap, low quality power supply in addition. Get a decent 450-550w unit, because you aren't going to find anything of acceptable quality in a capacity lower than that, that isn't some kind of specialized or high efficiency model that is more expensive anyhow, or just a really cheap piece of dumpster fire garbage.


I think the biggest problem you are going to run into here is that there are several sizes of that unit, but they all use various SFF power supplies, which in fact are not cheap. Can you verify exactly which form factor of power supply you have? What is the exact model as printed directly on the specifications decal of the power supply itself?

I don't have the PC on hand, it is a prospective Craigslist purchase and I already own the 750 ti. (and currently running it on 300w with a dual core i3, whoops). I did some research and can almost certainly state that the power supply in the Mini Tower (the one I'm looking at) is standard ATX.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Sure, it CAN be run on that. You CAN run a 2080 ti on a 550w power supply as well. It's just not a recommended or particularly safe and trouble free configuration that is likely to go far. Plus, there is the additional consideration that any of these "lite" units that are sub-450w and aren't a known, trusted platform by somebody like say Seasonic, FSP, Super Flower or Delta, because these are power supply OEM manufacturers as well as aftermarket manufacturers, and they design and manufacture some smaller capacity units in small batches for some of the prebuilt OEMs, then you are probably talking about the kind of unit made by somebody like Logisys or Lite on, that is selling small capacity units very cheaply to Dell and those are the kinds of units that tend to not have particularly good voltage regulation or ripple suppression. And poor regulation or high levels of ripple are things known to be detrimental to the long life of you graphics card and motherboard capacitors.

Basically, cheap power supplies work, until they don't, but along the way, they tend to gradually kill the rest of your hardware and you won't ever know it until it's a done deal.

When you get a chance, get me the model and brand of that PSU and we can see if it is something that might be ok at 300w. If it's a Delta made 300w unit, then it's probably ok. If it's some off brand or known cheap manufacturer, then I'd recommend putting something at least as good as one of the newer Corsair VS or CX units in there at about 450w, which might be a significant step up from what it has and being as that is such a low demand slot powered card, even one of those in a low capacity is likely going to be safe for your hardware and last a very long time PLUS potentially give you the headroom necessary to add a somewhat better card later if you decide, or need, to do so.

 

[smmm]

Sure, it CAN be run on that. You CAN run a 2080 ti on a 550w power supply as well. It's just not a recommended or particularly safe and trouble free configuration that is likely to go far. Plus, there is the additional consideration that any of these "lite" units that are sub-450w and aren't a known, trusted platform by somebody like say Seasonic, FSP, Super Flower or Delta, because these are power supply OEM manufacturers as well as aftermarket manufacturers, and they design and manufacture some smaller capacity units in small batches for some of the prebuilt OEMs, then you are probably talking about the kind of unit made by somebody like Logisys or Lite on, that is selling small capacity units very cheaply to Dell and those are the kinds of units that tend to not have particularly good voltage regulation or ripple suppression. And poor regulation or high levels of ripple are things known to be detrimental to the long life of you graphics card and motherboard capacitors.

Basically, cheap power supplies work, until they don't, but along the way, they tend to gradually kill the rest of your hardware and you won't ever know it until it's a done deal.

When you get a chance, get me the model and brand of that PSU and we can see if it is something that might be ok at 300w. If it's a Delta made 300w unit, then it's probably ok. If it's some off brand or known cheap manufacturer, then I'd recommend putting something at least as good as one of the newer Corsair VS or CX units in there at about 450w, which might be a significant step up from what it has and being as that is such a low demand slot powered card, even one of those in a low capacity is likely going to be safe for your hardware and last a very long time PLUS potentially give you the headroom necessary to add a somewhat better card later if you decide, or need, to do so.

Ok cool thank you for all the information. The psu in my current i3 system is a Basetec ATX0300D5WB.

What I'm thinking right now is that I might get a new power supply for my current system (black friday sale?) even if the Basetec is decent to make sure I'm safe first, and then get a PC with a better CPU, similar to the i5 one I mentioned, later on down the line when I have more money and transfer over the good power supply and 750 ti from the i3 to the new one.

 

[Darkbreeze]

It's not decent. It's a very low quality power supply.

What country are you in?

 

[smmm]

It's not decent. It's a very low quality power supply.

What country are you in?

I'm in the US.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What do you think you could reasonably afford to spend on a power supply?

 

[smmm]

What do you think you could reasonably afford to spend on a power supply?

I'd like to spend $40 or less. Obviously less is better, but I know a power supply is not something to cheap out on.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you could spend a little more, then the 550w CX is only about ten bucks more than this, but both have 20 dollar rebates so the initial investment is a little higher but you can expect to get part of it back. I've never had any issues getting my refunds through the various manufacturers when offered on Newegg so long as you actually send the required information in a timely manner. Otherwise, the cost of a decent PSU right now, due to the fact that ALL of them come from China manufacturing facilities, is much higher than it was a year ago before the tariffs took effect on imported electronics.

This is the newer VS platform, so it is not nearly the pile of crap that the older orange label VS units were. It's not as good as the 2017 and newer CX units, but for what you need it for, it is plenty good and is miles better than what you have.

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: Corsair VS 550 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($30.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $30.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-19 01:28 EST-0500

 

[smmm]

If you could spend a little more, then the 550w CX is only about ten bucks more than this, but both have 20 dollar rebates so the initial investment is a little higher but you can expect to get part of it back. I've never had any issues getting my refunds through the various manufacturers when offered on Newegg so long as you actually send the required information in a timely manner. Otherwise, the cost of a decent PSU right now, due to the fact that ALL of them come from China manufacturing facilities, is much higher than it was a year ago before the tariffs took effect on imported electronics.

This is the newer VS platform, so it is not nearly the pile of crap that the older orange label VS units were. It's not as good as the 2017 and newer CX units, but for what you need it for, it is plenty good and is miles better than what you have.

PCPartPicker Part List

Power Supply: Corsair VS 550 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($30.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $30.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-19 01:28 EST-0500

Ok thanks for the recommendation. I have another Dell XPS 8700 PC with a 4th gen i7 and a GTX 960 that could have a potential GPU upgrade in its future, so do you think it would be a good idea to take the ~4 year old stock 460w psu if it's not bad quality (model Dell AC460AM-00) out of the i7 PC and put it in the i3 PC, and then the new power supply that I would get would go in the i7 system for 500w+ for upgrade preparation?

 

[King_V]

Depends on the specific GPU. More recent Dell models tend to have better power supplies than they did in the past, and, at least starting with the XPS 8910 (so called "New Tower"), even though they were still 460W PSUs, they were touting them as good enough to handle a 225W Video Card. I doubt they'd be saying that if they weren't sure, as they wouldn't want to deal with warranty claims.

I think a few different companies used to make Dell's PSUs. Not sure if they've narrowed it down or not, or just held them to a higher standard.

Personal experience:

1. my son's XPS 8300 at his mother's house is still using the original PSU, with an i5-2320 CPU and a GTX 660Ti (150W) video card.
2. my son's XPS 8910 at my house, i5-6400, is using the original PSU, and an RX 580 (190-ish watts) - was previously using an R9 285 (about 185W).
3. my XPS 8700, i5-4460, was using the aforementioned R9 285 for a couple of years.

None of the original PSUs ever failed. I did upgrade my own with a Seasonic, but, at the time, I was planning on getting a 1080Ti (wound up with a non-Ti version).

 

[Darkbreeze]

I agree. But I also think that's probably perfectly fine to take the 460w unit and put it with the i3 system, and then put the new power supply in the other system, especially if you are going to put a higher tiered card in there. As King mentioned though, what PSU you put in THAT system depends on what graphics card you go with for it. The PSU I recommended was ONLY recommended because it was going to be used with a slot powered card. If you get a card that requires auxiliary PCI power in the form of a 6 or 8 pin connector, then you will NOT want to choose the VS series for that system. You would want AT LEAST a CX (2017) unit and depending on the card, possibly something much better than that.

 

[atljsf]

that gpu uses like 70 watts, in total that pc should use around 160 watts under load at worse, for some reason dell indeed offers this pc with such psu, weird

it should work, yes, don't connect alot of things using lots of power via usb ports like charging lots of smartphones and you should be fine

the psu itself has a normal shape, so it should be possible to replace it with a bigger psu, if the 24pin power connector is not standard there are converters to put a normal psu in there, so you could theroretically put a better gpu

it is not that old, you could use a gt 1030 there too, is almost as powerful ad uses 30 watts under load, so would consume even less

 

[Darkbreeze]

that gpu uses like 70 watts, in total that pc should use around 160 watts under load at worse, for some reason dell indeed offers this pc with such psu, weird

it should work, yes, don't connect alot of things using lots of power via usb ports like charging lots of smartphones and you should be fine

the psu itself has a normal shape, so it should be possible to replace it with a bigger psu, if the 24pin power connector is not standard there are converters to put a normal psu in there, so you could theroretically put a better gpu

it is not that old, you could use a gt 1030 there too, is almost as powerful ad uses 30 watts under load, so would consume even less

75w slot power plus 77w base TDP which does not include the TDP of boost speeds, so maybe around 160-175w for those two components. I'm guessing you must believe that the rest of the system including the motherboard itself, the drives, the fans, the CPU cooler, the memory and whatever loss through lack of efficiency that PSU has, don't count then?

 

[smmm]

Ok cool thanks for the feedback. I will buy a new CX for my XPS and put the 460w in the i3.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Cool man. Good luck.

 

[smmm]

Ok so to follow up I put a CX 650 in the XPS and the old 460 successfully in the i3 system. They both are running great, and the i3 got a lot heavier haha. The XPS has a messy bundle of unused cables in it, but I tried to push them away from any fans. Thanks for everyone's help!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Good deal. We are glad to help anytime you need it.