my friend wants to upgrade his GPU to a GTX970 card. he has a enermax tomahawk etk500awt 500w for a PSU. is that enough considering the amps on the 12v rail? it says 36apms total on 2 12v rails but i'm not so sure if that's true... thanks!
500 watts from a high quality power supply is enough to power a GTX 970 and an Intel CPU on an average system. The enermax tomahawk etk500awt is an entry level, low budget power supply. It can probably do the job, but a high end video card such as the GTX 970 may be better off with a higher quality power supply.
Like Archaic said, it will work, but I`m very sure at very high load the PSU will choke with a 970 slapped on it. Get a Seasonic 650w, any of them will be fine
really? i have a gtx960 myself, with the Antec 500W VP500P and it has never made any problems. if he decides not to upgrade the psu what are the risks?
really? i have a gtx960 myself, with the Antec 500W VP500P and it has never made any problems. if he decides not to upgrade the psu what are the risks?
The thing is that the Antec you have is a good PSU and further more the 960 is designed to be very very power efficient. The 970 has good power consumption, but still a lot higher than the 960. I have a 960 too, but even though I decided a while ago to go just a bit OP on my PSU now so I don`t have to worry about it later on.