Will My EVGA 500w Power the MSI GTX 970 Twin Frozr V?

[Blade Mastr]

So I am currently trying to sell my GTX 760 4GB Twin Frozr OC Gaming Edition, and I want to know if I can run this card or buy a new PSU, I prefer to not change it because I barely bought it a few months back, soo yeaah.

Here are my current PC Specs just to clarify:

CPU - i7-3770
GPU - GTX 760 4GB GDDR5 Twin Frozr IV OC Gaming Edition
RAM - 12GB DDR3 @ 1600 MHz
HDD - 2TB Western Digital
PSU - EVGA 500w, Has 40 amps on the 12v+ rail

Just so I can clear the people who say, " Oh that is going to shut down, Oh that is so close to complete power usage." Just to tell you guys this has been running well over a year now. No problems. So yeah, will I be able to power it if I exchange my GPUs? I have gotten mixed comments on whether or not this will run on it. On Nvidia's website it states that the GTX 760 uses 175 watts and that the GTX 970 uses 145 watts. But there are still people saying it will not work...As some people can see, I posted this question about a month ago, I will repost it again because someone will buy my GTX 760 and I am closer to achieving the new GTX 970!

Can someone just finish this off with a, "It will work because..." or "It will not work because...." Oh and if it doesn't work, can you guys help me pick a GTX 970 that uses lower wattage, amps, or whatever?

I remember back when I asked if the GTX 760 would work or not and people said it wouldn't work, and here I am a year later running this with no shutdowns, power outages or anything like that. Buuut yeaaahhhhh. Thanks!

 

[jimthenagual]

A system with a gtx 970 is typically recommended about 500W. You'll be just fine, that's plenty of power.

i7-3770 TDP 77W
GTX 970 TDP 145W
Rest of system 100W
Overhead 150W

Total: 472W recommended, overhead and overclocking included.

 

[wabba]

you should not be pulling more than 300w, so you are about right on the money with 500w

 

[Blade Mastr]

you should not be pulling more than 300w, so you are about right on the money with 500w

Aww man, hey dude, I just saw the box of the GTX 970 Twin Frozr, it said minimum of 42 amps required...Can you maybe suggest a one with lower amps or explain this to me?

 

[Math Geek]

the 970 uses about 13-14 amps on the 12v rail. rest of the system at another generous 200 watts is 16-17 amps. so you have 40 amps and need around 30-32 amps which is at the low end of safe usage of 80-85%.

therefore, you can use the psu with the card safely and with no worries.

remember those manufacturer estimates are for crappy psu's and not the quality one you have. a crappy psu of 750 watts will have barely more 12v amps as you do. saw one few days ago that had 18 12v amps in a "650" watt psu!!! uninformed people will see the manufacturer site and not know what they are reading, so they say "it won't work"

i have had this argument before here with folks. a quality 650 watt psu will run the 970 in sli despite the recommendation of 800 watts (i think that's what is quoted all the time). add another 13 amps to your usage and a good 650 watts psu easily handles it.

 

[Math Geek]

you should not be pulling more than 300w, so you are about right on the money with 500w

Aww man, hey dude, I just saw the box of the GTX 970 Twin Frozr, it said minimum of 42 amps required...Can you maybe suggest a one with lower amps or explain this to me?

see above, the 42 amps is for TOTAL system power not the card itself. as the math shows your ok with the 40 amps.

 

[Blade Mastr]

you should not be pulling more than 300w, so you are about right on the money with 500w

Aww man, hey dude, I just saw the box of the GTX 970 Twin Frozr, it said minimum of 42 amps required...Can you maybe suggest a one with lower amps or explain this to me?

see above, the 42 amps is for TOTAL system power not the card itself. as the math shows your ok with the 40 amps.

Thanks for putting this time on me, I greatly appreciate it! You have saved my arse, I was really thinking hard about this for a few days, I was thinking once I bought it and plugged it in on my gaming pc the whole PC would fry or something because of the GPU using more power than what I can supply.

 

[Math Geek]

believe me i know the kinds of stuff people say on here. they make you feel like you signed your death warrant by using it!! i have been accused of such before by doing the math and saying it is ok despite the "OMG THAT PSU WILL MELT DOWN, EXPLODE, BURN DOWN YOUR HOUSE, KILL YOUR DOG AND KNOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTER!!!! YOU NEED 1000 WATTS FOR THAT TO EVEN BOOT UP."

 

[Blade Mastr]

you should not be pulling more than 300w, so you are about right on the money with 500w

Aww man, hey dude, I just saw the box of the GTX 970 Twin Frozr, it said minimum of 42 amps required...Can you maybe suggest a one with lower amps or explain this to me?

see above, the 42 amps is for TOTAL system power not the card itself. as the math shows your ok with the 40 amps.

You are %100 sure about this right? Because I really do not want to buy a new gaming pc or end up frying my computer. Oh and my power supply is not the bronze version but still has the same amps as the bronze version if you look at Newegg.
Can you explain the 42 amps thing a little bit more for me, because my brain just doesn't see that it will work. My brains hurting lol.

 

[Math Geek]

ok here goes. i'm not trying to talk down to you but i will build it up from the start....

each piece uses some power: cpu, gpu, mobo, fans, hdd, dvd..... some use the 3.3 v rail, 5v or 12 v rail. the main power pieces use the 12v rail so most of the power is available there but other pieces still need power from the other rails. if you add up the amps on all the rails it will be over 100% of the wattage it's rated for. this means you can pull too much power from the psu in the total system and not max out any specific rail. therefore it is not advisable to max out the 12v (or any other rail) rail since the other rails need some watts as well. it is generally recommended that you use no more than 80-85% of the rail's potential to allow for the other rails plus watt leakage and such.

so when they say 42 amps, they are taking all this into account and did some math. i computed about 30-32 amps needed for you. this is about 80-85% of 36-38 amps from the 12v rail. they assumed an average usage of a little more and did the same math to come up with 42 amps to keep the system in that 80-85% range. they of course aim very high to be sure almost everyone fits into the range and does not go over. i also aimed high but know your specs so am not as high over as they are.

think about the real crap psu's we see here with very little amps despite being "650 watts". manufacturer's try to give a number that even such a psu will satisfy. otherwise folks would be popping psu's all over the place due to not knowing the numbers.

the formula i am using is this amps = watts / volts or when you know the amps, watts = amps * volts. so the 42 amps they say means 42*12 = 502 watts on the 12v rail needed. clearly we have already shown that 502 watts is more than what's needed by a long shot. you are pulling less than 400 watts total which is still within this 80-85% range even looking at it as watts and not amps.

i hope this is a little clearer now. i know it is confusing but it is accessible if you stick with it. sometimes the formula helps shed some light on amps/watts/volts and how they are related.

to sum it all up:
your system is 160 w gpu, plus another 200 watts off the 12v rail for other pieces, a generous estimate, for a total of about 360 watts (this matches measurements taken by many tech sites for total system usage) 360w/ 12v = 30 amps which is only 75% of your 40 amps. my conclusion is that you are ok with the power supply and should not see any psu problems using it. i would do it for my own pc in this position.

i did some math 2 months ago and put an r9-270 into an old dell xps with a 375 watt psu despite the much higher psu suggestions. it uses 150 watts, almost as much as the 970, and it is running fine with 375 watts. the rest of the system is lower power due to it's age but the math is the same. i fell at about 80% of usable amps, installed the card and the kids have gamed the crap out of it on 1080p for 2 months now with not a hint of trouble. and this on a psu from 2006.

 

[Blade Mastr]

ok here goes. i'm not trying to talk down to you but i will build it up from the start....

each piece uses some power: cpu, gpu, mobo, fans, hdd, dvd..... some use the 3.3 v rail, 5v or 12 v rail. the main power pieces use the 12v rail so most of the power is available there but other pieces still need power from the other rails. if you add up the amps on all the rails it will be over 100% of the wattage it's rated for. this means you can pull too much power from the psu in the total system and not max out any specific rail. therefore it is not advisable to max out the 12v (or any other rail) rail since the other rails need some watts as well. it is generally recommended that you use no more than 80-85% of the rail's potential to allow for the other rails plus watt leakage and such.

so when they say 42 amps, they are taking all this into account and did some math. i computed about 30-32 amps needed for you. this is about 80-85% of 36-38 amps from the 12v rail. they assumed an average usage of a little more and did the same math to come up with 42 amps to keep the system in that 80-85% range. they of course aim very high to be sure almost everyone fits into the range and does not go over. i also aimed high but know your specs so am not as high over as they are.

think about the real crap psu's we see here with very little amps despite being "650 watts". manufacturer's try to give a number that even such a psu will satisfy. otherwise folks would be popping psu's all over the place due to not knowing the numbers.

the formula i am using is this amps = watts / volts or when you know the amps, watts = amps * volts. so the 42 amps they say means 42*12 = 502 watts on the 12v rail needed. clearly we have already shown that 502 watts is more than what's needed by a long shot. you are pulling less than 400 watts total which is still within this 80-85% range even looking at it as watts and not amps.

i hope this is a little clearer now. i know it is confusing but it is accessible if you stick with it. sometimes the formula helps shed some light on amps/watts/volts and how they are related.

Damn man, you took all this time for me, now I understand. Now I can live knowing that it wont shutdown or fry my components. Just curious, what PSU do you have?

 

[Math Geek]

i don't mind the time. i fix pc's all day and spend a lot of time watching windows install and virus scans run. this keeps me sane as i waste away the hours.

the kid's dell xps 420 has a l375p-00 stock psu it came with. it had the 6 pin power connector so i was good with the 270. it has 2 x 18 amp 12v rails.

my pc has the corsair cx650 with an i5-4690k and a 270x gpu. i know there are better psu's but this one was on a super sale for like $25 and i know i will never try to run sli or anything. i'm not a huge gamer so know i will never truly need a crazy high end gpu. the 970 is probably my next upgrade a year or so from now when the 270x shows it's age some. unless something better comes along with such power/performance ratio as the 970.