Would a 520W PSU be enough to power a GTX 970?

[pieck]

Getting a new pc, and I want to save money and get a 520W PSU (Seasonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze) with my 970.

I plan on overclocking my Ryzen 1200 to ~3.8 or 3.7 Ghz and GPU moderately. Will my PSU be able to hold?

 

[raisonjohn]

Yes, more than enough.

~65W (Ryzen 1200 OC'd) + ~150W (GTX 970) = ~215W (Full Loaded CPU + GPU)
Add: other components such as HDD/SSD/RAM/MB/Fans, etc. which are typically less than ~100W
Estimated power draw on peak load = Less than ~315W.

The S12II 520 provides 480W at +12V, so, even at peak load, you'd just be somewhere within the 60%-65% consumption of what the PSU can provide. That means better efficiency and more headroom for future upgrades.

 

[pieck]

Yes, more than enough.

~65W (Ryzen 1200 OC'd) + ~150W (GTX 970) = ~215W (Full Loaded CPU + GPU)
Add: other components such as HDD/SSD/RAM/MB/Fans, etc. which are typically less than ~100W
Estimated power draw on peak load = Less than ~315W.

The S12II 520 provides 480W at +12V, so, even at peak load, you'd just be somewhere within the 60%-65% consumption of what the PSU can provide. That means better efficiency and more headroom for future upgrades.

Thanks for the answer, would you happen to know anything about using a 450W PSU (EVGA BT) with a overclocked 1060 (3GB model)? Same CPU configuration.

 

[raisonjohn]

The EVGA 450BT is a mediocre/so-so unit (compared to other available models out there). It only has a 3-year warranty, rated at 30C oper. temps, sleeve bearing fan, and does not use any Japanese capacitors.

Though the EVGA 450BT, being able to provide 420W (35A) at the +12V rail, can power the same CPU with an OC'd GTX 1060-3GB GPU, the quality, efficiency, and reliability is worse than that of the S12II-520 or other better models.

Note that the GTX 1060 consumes less power than the GTX 970 you originally mentioned.