[SOLVED] Would a 550W PSU be enough to upgrade to a 3070Ti?

Apr 27, 2022
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Howdy first time posting here,

So I've just bought a 3070Ti as an upgrade to my current 1080 which has served me well,
however I've also bought a Ryzen 7 3800x to replace my Ryzen 5 1600 after confirming my mobo supports it via a BIOS update,
both of these new parts have higher tdp's than the parts they are replacing.
Obviously I'm not going to stick with the 550W PSU for long I just need to know if I can hold off for a bit till payday or I should just cough up for say a 750W PSU right now.

My PC specs with the new parts are:
Mobo: Asus Prime B350-PLUS
PSU: Corsair VS Series 550W
GPU: RTX 3070Ti Founders Edition
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800x
RAM: DDR4 2x16GB Corsair Vengance 3200MHz
SSD: Crucial P2 CT1000P2SSD8 1 TB M.2 NVMe
HDD: x2 Seagate BarraCuda 2TB (In RAID0)
Keyboard: Fnatic Gear Rush (MX Brown)
Mouse: Corsair Scimitar Pro
I've also got a few USB devices running such as 2.4GHz dongle for my Wireless headset and a Razer Seiren X mic
I have tried out some PSU calculation sites though I'm not sure how accurate they are from what I've seen using them it should just be enough.

Thanks for any replies!
 
Solution
Hey there,

The short answer is, no. And certainly not with a VS series. Recommended for that GPU is a 750w, and it should be a good make/model to deal with the transient power spikes with higher end RTX models. Whilst the system may not draw much more than 550w at normal operation, if you are gaming hard, the power spikes on the GPU will push well past that. And it's that split second where the 550w would just crash your system.

A Corsair Rmx 750w would do fine for you.
Hey there,

The short answer is, no. And certainly not with a VS series. Recommended for that GPU is a 750w, and it should be a good make/model to deal with the transient power spikes with higher end RTX models. Whilst the system may not draw much more than 550w at normal operation, if you are gaming hard, the power spikes on the GPU will push well past that. And it's that split second where the 550w would just crash your system.

A Corsair Rmx 750w would do fine for you.
 
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Solution

Satan-IR

Splendid
Ambassador
How old is that VS 550?

If you plan to run heavy games on the rig I would say get a good quality 750W as those 3000 cards have high transient current/power spikes under load somehow starting to matter from 3070 upwards.

A 3070Ti would draw around 300W under load. The Ryzen 7 3800x would draw maybe around 120-130W under load. All this if it was a brand new good quality 550W unit, but it is none of those.
 
Apr 27, 2022
5
2
15
How old is that VS 550?

If you plan to run heavy games on the rig I would say get a good quality 750W as those 3000 cards have high transient current/power spikes under load somehow starting to matter from 3070 upwards.

A 3070Ti would draw around 300W under load. The Ryzen 7 3800x would draw maybe around 120-130W under load. All this if it was a brand new good quality 550W unit, but it is none of those.
Unfortunately it's quite old, ordered it back in 2018 iirc and although I don't do any heavy work on my pc such as video editing or rendering I do game with it frequently so it's been put to use over the years, I can just bite the bullet and get a new PSU right now though I was hoping I could maybe hold off for a bit haha.
 
Apr 27, 2022
5
2
15
If you abstain from playing games it will work so this gives you a way to wait till payday. However I doubt it will be safe to use it with GPU under load. If that was something better then VS model, maybe it could work temporarily. As it is I would advise not gaming until you get better unit.
Yeah, from the other replies it seems like I should just wait till I buy the new PSU, I did have an idea in my head that I could maybe get away with underclocking the GPU a bit but I have a feeling it would be more hassle than it's worth lol.
 
Apr 27, 2022
5
2
15
Hey there,

The short answer is, no. And certainly not with a CV series. Recommended for that GPU is a 750w, and it should be a good make/model to deal with the transient power spikes with higher end RTX models. Whilst the system may not draw much more than 550w at normal operation, if you are gaming hard, the power spikes on the GPU will push well past that. And it's that split second where the 550w would just crash your system.

A Corsair Rmx 750w would do fine for you.
Thanks for the PSU recommendation! and wow I had no idea the high end RTX cards had issues with powers spikes so I'm glad I asked, I'll probably bite the bullet and just cough up for a better PSU.
 
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