is an 850w psu really enough for a 3090 + 5950x (2024)

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2021/06/12 04:55:01 (permalink)

Looking for some real owner feedback and data. I have scoured reddit, youtube, and other forums and I always find conflicting information. My new rig is all waiting for me to build, but I cannot complete until I finish some construction/remodeling. Trying to avoid all the debris and dust getting into my new rig.
Looking for 3090 owners to weigh in on what they are actually seeing for power draw, and what PSU's they are using. Any feedback is appreciated, my hardware specs are listed below. TBH my first choice was an EVGA FTW 3080, but got extremely lucky or unlucky a few weeks ago on a BB drop, and pulled the trigger on a 3090 at BB prices, not scalped. Now that prices are even crazier, I may be sticking with it unless I can get a 3080 for retail.
I would like to do a slight OC on the GPU, and CPU, but may not really need to. I would like the headroom if possible, and don't want to be limited for specific use cases that will vary. In general, I would probably run a slight OC on the GPU if temps allow, and maybe on the CPU if the all core clock didn't kill single core too much, basically I want the headroom to dial things in and not be power limited.
Specs:
850W+gold PSU
R5950X
3090
2x1T M.2 NVME
Standard peripherals: mouse/keyboard/mic/headset/etc...
I see the EVGA psu calculator put me at 750W, the recommended for a 3090 is 850W, but hear people with 3090's are seeing 450W power draws. If I assume roughly 200-220W for CPU, 420-450W for GPU, that leaves me 180W for everything else. Not sure if these figures are realistic, so I am asking here.
Any real user experience feedback is appreciated. Allot of the posts I have found have seen very large power draws for the 3090, and am asking if over 450W is normal, and what you are seeing IRL.

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850w will be enough

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Well, I can tell you with absolute certainty that with the rig in my signature at a 4.7 CPU oc, gpu with +100 on gpu and vram, running 3dmark timespy pulled 912 watts total. That's with the monitor which pulls 35 watts max. That was measured with a killawatt.

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My advice is buy yourself one of those power meters (they go for under $20 on amazon) and note your system power draw at stock settings and move from there. It's possible that you'll undervolt your 3090 for lower power draw and lower temps (even if you're overclocking) so even if some people say that 850 is not enough you may be perfectly fine depending on your settings.

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Subscribing to this thread.... I'm planning a 5950 build but with a 3080 Ti and in a 011 mini so I'll be limited to a 850 sfx psu.

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wmmills
Well, I can tell you with absolute certainty that with the rig in my signature at a 4.7 CPU oc, gpu with +100 on gpu and vram, running 3dmark timespy pulled 912 watts total. That's with the monitor which pulls 35 watts max. That was measured with a killawatt.

That's at the wall though. I would guess the system is drawing maybe 850w or a little less power draw.

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Just missed a sale ofSuper Flower Leadex Platinum SE 1000W $199 at newegg. I am so mad.

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I have a 5950x and a 3090FTW3 (with the KP520 bios) and am using a Corsair RM850x and haven't had any issues. I think moreso than anything though it'll depend what kind of loads you're putting on the computer. Most programs won't be fully stressing both the CPU and GPU at the same time.

-5950x
-3090 FTW3
--gaming +100 core/+800 memory
--mining -300 core/+1100 memory
-1x 1TB NVME (OS + main programs)
-2x 2TB NVME (one for games/data and one for Chia plotting)
-1x 1TB SSD (for Chia plotting)
-External drive enclosure (self powered but I assume it still pulls some power via the usb-c connection) with 5 20TB drives
-5 fans and a water pump (pump is set to 100% all the time)

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nighthawkrmx

wmmills
Well, I can tell you with absolute certainty that with the rig in my signature at a 4.7 CPU oc, gpu with +100 on gpu and vram, running 3dmark timespy pulled 912 watts total. That's with the monitor which pulls 35 watts max. That was measured with a killawatt.

That's at the wall though. I would guess the system is drawing maybe 850w or a little less power draw.

Yes, thats at the wall. I suppose if i wanted to sit and do all the math and pull it apart i could figure out all the input/outputs figures etc... but i have no desire.

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Why risk with the minimum. I run 1200 watts on a 1080 ti. lol. I can't wait to get my new graphics card soon.

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IMO, since you are aiming for top end gear, why are you aiming low for PSU?

personally i'd just go for 1000w just to be on the safe side

5950x is a power monster, and the same goes for 3090

heck, i might even aim for Platinum rated PSU

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I see a lot of these threads about if the power is enough or not. A simple way to add up the upper range for the wattage of the system and add 20% on top. This is done as most consumer grade products are made with components that have approx 10% tollerance on them, these numbers can drift overtime with use hence the extra 10%. Going much higher is not an issue but a cost consideration and contrary to popular belied will not consumer more energy the system draw is the system draw. Under powering however can be disastrous and needs to be avoided.

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1000w or better.

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I would go with a 1000w just to be on the safe side.

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Momus123
Just missed a sale ofSuper Flower Leadex Platinum SE 1000W $199 at newegg. I am so mad.

Yes! I was lucky enough to jump on this deal.

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If you're investing that much into the rest of your PC, why would you not leave overhead on arguably the most important part, the PSU. You don't want to exceed 80% load on the PSU at max load anyways, so why not just spend a little bit extra for a 1000 or even a 1200W?

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My rule of thumb is and always has been at least 250W more than what you need and a quality one at that, P2 or above. I have a 3 yr old 1000W EVGA P2 and it's been absolutely rock solid.

post edited by Governator - 2021/06/24 11:20:39

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I didn't want to be under and just wanted to play it safe so I got a 1000w T2. I'm super happy with the quality and everything.

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My5950X never goes above 150W and that's on 100% usage all cores @4.375Ghz but I am using Clocktuner so that might make a big difference. You should realistically have no issue with a 850W and even then you might get away with a slight undervolt on the GPU if needed.

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ghstrydr
Looking for some real owner feedback and data. I have scoured reddit, youtube, and other forums and I always find conflicting information. My new rig is all waiting for me to build, but I cannot complete until I finish some construction/remodeling. Trying to avoid all the debris and dust getting into my new rig.
Looking for 3090 owners to weigh in on what they are actually seeing for power draw, and what PSU's they are using. Any feedback is appreciated, my hardware specs are listed below. TBH my first choice was an EVGA FTW 3080, but got extremely lucky or unlucky a few weeks ago on a BB drop, and pulled the trigger on a 3090 at BB prices, not scalped. Now that prices are even crazier, I may be sticking with it unless I can get a 3080 for retail.
I would like to do a slight OC on the GPU, and CPU, but may not really need to. I would like the headroom if possible, and don't want to be limited for specific use cases that will vary. In general, I would probably run a slight OC on the GPU if temps allow, and maybe on the CPU if the all core clock didn't kill single core too much, basically I want the headroom to dial things in and not be power limited.
Specs:
850W+gold PSU
R5950X
3090
2x1T M.2 NVME
Standard peripherals: mouse/keyboard/mic/headset/etc...
I see the EVGA psu calculator put me at 750W, the recommended for a 3090 is 850W, but hear people with 3090's are seeing 450W power draws. If I assume roughly 200-220W for CPU, 420-450W for GPU, that leaves me 180W for everything else. Not sure if these figures are realistic, so I am asking here.
Any real user experience feedback is appreciated. Allot of the posts I have found have seen very large power draws for the 3090, and am asking if over 450W is normal, and what you are seeing IRL.

Yes.

For practical purposes a 650W PSU is enough and you would be able to get a far better quality 650W PSU for the price of a reasonably good 850W PSU.

So instead of an 850W Gold PSU you would have been able to get a 650W Titanium one.

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Lolz @ $250 newegg I just dropped a 1300w evga gold
in there, because why not at single rail 108 amps
Well by dropped I mean ordered it's not in the build yet

post edited by Nozler - 2021/06/26 17:22:48

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Nec_V20

ghstrydr
Looking for some real owner feedback and data. I have scoured reddit, youtube, and other forums and I always find conflicting information. My new rig is all waiting for me to build, but I cannot complete until I finish some construction/remodeling. Trying to avoid all the debris and dust getting into my new rig.
Looking for 3090 owners to weigh in on what they are actually seeing for power draw, and what PSU's they are using. Any feedback is appreciated, my hardware specs are listed below. TBH my first choice was an EVGA FTW 3080, but got extremely lucky or unlucky a few weeks ago on a BB drop, and pulled the trigger on a 3090 at BB prices, not scalped. Now that prices are even crazier, I may be sticking with it unless I can get a 3080 for retail.
I would like to do a slight OC on the GPU, and CPU, but may not really need to. I would like the headroom if possible, and don't want to be limited for specific use cases that will vary. In general, I would probably run a slight OC on the GPU if temps allow, and maybe on the CPU if the all core clock didn't kill single core too much, basically I want the headroom to dial things in and not be power limited.
Specs:
850W+gold PSU
R5950X
3090
2x1T M.2 NVME
Standard peripherals: mouse/keyboard/mic/headset/etc...
I see the EVGA psu calculator put me at 750W, the recommended for a 3090 is 850W, but hear people with 3090's are seeing 450W power draws. If I assume roughly 200-220W for CPU, 420-450W for GPU, that leaves me 180W for everything else. Not sure if these figures are realistic, so I am asking here.
Any real user experience feedback is appreciated. Allot of the posts I have found have seen very large power draws for the 3090, and am asking if over 450W is normal, and what you are seeing IRL.

Yes.

For practical purposes a 650W PSU is enough and you would be able to get a far better quality 650W PSU for the price of a reasonably good 850W PSU.

So instead of an 850W Gold PSU you would have been able to get a 650W Titanium one.

Gonna go with a solid no on the 650W....850W is pushing it in my opinion.

Prefer (AGAIN: IMO) 1000W+ Gold or Titanium.

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yep , 850W would be absolute bare minimum for a 3090 . 1000 W min would be my recommendation.

Read thru the 30x series threads about how the power spikes/ voltage spikes / ,..etc.. on the 30xx series cards have wreaked havoc on users power supplies...
expensive hardware deserves quality ... don't skimp on your life blood to your components. ( the power )

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This is great information thanks for sharing.

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I know this is kind of old but I wanted to let you know that I have a similar system (K|ngp|n Hybrid instead of a regular 3090 but close enough) and my specs are as follows:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5950X @ -15 Curve All Core (Runs Just over 5Ghz on 2 Cores, 4.95Ghz on 4 Cores, 4.9Ghz on 4 Cores, 4.8Ghz on the Rest Using Only PBO + the Aforementioned Curve)
Motherboard: MSI MEG X570 Unify (Latest Beta BIOS W/ AGESA 1.2.0.3b)
RAM: 32GB G.Skill Trident RGB PC4000 16-16-16-36 1.45v Memory
GPU: eVGA GeForce RTX 3090 K|ngp|n Hybrid (Boosting All By Itself to Over 2Ghz According to HWInfo)
Case: Black Corsair 4000D Airflow
Storage: Samsung 980 Evo 2TB (Boot) + Samsung 970 Evo 1TB x 2 (RAID-0) + 16TB RAID-1 NAS Drives + PERC H730 W/ Toshiba PX04SMB160 1.6TB Enterprise SSD x 2 (RAID-0)
PSU: EVGA - 1000 T2 Modular PSU
Cooling: Corsair H115i Pro 280mm AiO w/ Prolimatech PK-3 Nano
RGB: Nothing Crazy, AiO, RAM, and GPU Lit Up.

Now, I was initially very worried about this PSU being enough for my build (Considered buying a1600 T2) but I already had the 1000W so I figured I'd give it a shot...I had been pretty high on my wattage with my 9900K (OC'ed to 5.2Ghz All-Core) and 2080 Ti FE (I recall this being OC'ed to the very edge but don't remember the exact numbers) and I figured this would be way higher. I was surprised that even with all of this new hardware I could never get it to pull above 700W under synthetic load (CPU and GPU) and significantly less when gaming or working. I didn't 100% trust my UPS to report these numbers accurately but I've since confirmed this figure with aKill A Watt plugged into the wall...that's after any efficiency loss that 700W is the cap so you should be perfectly fine unless you're seriously OC'ing the system way beyond what I have. Hope this info helps!

Edit: As far as spikes go I ran the Kill A Watt for a day and the max reading was 702W with the average being much lower so unless it happens so fast that it can't pick it up then I wasn't getting them. Granted a higher wattage PSU will give you better efficiency so a 1000W or higher definitely has the advantage for that but I ran a 650W Gold eVGA PSU for almost a month on my 9900K/2080 Ti system OC'ed (Bad idea I know lol) before swapping to the 1000W T2 and it immediately solved my issues with my UPS sometimes shutting down during an outage (I guess the efficiency was so low that it was using a lot more power from the wall which caused it to go above the max for the UPS) but this was on a 1000va UPS and my new 1500va/900W model does great on my current config. The UPS in particular gives me pretty detailed info about maximum usage so I'd imagine it would catch any spikes plus going above 900W would immediately shut down the UPS and it's yet to do this during a power outage, even while gaming. Your mileage may vary but 850W should be fine if that's what you have, especially if you're not OC'ing.

Image of the Test:

post edited by steppman2 - 2021/07/02 03:35:05

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im running a evga 850 g+ and doing just fine and dandy like cotton candy.

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It's enough but a bigger PSU is always better, you never know when you might have to add another component.