I'm working with an older small form factor PC that has an i5-10400 and a low-profile RTX 3050, which together pull about 220W. My power supply unit (PSU) is rated at 380W, and with all my components combined, I estimate I'm using around 280W. Now, I'm considering swapping the 3050 for a 5050 low-profile card that draws 140W. However, I'm worried about whether this would push my PSU too hard, bringing the total to around 350W. Any advice on this would be great!
2 Answers
It's always best to leave a buffer for power spikes, at least 150W. A good rule of thumb is to use a wattage calculator like the one on PCPartPicker to see what your build pulls. Then, take that max wattage and add 150W to find the minimum PSU wattage you should have. Also, check if your motherboard can enable features like ReBAR with an update, and investigate whether it supports the 5050 since it's a PCIe gen 5 x8 card; your motherboard might only be PCIe gen 3, which could impact performance.
Does your RTX 3050 require a power cable, or is it powered through the motherboard's PCIe slot? Most 5050 models will need an extra PCIe power line, which means you'll have to make sure your PSU has that available. Just a heads up, the PCIe slot is limited to 75W, so the extra power connection could be essential depending on your setup.
Yep, since the PCIe slot can only supply so much power.
I just checked and confirmed the 3050 is PCIe only. I'm starting to think the 5050 LP might not work, but the 4060 LP could since it’s around 115W and my PSU has a 6+2 pin PCIe cable for GPUs. I might give that a shot!
Thanks for the detailed reply! I also just realized that the extra 8-pin cable on the PSU is actually for CPU power, so I might need to upgrade my PSU anyway…