I have an older small form factor office PC with an Intel i5-10400 and a low profile RTX 3050, which draws around 220W. My PSU is 380W, so with everything else (hard drives, motherboard, peripherals), I estimate I'm using about 280W. I'm considering replacing the 3050 with a low profile RTX 5050 that draws 140W. My question is, will this push my PSU too hard, resulting in around 350W total usage? I appreciate any advice!
3 Answers
You might be able to run the 5050, but it's really cutting it close. For peace of mind, I'd stick with GPUs that can run solely on PCIe power (which maxes out at 75W) and avoid the additional power cables if you can. I’d be cautious about potential power spikes with that setup.
Yeah, you definitely want to leave some headroom for power spikes. A good rule of thumb is to add about 150W to the max wattage your components will pull. You could try putting your build into PCPartPicker to estimate that. Also, check if your motherboard supports Resizable BAR and see if a BIOS update might help. Just a heads up, the RTX 5050 is PCIe Gen 5 x8, which might not perform best in your old setup if it’s PCIe Gen 3, so be cautious and double-check compatibility before buying.
Is your RTX 3050 using a power cable from the PSU? Because some models rely on power through the motherboard only. If your new RTX 5050 needs a supplementary PCIe power cable, ensure your PSU has one available, otherwise, you might run into issues.
Yep, it’s powered through the PCIe slot, which is limited to 75W.
I just checked and confirmed that the 3050 uses PCIe only. The 5050 may not fit my setup, but I think the RTX 4060 low profile could work since it pulls about 115W and I have a 6+2 pin PCIe cable for GPUs. I'm leaning towards that option.
Thanks for the detailed reply! I also just realized the extra 8-pin cable on my PSU is an auxiliary CPU cable, so I’ll probably need to replace my PSU anyway.