Is an 850W PSU enough for a second GPU used with Lossless Scaling?
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MellowPine42
I recently finished building my PC and am considering adding an RX 5700 XT Anniversary Edition as a secondary GPU for Lossless Scaling, alongside my main 8GB RX 9060 XT. Would an Asus Prime 850W Gold power supply be sufficient for both cards, an R5 9600X, and a B850M Eagle WiFi6E motherboard? I'd also like to know whether using a second GPU for Lossless Scaling is worthwhile in practice, or if the extra power draw and setup complexity outweigh the benefits.
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The bigger question is whether the second GPU will noticeably improve Lossless Scaling. It can work in some setups, but benefits depend heavily on the game, the scaling mode, PCIe bandwidth, driver behavior, and whether the extra card introduces latency. Test it if you already own the 5700 XT, but buying one specifically for this may not be worthwhile unless benchmarks show a clear improvement.
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An 850W unit should generally be enough. Two GTX 980 Ti cards can run on a quality 850W Gold PSU, and each of those cards can draw around 180–210W in practice. Your system should have reasonable headroom, though you should still check the GPUs’ actual power limits, use separate PCIe power cables where possible, and make sure the PSU has the required connectors.
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MellowPine42: That’s helpful, thanks! I’ll check the connector requirements and power limits before installing the second card.