I’m looking into upgrading the GPU of my 2019 rig (3700x) and I’m wondering how necessary it is to follow the manufacturer recommendations on PSU. Originally I decided not to upgrade the 8GB GTX 1080 because it simply sufficed my needs and bought a 650W PSU unit.
Fast forward to 2023 it is apparently difficult to pick a GPU which officially requires <= 650W. I’m looking for an acceptable price/performance/longevity combo and the only option right now appears to be the 4070 (not Ti). If PSU was not an issue I probably would have gone for 7900 XT instead, however paying extra 150 EUR for a new PSU on top of that is silly (let alone rewiring everything). PC Part Picker tells me I have some 70W to spare after installing a 340W Sapphire 7900 XT. I’m also limited by 330cm clearance but that’s less of an issue.
Any thoughts? Thank you.
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It depends on the quality of your power supply. If it is from tier A or B from this list https://cultists.network/140/psu-tier-list/ I think the 7900 XT will work with no problem. But I will would look to upgrade the PSU when you upgrade your platform (CPU + Motherboard + RAM) since I believe this CPU would hold you back a little.
https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/yxqM89
It’s a Corsair RM650x (2018) 650 W so I’m not very concerned about the quality. It does make sense to simply upgrade the whole thing but then we’re talking ~2000 EUR instead of 600-900 for the GPU alone. Choices.
I think you should be fine with a 7900 XT them. In which resolution are you playing? Do you want go above 60FPS?
QHD and the monitor is set to 165z but I’m not dead set on hitting that amount of fps consistently. The GTX 1080 runs Baldur’s Gate at some 53 fps in outdoor locales which is a solid performance for its age.
I think 7900xt has more horsepower for this, also have you seen the new 7700xt and 7800xt that AMD just announced? They will be released in September 6th I think.
More horsepower, yes. Fits within 650W per recommendation, no. I read the AMD announcement earlier and I’m interested in what the 7800 has to offer vs 4070 (and the price ofc).
I’m running a RTX4070 too and was advised to not hold back on PSU. I’ve completed the new built about 2 months ago and people warned me about PSU quality based on the one I had selected first. Better to invest a little more but have stable performance down the line.
NOTE: I’m also running a fairly power hungry CPU.
I ended up with a Corsair RM850x Shift. I did find installation quite a lot easier with the Shift version.
650W should be enough, unless you’re getting a RTX4080 or smth. And as for my personal recommendation for a PSU manufacturer… Uuh, I’ve only used a PSU from deepcool and my current one from seasonic, would recommend seasonic, would not recommend deepcool…
If you’re willing to risk it and just try it out first with the old PSU then i would definitely try that first. I have the same PSU as you and i recently upgraded to a 6950xt. So far it’s been running just fine even though AMD recommends a bigger power supply. I was also using a sapphire nitro+ vega 64 before this, which was also quite power hungry when overclocked and never had any issues. I’m not sure how much power a 7900xt draws though.
