PSU Load of New GPU Card - Safe Enough?

Soniclight-2.0 wrote on 1/19/2023, 2:17 PM

My new GeForce RTX™ 3060 GAMING OC 12G (rev. 2.0) card will be delivered tomorrow though I purchased it for the new system I'll be building next month around a Ryzen 9 5950X 16 cores - my current is Ryzen 3 1600 6 cores that has a Thermaltake 700W PSU.

The PSU requirement for the new card is 550W. I want to install this new card temporarily on my current system. So the overhead is 150W so to speak.

I also will be doubling my 3200 Mgz. DDR4 from 32 to 64 Gb. on my current system since it will be delivered the same day as the new GPU, then transfer it all to my new system.

But I don't want to have some catastrophic system shut down for my current card is a low end, 2 GB nVidia GT 710. Works fine, but definitely can't handle heavy render loads or particle emitters (Particleillusion -- in-Vegas previews with complex emitters are unworkably sluggish).

I have an APC Backup-UPS Pro, 1500W tower through which my computer, dual LCD 24 monitors, my 5" near-field Presonus powered speakers are plugged in. With several programs open but not in render mode, it shows a total consumption of around 180W.

So I did a quick render test on a moderately FX heavy older .veg using Magix HEVC/AAC MP4 @ Internet 5K 2880p, 59.94 fps to see the wattage jump: it was at 600W. My overall CPU load was between 18 and 40%.

In terms of wattage used on rendering, one would have to substract the speakers and dual monitors - not sure what that is, but monitors are about 2x 40W, and speakers top output is 2x 100W - I never crank them up anywhere near that high)

My guess is that installing this card on my current system with its to-be-doubled RAM and rendering moderately loaded projects will be OK. I don't see myself rendering at what I used in the above test at this juncture - only 1080p 30 fps.

But I defer to more experienced members here.
Let me know what you think, oh Wise Ones.

Thanks.

Comments

fr0sty wrote on 1/19/2023, 5:52 PM

Your speakers, monitor, etc, do not draw off of your power supply, so don't factor those in.

Under max load, my RTX 3090 draws about 350 watts.

I don't see your 3060 being able to max out that 700w.

Soniclight-2.0 wrote on 1/19/2023, 7:59 PM

Thanks. My guess is that an OS or CPU and/or GPU would maybe have some fail-safe that would monitor if something was reaching critical mass and slow down processes or such. Or not. But either way I'm fine.

Deathspawner wrote on 1/19/2023, 8:11 PM

Thanks. My guess is that an OS or CPU and/or GPU would maybe have some fail-safe that would monitor if something was reaching critical mass and slow down processes or such. Or not. But either way I'm fine.

The OS wouldn't care about power load, but if the PSU was over-exerted, it'd just shut off. 700W is plenty for that gear though, as fr0sty said.

Edit: Oh, and grats on the upgrade :D

RogerS wrote on 1/19/2023, 8:24 PM

Did you calculate total wattage load for all your components? Leave room for the GPU in case it has significant transient spikes. You're probably fine though.

Soniclight-2.0 wrote on 1/19/2023, 9:05 PM

@Deathspawner - Thanks for grats. Big jump up for me - can I even handle it? Yup. :D

@RogerS - By "components" do you mean in-computer or peripherals? I don't have any external powered stuff like backup drive and such.

As I stated earlier, I didn't count my 2 LCD monitors/screens or powered speakers into the total 600W load - seen on the screen of my APC backup power unit -- when I was maxing out on that 5 K test render, even though the CPU load was < 40%.

Just a rough guess, the actual computer wattage use was 400W or so. So well below 700W.

This will change once I shift over to my Ryzen 9 system, but it won't affect the APC battery backup unit for it's rated at 1500W. I could have a power failure on rendering and still safely shut everything down.

Soniclight-2.0 wrote on 1/19/2023, 9:08 PM

Oh, and while I'm at it, important question once I'm ready to switch to new righ:

How hard or easy has it been for any of you on a Windows 10/11 system it to transfer one's retail (not OEM) Windows license to a new mobo/system - without having to call Microsoft support?

I don't want to be a duck out of water for my system is my lifeline to the outside world too.

RogerS wrote on 1/19/2023, 9:26 PM

Thanks for grats. Big jump up for me - can I even handle it? Yup. :D

By "components" do you mean in-computer or peripherals? I don't have any external powered stuff like backup drive and such.

As I stated earlier, I didn't count my 2 LCD monitors/screens or powered speakers into the total 600W load - seen on the screen of my APC backup power unit -- when I was maxing out on that 5 K test render, even though the CPU load was < 40%.

Just a rough guess, the actual computer wattage use was 400W or so. So well below 700W.

This will change once I shift over to my Ryzen 9 system, but it won't affect the APC battery backup unit for it's rated at 1500W. I could have a power failure on rendering and still safely shut everything down.

Don't just make guesses- list out every internal component that runs off the PSU and calculate wattage. Motherboard, ram, hard drives, GPU, CPU, fans, etc. Here's a site that can do that for you: https://pcpartpicker.com/ Then validate that with your power unit (I used a power meter with my own system and tested it under load).

Then try to allow for transient spikes which won't show up on these meters by say multiplying the GPU max load by 1.5 and see if you're still under the PSU's maximum wattage. This should be conservative.

The system will shut down if it exceeds the wattage the PSU can deliver and it doesn't matter if it is plugged into a battery or the wall.

Soniclight-2.0 wrote on 1/19/2023, 11:27 PM

Thanks. I know of PCcpartpicker but didn't think of using it for wattage for when I used it many years ago, my eye was on the money tally. On the other hand, I'll hold off rendering anything besides maybe a simple .veg that won't max out my current system and wait until I've begun using the new one. No point pushing it.

Soniclight-2.0 wrote on 1/19/2023, 11:49 PM

Quick follow-up: While I couldn't exactly match my current system at PCpartpicker, the estimate wattage is 273, which makes sense for when just surfing the Net or using non-intensive programs, my APC is around that, and that's including my monitors. So quite safe. As long as I don't do a 8K render....

RogerS wrote on 1/20/2023, 12:02 AM

You should be fine. Mainconcept will tax the CPU more and GPU renderers will likely have lower overall wattage more distributed over CPU and GPU. I really tried to see how hard I could push it and with a 13th gen i5 and RTX 2080 couldn't exceed 400W total and that was in a synthetic benchmark. Vegas highest usage was under 300W and usually way under that!

bvideo wrote on 1/22/2023, 11:30 PM

Oh, and while I'm at it, important question once I'm ready to switch to new righ:

How hard or easy has it been for any of you on a Windows 10/11 system it to transfer one's retail (not OEM) Windows license to a new mobo/system - without having to call Microsoft support?

I don't want to be a duck out of water for my system is my lifeline to the outside world too.

Here's one approach---

https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-10/how-to-replace-a-motherboard-without-reinstalling-windows-10/

Soniclight-2.0 wrote on 1/24/2023, 9:11 PM

@bvideo - Thanks. After I posted that off-topic question, I did some searching online and found similar info. I think I got it covered