Nvidia RTX 3000 Power Supply Requirements

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Nvidia’s highly anticipated RTX 3000 series graphic cards have provided considerable performance upgrades to the RTX 2000 series’ disappointing price to performance ratio. But with that increased performance, power consumption has also increased quite a bit. As a result, the power supply requirements for RTX 30 series graphic cards have gone up. Therefore, below we have created this comprehensive guide containing the power requirements of the RTX 3090, 3080 Ti, 3080,3070 Ti, 3070, 3060 ti, and 3060.

Ampere is the new GPU architecture of the RTX 30 Series and is the successor to Nvidia’s Volta and Turing architectures. It is Nvidia’s first 7nm architecture GPU which allows more transistors to be stuffed onto a compact region than the previous generations. It also embarks itself as the 2nd gen of ray tracing and the 3rd gen of deep learning hardware. Nvidia says that this improvement in architecture has enabled them to achieve unprecedented performance leads.

But as mentioned above, the significantly higher increase in the performance of RTX 3000 GPUs has also come with considerably more power consumption. If we compare the power specifications of previous generations to the Ampere-powered GPUs, for example, we can see that the Nvidia RTX 2080Ti had a power consumption of 250W-260W whereas their Titan series relied on 280W. But the RTX 3080 consumes 320W and the RTX 3090 consumes 350W which is a significant increase in power consumption. As a result, below are the PSU requirements of each RTX 3000 series graphic card.

RTX 3090 Power Supply Requirements

A PC build with the Core i5/ Ryzen 5 or Core i7/Ryzen 7 requires a 750W power supply for optimum performance. Higher-end CPUs like the Core i9 and Ryzen 9 will require an extra 100W of power, so you’ll need an 850W PSU. Finally, if you go with a power-hungry CPU such as the Intel HEDT or AMD ThreadRipper, you should opt for an efficient 1000W PSU.

RTX 3080 Ti Power Supply Requirements

The RTX 3080 Ti has the same power requirements as the RTX 3090. For a mainstream setup with a core i5/Ryzen 5 or Corei7/Ryzen 7 CPU, you will need a 750W PSU. If you pair it with a more powerful Core i9 or Ryzen 9, you should opt for an 850W PSU. The power requirement skyrockets to 1000W if you run the power-hungryIntel HEDT or AMD ThreadRipper processor.

RTX 3080 Power Supply Requirements

A build with the Core i5/Ryzen 5 or Core i7/Ryzen 7 requires a 750W PSU for the best results. Powerful CPUs like the Core i9 and Ryzen 9 will require an extra 100W of power, so you’ll need an 850W PSU. If you want to build a system using the Intel HEDT or AMD ThreadRipper you can still use the 850W power supply.

RTX 3070 Ti Power Supply Requirements

A typical build that runs with the Core i5/Ryzen 5 or Core i7/Ryzen 7 CPU requires a 750W power supply. If you go with a higher-end processor like the Core i9 or Ryzen 9, or the powerful Intel HEDT/AMD ThreadRipper, you’ll require an 850W PSU. 

RTX 3070 Power Supply Requirements

PC builds with the Core i5/Ryzen 5 or Core i7/Ryzen 7 CPU require only a 650W power supply. A 650W PSU will also suffice for higher-end processors like the Core i9 or Ryzen 9. However, if you plan to overclock or use a power-hungry Intel HEDT or AMD ThreadRipper you should opt for a 750W PSU or greater.

RTX 3060 Ti Power Supply Requirements

To power a PC with the Core i7/Ryzen 7 or Core i9/ Ryzen 9 CPU is a 600W power supply. If you plan to overclock your build, you should go with a larger 750W PSU instead. As for top-of-the-line setups using the Intel HEDT or AMD ThreadRipper, you’ll also need a750W PSU or greater.

RTX 3060 Power Supply Requirements

The least demanding GPU from the RTX 30 series requires a 550W power supply with most processors up to Core i9/Ryzen 9 running at stock speeds. For overclocking, a 650W is recommended, and if you want to run the demanding AMD Threadripper or Intel HEDT processor, a 750W PSU will suffice.

What to look for in a PSU for RTX 30 Series GPUs

Getting a top-of-the-line GPU is truly exciting, but the same can’t really be said about the power supply. However, the PSU is one most important components of your computer. After all, your PC can’t run without electricity.

Buying the cheapest power supply is always tempting, especially when building a new PC and spending a lot of money on the rest of the hardware. But that’s not the best decision, especially when having a powerful setup that includes one of the RTX 3000 series GPUs. Your computer needs reliable power and it needs to be protected from power surges and other problems that can cause damage.

So, let’s find out how to spot a good PSU from a bad one. If you’re looking to buy one of the new RTX series GPUs you need to consider the following factors:

Wattage

Electricity is measured in Watts, and this is the simplest metric you need to identify and determine, depending on your hardware. Each component needs a certain amount of power to function reliably. Each computer part comes with a label or instructions telling you how much wattage it needs. For example, the RTX 3080 from Nvidia requires 320W. But we also need to take into account the CPU, which might require 105W, the motherboard, RAM, various hard drives, and more.

Fortunately, we don’t need any sophisticated math to determine the amount of required power. Just fire up a calculator, or use one of the many online PSU calculators, and punch in all the numbers from each component. Finally, add another 100W to the final number, just to be safe. For example, if your setup requires 610W, you should go for the 750W power supply instead of the 650W. Pushing your hardware to its maximum limit is rarely a good idea.

80 Plus Certification (efficiency)

Next to the wattage, this is the second most important metric. The efficiency rating is just as important as the amount of power delivered. Its purpose is to determine how much power is sent to the computer and how much of it is lost to heat and other factors. The more efficient your PSU is, the less power needs to be drawn from the power outlet to satisfy its need, and the smaller your power bill will be.

The rating is identified under the various 80 Plus certifications that tell us what kind of efficiency standards are fulfilled by the PSU. These labels range from basic 80 Plus, which is the lowest rating, to 80 Plus Titanium, which is the highest. The most common good quality PSUs are Gold certified and sometimes Platinum. But the benefits from Gold onwards become barely noticeable due to diminishing returns. You can learn more about PSU efficiency ratings here.

Rails

The PSU supplies the components with power through its voltage rails. A rail is just a wire that sends electricity at a certain voltage. Standard PSUs will divide the power they get from the power outlet into 12v, 5v, and 3.3v paths.  The most important type is the +12V rail because this is the one that can power the more demanding hardware, such as a graphics card.

Form Factor

This characteristic refers to the physical shape of the power supply that matches the matching space in your computer case. You need to pay attention to this and make sure it matches your motherboard and your case, otherwise, you’ll end up with an incompatible PSU.

There are three main form factors: ATX, ATX12V, and SFX. Each type comes in different sizes and with different connectors. For example, an SFX (small form factor) power supply can only be installed in a small form factor PC case. So make sure to identify the form factor and choose a matching PSU.

Connectors

When you’re looking to buy a new power supply you need to make sure it has the right connectors for your RTX 30 graphics card. Nvidia designed a proprietary 12-pin power connector for this series that caused a lot of confusion. No, you don’t need to buy a new PSU that has a 12-pin power cable.

The RTX 30 GPUs come with a special adapter to allow you to connect 8-pin power cables to the 12-pin connector. On one end, you insert two 8-pin connectors while the other end is a 12-pin connector that fits the GPU’s power connector. So most PSUs are still perfectly usable, as long as they’re not something from over a decade ago.

Modularity

This final characteristic which is the modularity of a PSU has to do mostly with cable management. A power supply is either modular, semi-modular, or non-modular. The modular PSU comes with cables that can be completely detached from itself and therefore you can remove those that you don’t need.

This is the preferable type of power supply because it provides the computer with a larger cooling space without clutter. The non-modular PSU is the opposite and none of its connectors are detachable.

Lastly, the semi-modular PSU is also a good option because the only difference is that the motherboard and CPU connectors cannot be removed, while the others can.

Final Thoughts

This article is a resource for those looking for the power supply requirements of their RTX 3000 Series graphics card. Therefore, it will be updated frequently as more information about the RTX 3000 Series GPU PSU requirements is released. We hope that you found this article helpful and informative.

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