A 650 W power supply covers the GTX 970 with any processor. With a processor that draws less, such as the Ryzen 5 7600, 450 W is enough.
The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 is rated 145 W. How big a power supply it needs depends on the processor beside it: at their makers’ limits, processors draw anything from 81 W to 253 W. Each size below is at least a quarter more than the whole PC draws at full load.
| Processor | Processor power | Whole PC at full load | Power supply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ryzen 5 5600 | 88 W | 293 W | 450 W |
| Ryzen 5 7600 | 88 W | 293 W | 450 W |
| Core i5-12400 | 117 W | 322 W | 450 W |
| Core i5-14400 | 148 W | 353 W | 450 W |
| Ryzen 7 9800X3D | 162 W | 367 W | 550 W |
| Core i5-14600K | 181 W | 386 W | 550 W |
| Ryzen 9 9950X | 230 W | 435 W | 550 W |
| Core Ultra 7 265K | 250 W | 455 W | 650 W |
| Core i9-14900K | 253 W | 458 W | 650 W |
Each figure is the most the part draws at its maker’s default settings: the graphics card’s board power, and the processor’s package power limit (AMD) or maximum turbo power (Intel). About 60 W is added for the rest of the PC — motherboard, memory, drives and fans — and the size is the smallest common one at least a quarter above that total, so the power supply runs at no more than 80% of its rating even then. Games rarely load both parts fully at once, so this is the most the PC will ask for, not what it draws all the time.
The wattage on the label only means something on a good power supply: choose a maker you know, and look for a review of that exact model.
A power supply that cannot keep up does not lower the frame rate: the PC switches off or restarts, or the screen goes black, usually in the middle of a game. Bottleneck’s heat and stability check can load the processor and graphics card together for up to an hour, then says whether the PC held up, restarted, or lost its graphics driver. It also finds the everyday reasons a PC falls short of its parts: memory below its rated speed, Resizable BAR left off, a monitor held at 60 Hz, heat.
The free version gives each check’s verdict, with no time limit and no account. Pro, $9 once, explains the cause and the fix. Compare the versions