Many peoples want to build their gaming PCs with an RTX 3060 graphics card. It is such an excellent choice for gamers. But, beginners are confused about what Power Supply they need for this GPU and what wattage they need.
So, this article will tell you everything about what Power Supply you need for the RTX 3060 graphics card.
Can 500W PSU Run 3060?
No! A 500W PSU is not going to be enough for an RTX 3060 graphics card; Nvidia at least recommends using a 550W PSU for a 3060 and a 600W PSU for a 3060Ti graphics card.
But when you are checking the required power consumption, you also have to look at the different parts in the systems along with this 3060 graphics card.
Therefore many PC builders recommend checking the power consumption of every component you install. Below, I have checked the power consumption of all the parts that you will pretend to use with a 3060 graphics card in your system.
How Much Wattage Does A 3060 GPU Consume?
Generally, low-end graphics cards consume 110W to 150W power from the PSU, but the RTX 3060 is such a high-end graphics card, and it consumes 170watts power.
At the same time, if you are going to use the RTX 3060Ti graphics card, then it will consume the power of around 200Watts.
Now, along with these high-end graphics cards, we will use some high-end components, and let’s calculate the wattage of all these things.
Calculate Other Components Wattage
Here, I have picked some of the most popular motherboards, CPUs, RAM, Fans, storage, etc. So, let’s do the wattage calculation-
Motherboard
If you pick a powerful gaming motherboard like Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Elite AX ATX LGA 1700 motherboard, it will consume around 70watts.
CPU
Picking a powerful, compatible 12th gen intel CPU like Intel Core i7-12700k would consume the power around 190W.
CPU Cooler
The Intel 12th gen 12700K CPU doesn’t come with the cooler. Therefore, you also have to pick a CPU cooler, and here I picked Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black edition CPU cooler, which consumes around 10 watts.
Memory
The motherboard I picked only supports DDR5 memory, so here we pick Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR5 RAM. The Power consumption of the RAM is around 25W.
Storage
Most people these days are installing both SSDs and Hard disks in their systems to control their budget, and therefore here we also combine both storage drives.
We picked Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME SSD, which consumes 10watts more power.
Along with the SSD, we select a Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5.” 7200RPM hard drive, which consumes more than 20watts of power.
Case Fans
These days PC builders are using RGB fans for decoration in their systems, so we picked 3 Corsair iCUE SP120 RGB ELITE 120mm fans. These fans consume more than 5 watts of power each. So, 3 fans together will consume 15 watts of power.
Now, if we calculate the overall power consumption of all these components, including the graphics card, it will be around 510Watts power.
So, it’s clear that 500W Power Supply will not be enough for a system with a 3060 graphics card unless you use such a low-end CPU & motherboard. However, using more RGB fans, more RAMs, and more storage devices will consume more power. So, in some circumstances, even the 550W PSU will not be enough.
Many PC builders recommend using at least a PSU between 650 watts to 750 Watts for an RTX 3060 PC build. Below, it is explained why this high wattage is needed.
Why Is High Wattage Recommended For a 3060 GPU?
If you are building a PC with a powerful motherboard, CPU, and an RTX 3060 graphics card, then on average, it will consume the power of around 550W. Therefore having 150 watts or 200 watts more is a safer option for mainly two reasons-
Future Upgrade
I have picked only 2 RAMs, 1 SSD (500GB), 1 Hard Drive, and 3 RGB case fans in the system above, which almost consume the power of around 550 watts.
For better performance, many gamers will install more powerful SSD, more hard drives, more Rams, and more Case fans for better looking.
For this future upgrade, keeping 150watts or 200watts extra is needed. That’s why 650 Watts to 750 watts is mostly recommended for the 3060 PC build.
Overclocking
In computing overclocking is the practice of increasing the clock rate of a computer to exceed that certified by the manufacturer. Most gamers overclock to boost their overall system performance and get higher fps.
No doubt overclocking increases the performance, but when you overclock, your system’s components require more power than usual.
For instance, your RAM will draw 2-3 watts more per stick, the SSDs and fans will consume 1 to 2 watts more, and most importantly, your motherboard consumes the power around 20 to 50 watts more (depending on the motherboard size & type).
So, for this overclocking purpose having extra watts of Power Supply is recommended.
By keeping the overclocking and future upgrade factors in mind, it is always recommended to use at least 650Watts to 750 watts PSU for the RTX 3060 Pc build.
There is no need to go much higher wattage, like 850Watts PSU. This much power wattage is needed in a few areas- Read this article to know why you need an 850W PSU.
The Best PSU For a 3060 GPU
If you are still confused about which power supply to use, you can go with the Corsair RMX 80+ Gold-certified Modular Power Supply. This PSU has low noise and zero RPM mode.
This is a 750watt Power Supply which is available at such a cheap price. It is one of the most sold-out Corsair Power Supply on Amazon, and more than 12000 people give their positive ratings after purchasing this product.
Final Verdict
At the end of this article, I want to summarize everything that 500Watt PSU is not going to be enough for RTX 3060-based PC build. Nvidia at least recommends 550Watt PSU. But many PC builders recommend the PSU between 650 watts to 750 watts by keeping the future upgrade and overclocking factor in mind.
I hope this article clears all of your doubts. Keep following this blog regularly to learn more about Power Supplies and other PC components.
