Best PSU for RTX 5070

At launch, the RTX 5070 was seen by many as the best value pick of the new crop. It’s powerful enough for everyday gaming and packs the all-important new features without totally draining your bank account. Even now, it’s generally perceived to be one of the best mid-range cards out there, making its way onto most graphics card buying guides, especially when it comes to 1440p gaming.

If you haven’t upgraded your system in a while, then grabbing a new power supply is a wise investment as it’ll cover you for the latest power specs. The good news is that the RTX 5070 has a Total Graphics Power (TGP) of just 250 watts, which most modern PSUs should be able to handle. Nvidia recommends a minimum 650W PSU, although we’d suggest a 750W unit as the bare minimum for most systems.

• PCIe 5.0 x16 slot (For best performance)
• 650W Power supply or greater.
• 2x PCIe 8-pin cables (adapter in box) OR 300 W or greater PCIe Gen 5 cable

As expected, we see a way less excessive TDP as compared to the 5090, and it instead lands a little closer to the 5080. This is good as it means you won’t need to spend as much money to sufficiently power the 5080, but if you do over-spec for the PSU, you’ll have more headroom.

If you did any research before finally getting your hands on an RTX 5070, then you were probably aware of some of the concerns surrounding the 12V-2x6 power connection. While these issues are relatively uncommon, we’ve developed a number of protection systems to help give you extra peace of mind and keep your graphics card in tip-top condition.

We now offer technologies such as PinProtect and PinProtect+ built into some of our PSUs, alongside newer releases such as the ThermalProtect 12V-2x6 cable, which actively monitors temperature to offer another layer of protection. You don’t absolutely need these, but given the price and rarity of RTX 50-Series graphics cards, they offer some much-needed reassurance.

Given the more pedestrian requirements of the RTX 5070, we’re going with the HX1000i SHIFT. 1000W is enough to easily power a gaming PC with a 5070 and all the regular trimmings. Additionally, the HX1000i SHIFT is ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 compliant and comes with a native 12V-2x6 connection. This means you do not need any adapters or anything like that to power the 5070. Additionally, if you couple the HX1000i SHIFT with our iCUE LINK ecosystem, then you'll have minimal cable clutter and the easiest cable management ever.

Here’s the power table and the cable listing for the HX1000i SHIFT, so you can see exactly what you’ll be able to plug in.

If you’re trying to be a little more thrifty but would like to exceed the minimum recommended PSU wattage for a 5070, the RM850x SHIFT is a really strong choice here. You get all the same benefits as the 1000W model (Native 12V-2x6 connection, Cybenetics Gold efficiency and A noise ratings etc.), but at a slightly cheaper price.

The story here is almost identical to the 1000W version, but with slightly fewer watts and cables. Still enough to build a great gaming PC, though.

Even the RTX 5070 is an expensive GPU, so if you’re really trying to maximise the value of your PC build, then the CORSAIR RM750e is the correct PSU for you. There is no future proofing here, so if you upgrade to a better CPU or GPU later on, you’ll probably have to get a higher wattage PSU. But if you’re happy to go a while without upgrades, the RM750e will be totally fine.

Find below a couple of infographics to clarify the difference (or lack thereof) between the 12VHPWR and 12V-2x6 cables, and how to power a card that needs this standard if your CORSAIR PSU does not have a native 12V-2x6 connection.

Looking to upgrade to an RTX 5070? We have a ton of useful tools and information to help get you started:

• PC Builder - Get instant hardware recommendations, size guides and compatibility checks for your full PC build, including your Power Supply.
• PSU Calculator - Choose your GPU and CPU, answer a few quick questions, and we'll suggest the best few PSU options for your setup.

Alternatively, we also offer a full range of Prebuilt RTX 5070 Gaming PCs built with world-class CORSAIR components to help you instantly get the most out of the next-generation of NVIDIA GPUs.

Note - our prebuilt 50-series PCs are only available in the US.