What power supply do I need for the RTX 3080?

With a typical mid-range CPU the RTX 3080 needs about a 750 W power supply (estimated load 540 W). With a 65 W-class CPU 650 W is enough; with a 250 W-class flagship CPU plan on 1000 W.

How much power does the RTX 3080 draw?

Rated board power is 320 W. Brief transient spikes can reach roughly 480 W, which is why we size the PSU with 30% headroom.

RTX 3080 power supply requirements: what PSU wattage do you need?

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is rated at 320 W board power. Short transient spikes can reach about 480 W, so the power supply must have headroom beyond the sum of the parts. Here is what that means with three classes of processor.

CPU class	Example	Estimated load	Recommended PSU
65 W-class (e.g. Ryzen 5/7 non-X)	Ryzen 7 9700X	485 W	650 W
125–180 W-class (mid-range K / X)	Ryzen 7 9800X3D	540 W	750 W
250 W-class (flagship Intel K)	Core i7-13700K	673 W	1000 W

How we calculate it

Estimated load = CPU maximum turbo power + 320 W for the card + 100 W for motherboard, memory, storage and fans. We multiply by 1.3 for transient headroom and round up to the next common PSU size. Full details on the methodology page.

Connectors

Cards in this power class use the 12V-2x6 (12VHPWR) connector or three 8-pin PCIe connectors depending on the board partner. Prefer an ATX 3.x power supply with a native 12V-2x6 cable over adapters.

When to step up a tier

Heavy overclocking, custom water cooling, more than four drives or a lot of RGB each add tens of watts. If two or more apply, buy the next size up. Efficiency and fan noise are also best at 50–70% load, which the 1.3× rule already lands you in.