With AMDs Radeon RX 5600 XT, they offered a fantastic middle-of-the-pack GPU, that has a pretty good power draw.
With the emergence of new GPUs coming out each year, the RX 5600 XT is still a great option for anyone who needs a mid-tier GPU, as it offers decent performance at a reasonable price. This leads us to the next question how much power a card like this consumes, and what type of power supply is needed to support it?
How Many Watts Does an RX 5600 XT Use?
The RX 5600 XT has a TGP or Total Graphics Power of 150 Watts, which is the typical wattage it produces. When gaming you should also hit around 145 Watts. However, when idle the GPU should only produce around 12 Watts of power.
The wattage that this card uses can change depending on how powerful your gaming setup is, as well as the types of games and tasks you are doing.
For example, if you use more than one monitor expect your graphics card to have a higher idle power consumption.
Typically, with an extra monitor the idle power consumption will be under double what you would see with just one monitor.
In this instance, the RX 5600 XT graphics card will produce around 34 Watts of power when idle in a dual monitor setup.
As you can see with the RX 5600 XT the idle wattage of this card with a second monitor is more than double its original wattage. However, this is expected with most Radeon GPUs, as Nvidia does a better job of keeping the idle wattage of their graphics cards down.
When looking at a GPU’s power consumption, you want to look at the TGP (Total Graphics Power) because this shows the maximum power draw you will usually get when using your GPU for intensive tasks such as gaming.
You might also hear the phrase “TDP” which can be used interchangeably with TGP. The difference is essential in that TDP is the total power consumption of a component, and TGP is the total power consumption of a GPU specifically.
However, it is not actually the true maximum of the graphics card. The true maximum of the RX 5600 XT is around 190 Watts. Although this is still not a very high power draw, it is for the RX 5600 XT and other GPUs that are around the same quality.
A GPU like this will only reach these high levels of power consumption under heavy overclocking, or when you hit a very powerful performance spike.
This spike will force the RX 5600 XT to produce a lot more power over the couple of seconds that the spike happens.
What Power Supply Do I Need to Use For The RX 5600 XT?
I would recommend that you try to get a power supply unit that is 400-500 watts. You can go about using a 350-watt power supply, but that is the bare minimum.
When purchasing a power supply for your computer you want to keep in mind that every piece of hardware in your system also has a certain level of power consumption, not just your graphics card.
Although not as powerful as a graphics card, all of these little components add up and can exceed the wattage of your PSU very quickly.
That’s why you want to be safe and grab a PSU that has around a 20% increase in extra wattage than you planned for your system.
By doing this you will not only know for sure that your PSU will be able to support powering your whole system but it will also be safe from any power spikes that happen when you are gaming.
If you also want to save on your electricity bill, then you should purchase a power supply that is at least 80 plus Bronze certified, with the best rating being 80 plus Gold certified.
Check out: “How Do Power Supply Ratings Work”
The reason why I would recommend getting a 400-500 watt power supply for this GPU specifically is that it is very hard to find a certified PSU that is under 500 watts. So, even though AMD recommends a minimum of 350 watts, you could put your system in danger by purchasing a power supply unit that isn’t certified.
Even if it was manufactured by a trusted brand, your electricity bill will go up and it will cost you in the long run because if the PSU isn’t at least Bronze certified it will take a lot of unnecessary power from your walls that won’t actually be used.
That’s why I would recommend the EVGA 500 GD, 80+ GOLD 500W.
The reason why I would recommend this power supply is that not only is it 80 Plus Gold certified, but it is made by EVGA which is a very trusted and well-known brand when it comes to making reliable PSUs
The first ever power supply I ever bought was made by EVGA and it was very reliable.
Not only that, but you get a 5-year warranty with this PSU so you don’t have to worry about it breaking down on you.
RX 5600 XT Power Consumption Compared to Other GPUs
The GPUs power consumption is compared using TGP. It is essential to know and compare your graphics cards to other similar models because it will help you get a grasp on the amount of power your system is going to use.
Here is a comparison of a few graphics cards that are around the performance range of the RX 5600 XT.
| GPU | TGP |
| RTX 2060 | 165-180 Watts |
| GTX 1660 Ti | 120 Watts |
| RX 5600 XT | 150 Watts |
| RX 5700 | 185 Watts |
As you can see from this table, the RX 5600 XT has a fairly low power draw compared to other GPUs.
The GPU that is the most equivalent to the RX 5600 XT is the RTX 2060 and as you can see it has a TGP of 165-180 watts.
On the lower end, the RTX 2060 still uses more power than the RX 5600 XT, and on the higher end, there is a 30-watt difference between these GPUs.
Although, the GTX 1660 Ti uses 30 watts less than the RX 5600 XT you should keep in mind that the RX 5600 XT is still a more powerful GPU.
From what I’ve seen every tier of GPU should have a 20-40 watt difference from the next tier, and that is exactly what we are seeing when we compare the GTX 1660 Ti and the RX 5600 XT.
If you want to compare more graphics cards on their power consumption and TGP I have provided a database where you can look at dozens of different GPUs and their power consumption, that way you don’t have to do the research yourself.
Check out the Database.
I have also provided the average power consumption when gaming, as well as the average power consumption when idle, that way you can get a better understanding.
