How Much Power Does a Gaming PC Use?

What draws the power in a gaming PC

The GPU is almost always the single biggest consumer under gaming load, followed by the CPU. Everything else — motherboard, RAM, storage, fans — adds up to a comparatively small, fairly constant overhead, typically 50–70W combined.

Rough numbers by tier

A budget build (e.g. a 65W CPU with a ~130–165W GPU) commonly draws somewhere around 250–320W total under gaming load. A high-end build (a 100W+ CPU with a 300W+ GPU) can draw 500–650W or more. Our calculator gives an exact estimate — including a recommended PSU with headroom — for any CPU+GPU combination.

Idle and desktop use is much lower

These figures are for active gaming load. Idle or light desktop use typically draws a fraction of that, since both CPU and GPU downclock aggressively when not under load.

What it costs to run

Multiply your total wattage by hours played per day and days per month to get monthly kWh, then by your local electricity price per kWh for a cost estimate. As a rough sense of scale: 4 hours a day, 22 days a month, at a mid-range 450W total draw works out to roughly 40 kWh a month. The calculator's power section includes this exact monthly cost calculator, pre-filled once you've run an estimate.

Why PSU headroom matters

We recommend sizing a PSU at roughly 35% above your estimated total system draw. This covers transient power spikes (brief draw well above the sustained average), keeps the PSU running in its efficient load range, and leaves room for future upgrades.