Congratulations! You’ve settled on the new CPU king of price-performance gaming capable of being paired with even the highest-end GPUs for great performance: the Ryzen 5 3600. You have chosen your motherboard (maybe with the help of our budget X570 article), you have your SSD picked out, and maybe your peripherals as well. But you remember hearing that a strong power supply unit, a PSU, is important. After all, you wouldn’t want to buy a sub-par power supply and either fry your components, waste electricity with poor efficiency, or not be able to use your components to their full potential due to a lack of power! And you would be right on the mark, the PSU is often seen as the hero-behind-the-scenes in most builds as it is a vital piece of any PC.
This guide will help you choose which power supply is right for you! In almost all builds, the two components that dictate which power supply level you need are the CPU (in this case, a Ryzen 3600) and the GPU. Unless you have a crazy number of storage drives or RGB fans and lights, they will have a very minimal impact on your system’s TDP, or Thermal Design Power (a measure of necessary Watts for your system). Since the Ryzen 3600 comes in at a very power efficient 65 Watts (without overclocking), your GPU will help decide what the total power draw for the system will be.
A good PSU typically includes high-quality components, comes with a strong warranty, has a good efficiency rating, and does not make too much noise (mainly from the fan). So for our recommendations, we will be focusing on the information from great resources like JohnnyGuru and the LinusTechTips tier rating for PSUs, while balancing it with price and what is useful for your typical enthusiast gaming build.
As a sidenote for the whole guide, we will be focusing on current generation GPUs as new builders will typically choose one of them, but if you are still using a previous generation card like the Vega 56/64, RX 580/590 or Nvidia GTX 10XX series, check the TDP of your GPU and find the closest one in this guide, and the PSU for that TDP should work for you too!
With those things in mind, here are our recommendations:
Best Power Supplies for Ryzen 5 3600 Builds – My Recommendations
| Award | Design | Model | Example of Graphics Card Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Mid-level GPU |  | Bitfenix Whisper Series 550W (BWG550M) | Nvidia GTX 1660, GTX 1660Ti, RTX 2060, AMD RX 5700 |
| Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Performance GPU |  | Corsair RM650x | Nvidia RTX 2060 Super, RTX 2070, RTX 2070 Super, AMD RX 5700 XT |
| Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Enthusiast-grade GPU |  | Seasonic PRIME 750W | Nvidia RTX 2080, RTX 2080 Super, RTX 2080 Ti |
| Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 SFF Builds |  | Corsair SF600 Gold | N/A |
Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Nvidia GTX 1660 / GTX 1660Ti / RTX 2060 / AMD RX 5700
We are going to start with the minimum tier of GPUs we would consider pairing with the new Ryzen 3600: Nvidia’s GTX 1660/1660Ti and RTX 2060/2060 and AMD Radeon RX 5700. This combination will offer great 1080p gaming, with 60+FPS in even the most recent AAA games and much closer to 144hz for eSports or older titles.
At this level, we recommend getting a high-quality 550W power supply. 550W is still likely far more than your PC would use in any gaming situation, but if you decide to overclock either your GPU or CPU (or both!) the extra headroom will be sure to give you enough power to squeeze out some extra performance. For the 1660/1660Ti, you could get away with a 450W power supply likely (without overclocking), but the price difference is not significant and a good power supply can often last multiple builds, so we recommend going for the 550W.
And at the 550W category, there is no better performer for its price than the well-reviewed and highly rated Bitfenix Whisper Series 550W. The BWG550M uses high quality components like Japanese polymer capacitors, offers full modular cabling to help with cable management, provides constant clean power with good ripple suppression and load regulation, and has a great 80+ Gold efficiency rating. The only complaint we see in reviews is a difficult ATX cable, but nothing that stops users from actively recommending this unit to potential buyers.
All those features together and a 7-year warranty at its very reasonable price of $80 (or $70 if you find it on sale) make the Bitfenix Whisper 550W PSU a solid buy.
| GPU | Listed TDP* | Approximate System TDP* (without overclock) |
| GTX 1660 | 120 W | 310 – 360 W |
| GTX 1660Ti | 120 W | 310 – 360 W |
| RTX 2060 | 160 W | 350 – 400 W |
| RX 5700 | 180 W | 370 – 420 W |
* Can be considerably higher with partner cards!
Best PSU FOR Ryzen 3600 + Nvidia RTX 2060 Super / RTX 2070 / RTX 2070 Super / AMD RX 5700 XT
If you are looking to jump into 1440p gaming, or want to push 144hz in almost all titles at 1080p, the next step up GPUs offer a great combination with the Ryzen 3600.
These GPUs offer more power than the tier above, but therefore consume more power as well. While not necessarily a huge jump for something like the 2060 Super over the 2060, some partner cards come with factory overclocks that push their true power draw over even the listed price. For that reason, at this level of GPU, we recommend going for a 650 W PSU to ensure you have plenty of power, even if overclocking. And at 650W, we recommend the Corsair RM650x.
The RM650x is a part of the very-well respected RMx line from Corsair, and the 650W model is one of the best in the lineup. With a 10-year warranty, stellar reviews from JohnnyGuru and a high rating in the different PSU tier lists based on high-quality components, great efficiency, and provision of clean power, the RM650x will not let you down.
The RM650x is listed at a very attractive $88 as of the time of writing this article, and has been known to drop down to around $80. At that price point, there is no reason to look beyond this super reliable PSU.
| GPU | Listed TDP* | Approximate System TDP* (without overclock) |
| RTX 2060 Super | 160 W | 350 – 400 W |
| RTX 2070 | 175 W | 370 – 420 W |
| RTX 2070 Super | 215 W | 410 – 460 W |
| RX 5700XT | 225 W | 420 – 470 W |
* Can be considerably higher with partner cards!
Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Nvidia RTX 2080 / RTX 2080 Super / RTX 2080 Ti
In this tier, we have started to arrive at the higher end of gaming GPUs and some truly power-hungry cards with some powerful performance. These cards were made for 1440p 100+FPS gaming, or even some dabbling in 4K gaming for the 2080 Ti. If we are going to spend a nice chunk of change on the GPU, we want to make sure we have the PSU to match. With that in mind, we recommend one of the best PSU’s on the market, the Seasonic PRIME 750W.
For many people, Corsair is a known name, as are other PSU makers like CoolerMaster, EVGA, or even Bitfenix. But what most people do not know is that those manufacturers often build their units based on supplies from third parties. And one of those major third party suppliers is Seasonic, making them one of the strongest producers of PSUs available, with less name recognition than some of their counterparts.
The Seasonic expertise is on full display with the entire PRIME series, and the 750W model is no different. Top-of-the-line components, stellar build quality, an 80+ Titanium efficiency rating, a 12(!) year warranty….there really is nothing to negatively say about this PSU. It is definitely more pricy at $190 (this type of quality doesn’t come cheap!), so a strong alternative that still has great quality components but has a less-than-perfect 5-year warranty and an 80+ Gold rating is the be quiet! BN619 Straight Power 11 750W.
| GPU | Listed TDP* | Approximate System TDP* (without overclock) |
| RTX 2080 | 215 W | 410 – 460 W |
| RTX 2080 Super | 250 W | 460 – 510 W |
| RTX 2080 Ti | 250 W | 460 – 510 W |
* Can be considerably higher with partner cards!
Best PSU FOR Ryzen 5 3600 SFF Builds
Finally, a guide is not complete without a thought for our space-concerned small form factor builders. While SFF PC’s can use GPUs at almost any level, there is less choice when it comes to PSUs that follow the SFX-L sizing.
In this category, we are going to stick with one of the big names and recommend the Corsair SF600 as the best all-around SFX-L PSU. Johnnyguru gives this PSU a 9.7/10 after putting this model through his grueling testing suite, and we see no reason to disagree.
With a 7-year warranty, the same high-quality parts and build quality we see in Corsair’s other high-end PSU lines, and an 80+ Gold efficiency rating (that actually hit 80+ Platinum in most Johnnyguru tests), and all within a small size and at the very affordable $120 price point….I don’t think there is anything else to say, we’ve found our SFX-L PSU.
Conclusion
| Award | Design | Model | Example of Graphics Card Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Mid-level GPU | | Bitfenix Whisper Series 550W (BWG550M) | Nvidia GTX 1660, GTX 1660Ti, RTX 2060, AMD RX 5700 |
| Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Performance GPU | | Corsair RM650x | Nvidia RTX 2060 Super, RTX 2070, RTX 2070 Super, AMD RX 5700 XT |
| Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 + Enthusiast-grade GPU | | Seasonic PRIME 750W | Nvidia RTX 2080, RTX 2080 Super, RTX 2080 Ti |
| Best PSU for Ryzen 3600 SFF Builds | | Corsair SF600 Gold | N/A |
While not as flashy as the GPU, as extensively covered as the CPU, or even given as much attention as the motherboard or RAM in most builds, the PSU is the unsung hero that keeps your PC going hour-after-hour, day-after-day. So when building your PC, make sure to save a piece of your budget (usually somewhere around 10-15%) to get a high-quality PSU that will ensure clean power to your components and let them reach their full potential. And if you do invest in a high-quality PSU with a long warranty, do not be afraid to use it in the next build, as long as it has enough power for your new components.