Is 650W enough for an RTX 5070 + Ryzen 5 9600X? (measured, not TDP)

Yes — 650 W handles this combination with room to spare.

noteSustained load: 384 W (Ryzen 5 9600X 80 W measured peak + GeForce RTX 5070 229 W measured gaming + 75 W rest of system) = 59% of a 650 W unit.
goodSustained load is 59% of the unit's rating, and even the worst measured spike total (454 W) stays under 650 W.
noteSpike check: 80 W CPU + 299 W GPU spike + 75 W = 454 W momentary worst case — within the unit's rating.

The math, with sources

GPU sustained draw: 229 W — GeForce RTX 5070 measured while gaming (TechPowerUp — GeForce RTX 5050 review, Power Consumption charts (July 2025 test suite)) — its rated board power is 250 W.
GPU transient spikes: 299 W — GeForce RTX 5070 spikes to ~299 W for milliseconds (TechPowerUp — GeForce RTX 5050 review, Power Consumption charts (July 2025 test suite)). Spikes trip older PSUs that averages never show.
CPU peak draw: 80 W — Ryzen 5 9600X measured under heavy all-core load (TechPowerUp — Ryzen 5 9600X review, multi-threaded power chart (Blender, CPU-only)). Games draw less, but renders, encodes and shader compiles hit this.
Rest of the system: 75 W — Motherboard, RAM, drives, fans and USB devices — a fixed allowance.
Sustained total: 384 W — 80 + 229 + 75 = 384 W of steady load.
With 15% headroom: 442 W — Sustained x 1.15 — margin for capacitor aging, heat, and staying near the efficiency sweet spot. (The sustained figure is already conservative: CPU all-core peak and GPU gaming peak rarely coincide.)
Spike check: 454 W — CPU peak + GPU spike + rest = 454 W for milliseconds. The recommendation also covers this outright, so even a pre-ATX-3.0 unit is not spike-tripped.
Recommended: 550 W — The smallest standard size covering both 442 W (sustained + headroom) and 454 W (spike total).

AFFILIATE_SLOT: tested 550W ATX 3.x unit picks will be listed here. No links yet — added only once real recommendations exist.