PSUs are waaaaay more efficient when operating closer to their rated capacity. Pulling 200W through a 1kW power supply is like making a marathon runner breathe through a straw.
But it doesn’t make that much of a difference. The efficiency swing is maybe 10%. Like an bronze 80 rated PSU will have a minimum efficiency of 80%, but even if you’re at the 50% load mark it won’t be over 90% efficient.
The main point (to me anyways) is that its dumb to pay more for a power supply just so you can pay "more* on your power bill. If your idle load is 100W and your gaming load is 300W, you’ve got no reason running more than a 600W PSU
I’ve got a 850W power supply, which I bought 2-3 years ago in anticipation of the RTX 4000 series. My usual load with a GTX 1080 was 150W and now my entire system uses 520W completely loaded. Do I count? :)
I have a 4090 in my Ryzen 7700X system and a power meter; 850W is overkill for a 4090. My system never uses more than 650w. What’s more important than the power rating is buying a high-tier PSU with good overcurrent protection, cause the 4090 tends to have power spikes even a good 750w PSU should be able to handle.
If you bought a PSU certified for PCIe 5, then you’re most likely fine. If you didn’t have to use a squid adapter to plug in your GPU, then you’re more than likely good to go so long as you didn’t buy a shit tier PSU.
While true. How much would it actually save you in electricity? If you upgrade every year wouldn’t it be cheaper to just buy the bigger psu outright and pay the extra cost in electricity so you don’t have to buy another PSU when you get more power hungry components.
The device needing more power won’t get it, simple. Depending on what device it is, it will automatically throttle down so it needs less power, but obviously it will also deliver less performance while so throttled. And if the power is missing during a very sensitive part of a process so there’s no time to throttle down, your PC could blue screen or restart.
It’s very unlikely to suffer any long-term damage from this.
Joke if you want but that’s actually a really good idea if you want device longevity. And their in-house brand has been rock solid in every build I’ve made for a reasonable price
Yep. The max wattage on a PSU goes down over time, so you want to overshoot somewhat to keep it useful for longer. Power requirements also typically go up over time with new hardware, but I think that’s been slowing down.
That was a problem I actually had when I had no budget, was buying old parts, and then running them way longer than they were intended. I kept everything clean, the tower wasn’t on the carpet, and there were no smokers or pets shedding fur, but that PSU eventually started outputting significantly lower than it was rated for. The previous owner could have done something to it, or it could have been a crappy model to begin with, but it was about fifteen years old and I was told by several more veteran computer folks that PSUs would drop off in power output eventually and this wasn’t surprising.
The closest Microcenter to me is about a fourteen hour drive, so, no. Unfortunately, the closest equivalent in the Pacific Northwest went under several years ago and nobody has picked up the slack.
…budgeting? Y’all don’t just buy the meatiest beefcake PSU that microcenter has in stock?
PSUs are waaaaay more efficient when operating closer to their rated capacity. Pulling 200W through a 1kW power supply is like making a marathon runner breathe through a straw.
The sweet spot is the 40-60% load.
But it doesn’t make that much of a difference. The efficiency swing is maybe 10%. Like an bronze 80 rated PSU will have a minimum efficiency of 80%, but even if you’re at the 50% load mark it won’t be over 90% efficient.
The main point (to me anyways) is that its dumb to pay more for a power supply just so you can pay "more* on your power bill. If your idle load is 100W and your gaming load is 300W, you’ve got no reason running more than a 600W PSU
I’ve got a 850W power supply, which I bought 2-3 years ago in anticipation of the RTX 4000 series. My usual load with a GTX 1080 was 150W and now my entire system uses 520W completely loaded. Do I count? :)
I have a 4090 in my Ryzen 7700X system and a power meter; 850W is overkill for a 4090. My system never uses more than 650w. What’s more important than the power rating is buying a high-tier PSU with good overcurrent protection, cause the 4090 tends to have power spikes even a good 750w PSU should be able to handle.
If you bought a PSU certified for PCIe 5, then you’re most likely fine. If you didn’t have to use a squid adapter to plug in your GPU, then you’re more than likely good to go so long as you didn’t buy a shit tier PSU.
While true. How much would it actually save you in electricity? If you upgrade every year wouldn’t it be cheaper to just buy the bigger psu outright and pay the extra cost in electricity so you don’t have to buy another PSU when you get more power hungry components.
Is there another option?
Like if you don’t have at least 1kW PSU what happens when you need more power
The streetlights dim when I boot my machine.
The device needing more power won’t get it, simple. Depending on what device it is, it will automatically throttle down so it needs less power, but obviously it will also deliver less performance while so throttled. And if the power is missing during a very sensitive part of a process so there’s no time to throttle down, your PC could blue screen or restart.
It’s very unlikely to suffer any long-term damage from this.
Yes, but the truth is unfunny
Joke if you want but that’s actually a really good idea if you want device longevity. And their in-house brand has been rock solid in every build I’ve made for a reasonable price
Yep. The max wattage on a PSU goes down over time, so you want to overshoot somewhat to keep it useful for longer. Power requirements also typically go up over time with new hardware, but I think that’s been slowing down.
Do you just write things you think people will upvote or do you really believe these things?
That was a problem I actually had when I had no budget, was buying old parts, and then running them way longer than they were intended. I kept everything clean, the tower wasn’t on the carpet, and there were no smokers or pets shedding fur, but that PSU eventually started outputting significantly lower than it was rated for. The previous owner could have done something to it, or it could have been a crappy model to begin with, but it was about fifteen years old and I was told by several more veteran computer folks that PSUs would drop off in power output eventually and this wasn’t surprising.
If you are filling your PSU with tar from cigarette smoking, yes, its max wattage will go down over time.
It’s like making the marathon runner inhale your smoke while running the marathon.
I look at number of connectors… Who cares about wattage, I just need a mass of cables to tuck into every spare bit of space… Fans hate me.
The closest Microcenter to me is about a fourteen hour drive, so, no. Unfortunately, the closest equivalent in the Pacific Northwest went under several years ago and nobody has picked up the slack.