Is a high wattage PSU good or unnecessary for the future?

Lucas_41 · Feb 3, 2018

I've been seeing alot of different views on this topic, and I am not sure of what side to be on. Some people say it is good to have a PSU with a high watt (750 for example) and others say that it is unnecessary, and some also goes to mention that it could have a negative inpact on the computer or the PSU itself. I currently have an EVGA Supernova G2 750W with a 1060, I5 6600K, 16 gb ddr4 and 2 ssd's (about 350 gb in total) and two HDDs (I believe it's 7200 rpm SATA). I am happy with the choice of my PSU, it is very quite and also modular.

I would prefer sources to your answers, but it's not necessary since I want to see as many different opinions as possible

Dark Lord of Tech · Feb 3, 2018

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2211-how-many-watts-does-a-gaming-pc-need-power-supplies?showall=1
How Many Watts Does a Gaming PC Really Need? Exhaustive PSU Usage Benchmarks

http://www.velocitymicro.com/blog/much-power-supply-need/
How Much Power Supply do I Need?

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/143029-empowered-can-high-efficiency-power-supplies-cut-your-electricity-bill
Is it worth investing in a high-efficiency power supply?

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPvj1cs77qA"][/video]

turkey3_scratch · Feb 3, 2018

Having an overkill PSU won't harm anything but it certainly costs a lot more money. Most mid-range systems these days generally use under 300W under full load.

and some also goes to mention that it could have a negative inpact on the computer or the PSU itself

That's false.

Some people say it is good to have a PSU with a high watt (750 for example)

Depends on what they mean by "good".

Lucas_41 · Feb 3, 2018

turkey3_scratch :

As I've understood, they are talking about that it is good to have future upgrades, but then my friend tells me that the watt usage tends to lower the further we develop into technology.

Lucas_41 · Feb 3, 2018

I've not had the time to watch the video yet, nor reading the articles but thank you!

turkey3_scratch · Feb 3, 2018

Lucas_41 :

Don't let others tell you what future upgrades you are or are not going to have; only you know that. You need to think of these yourself and do the math. You have to ask yourself "Will I have future upgrades?" "What type of future upgrades would these be?" "What would my power usage be if I had these future upgrades?" "Is it worth it to spend more money on a higher wattage power supply when I may or may not ever actually have future upgrades that need that higher wattage?"

Only you can know the answer to these (well I could help out with power calculations).

Guest · Feb 3, 2018

My own two cents is depending on what upgrades you get, by the time you actually need that much wattage could be at a time with no warranty or it is old

Lucas_41 · Feb 3, 2018

turkey3_scratch :

Lucas_41 :

Don't let others tell you what future upgrades you are or are not going to have; only you know that. You need to think of these yourself and do the math. You have to ask yourself "Will I have future upgrades?" "What type of future upgrades would these be?" "What would my power usage be if I had these future upgrades?" "Is it worth it to spend more money on a higher wattage power supply when I may or may not ever actually have future upgrades that need that higher wattage?"

Only you can know the answer to these (well I could help out with power calculations).

I see your point, but the problem is that I don't know which direction the technology is going, if it is going towards a lower or a higher watt usage.

turkey3_scratch · Feb 3, 2018

Nothing is going to skyrocket. Everything stays around the same general vicinity. GPUs seem to go up and down a little bit, CPUs seem to stay down in terms of power as of late.

4745454b · Feb 3, 2018

There will always be outliers. Intel has some CPUs that top 140W, while AMD even had some that crossed 200W. MOST, or normal CPU trends have been steady or downward. GPU as well. The 470 used over 200W, while the 1070 barely crosses 150W.

So here is the issue in a nutshell. Your 6600K and 1060 will have a gaming load of maybe 300W. Probably a bit less than that. This means your highest draw activity won't even load your PSU to it's 50% "sweet spot". PSUs are most efficient at turning AC electricity they pull from the wall to the DC power your PC needs when it's at 50% of it's output. 750W / 2 = 375W. You would need to OC your CPU and GPU to get your draw up to this. There are some caveats to this. First, this 50% output effects bronze units more than gold rated ones. Gold rated units, in general, hit the "sweet spot" and stay within 1-2% of being most efficient over a greater range than they bronze rated brother. Meaning with a 300W gaming load you'd need a 600W bronze unit, or for a similar "max efficiency" a 450-550W gold rated unit.

There are other considerations as well. Sales happen and they might not happen for the entire line. I've seen 650W units on sale for less than the 550W. As long as they are both gold rated units from the same line I see no issue with buying the cheaper 650W. In general however the lower wattage units are cheaper. Finally there is the issue of idle. When you are just surfing the net or watching things online, the load your PC puts on the PSU is usually in the 100W range. I don't mean maybe 175W, I mean it's really close to 100W. (75-125W is what I normally see.) 80+ only starts testing at 20% load for basic to gold ratings. If you buy a 750W unit like you did, and you are only surfing or watching things most of the time, you are only loading the PSU to 13% of it's output. A PSU could be 80+ certified and NOT giving you at least 80% efficiency and be perfectly
"legal" under this condition. If however you bought a 500W PSU that was 80+ gold, your gaming load would be 60% which is super close to the sweet spot, and your idle load would still be 20% so you'd have to still be at least 80% or 82% or where the 80+ certification says you need to be at such a light load. A 750W might provide lots of power for upgrades, but in terms of usage and efficiency it's not the best unit to use. I used to have a 750W 80+ bronze unit for my system, and I got rid of it and got a 450W 80+ gold. The math says this was a much better fit.

turkey3_scratch · Feb 3, 2018

If efficiency is important to you OP (or anybody else who stumbles across this), it's very important to calculate how long it will take you to make up for the cost of a more efficient power supply. In many cases, it may take something like 5-10 years and make it not worth it. Or a lot of people in general don't care about efficiency; for instance, at college I don't pay any electricity bill. Likewise, other people who don't pay their own power bill might have no concern for efficiency. But this is, once again, something that you have to decide is important to you or not, as others cannot tell you what is important to you.

If you do want to find a power supply with the best efficiency / price ratio, then you'll probably have to do a thorough analysis of your typical load ranges, how long these load ranges last, and how efficient the power supplies you are looking at are at these load ranges. In short, it's not a quick process and can take time. I also recommend http://cybenetics.com which is a much better efficiency rating than 80+, as it takes into account low load efficiency as well as something like 20,000 different load combinations versus 80+'s four or whatever.

For someone like me who doesn't care much about efficiency (aside from the less consumed heat inside the PSU aspect of it), I would choose a power supply that's as low wattage but high quality as I can get. That way I have a power supply with high quality and reliability but don't have to spend more money for a higher wattage unit that won't necessarily last longer (it's a myth that higher wattage = last longer, as that's not necessarily true, even for two units of the same platform). Others disagree with me but everyone should choose for themselves.

My rule of thumb (which may not be others) is don't get more wattage than you need (I guess unless it's cheaper, like 4745454b said) and make sure you get high quality. Then pocket the saved money.

4745454b · Feb 3, 2018

it's very important to calculate how long it will take you to make up for the cost of a more efficient power supply. In many cases, it may take something like 5-10 years and make it not worth it.

Perhaps, or maybe. I don't mind using a super simple/basic 80+ bronze unit, but only if it's super cheap as well. I've been in threads recently where people were picking the new 80+ bronze CX450 or 550. I'm assuming they picked that unit because it's a basic and they think cheap unit. The problem is that 550W unit is $60 on newegg right now.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139147

$60? For real? It's a good unit, but it's not worth $60.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151203

Here is a Seasonic 550W for $70 out the door so it's $10 more, but after rebate it's cheaper than the unit above. So it might not really take time to get your money back. Weeks maybe, but not 10yrs. And the beauty is not only is it cheaper basically now, it will continue to be cheaper as time goes on. I could see buying the bronze unit for <$40 because that's all you can afford. But I can't see buying any bronze unit for $60. Not when gold units are that cheap. This is 2018, not 2005.

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Is a high wattage PSU good or unnecessary for the future?

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