Is a 1000w Power Supply Overkill or too much for my PC

Do you want to know is a 1000w power supply overkill for my PC? You are on the right spot to know the answer of this question.

A 1000W power supply can be tempting, since we are always looking to buy Power supplies with more than enough power. In this article, we are going to look at whether or not a 1000W power supply is overkill.

We also compare it to 850W, 600W, and 500W, to see what type of equipment each should be used on. With our tips, you will save and get a better power supply. Let’s go there!

What do the W of the Power Supply means?

The word “W” is a unit of measurement of an electrical quantity called electrical power. Power basically measures the amount of energy that flows through an electrical circuit at a given instant.

See Also: What Power Supply do I need for my Gaming PC

We can also say an electrical power is the rate or rate of transfer of electrical energy per unit of time.

So, greater power in an electrical circuit implies more electrical energy. This means better operation of electrical device (precisely, more powerful operation).

For example, just think of an electric motor. At the same time, greater power implies greater energy consumption in our home, and a more expensive electricity bill.

Normally, we have a tendency to judge different appliances by their power. For example, we will think that a 2200W hair dryer will move more air than a 1200W one.

We are not going to go into whether it is true or not (it usually is, but it doesn’t have to be), but we are giving this example to show you that the power of a PC power supply is a very different concept.

Electrical Power in a Power Supply is an another Story

In a power supply, the electrical power does not indicate the value that is going to be consumed from the electrical network. Rather, it is expressed as the maximum power that the source can provide to the equipment.

Thus, a 1000W power supply does not mean that it consumes 1000W, or that it will give 1000W to the PC. Energy consumption of PC depends on the components it has and what we do with them.

The source is simply in charge of giving the power it needs, be it too much or too little. The point is that if the PC consumes more than the power supply can give (for example, a gaming PC needs an average of 600W and the power supply is 500W) the power supply will most likely turn off. Sometimes it can even get messed up, but this doesn’t happen with decent fonts.

With this, it is clear that we must choose a source with enough power. Our computer need more power at times of maximum energy demand (when we play, render, perform stress tests, etc.).

But do you have to leave a margin? What happens if we overdo the power?

More Power: What does it imply?

If you have understood the previous point, you will understand that choosing more power will not increase your electricity bill.

Although, in reality, the power of the source influences a little in the energy consumption that is made in the wall

This is where the concept of efficiency comes into play. As we said, the source provides the equipment with exactly the power it needs.

But of course, for this you must make a series of transformations of the electrical current that comes from the plug.

During this process, there are some energy losses that cause the consumption of the wall to be somewhat higher than what is actually delivered to the equipment.

For example, a 500W source delivers 450W to a computer, with an efficiency of 80%. 450W / 0.8 = 562.5W will be what you consume from the wall.

Is there a problem with that? NO. The power (the 500W of the source) is expressed in terms of what it can provide to the equipment.

So the important thing is that the PC consumes less than 500W, what the source consumes from the wall has nothing to do with it.

So what is the problem? Very easy. The % efficiency of a source is not always the same. It varies depending on the power consumed.

Typically, the highest efficiency is centered between 30% and 60% load, and is very low when load is low.

The 50% Myth

Based on what we have just said about efficiency and power. Many people who consider that you should buy a power supply of (for example) 1000W for a computer that only consumes 500W.

It will be at its peak of efficiency. This is a bad idea and a myth, for three reasons:

• The efficiency peak does not have to be at 50%. In fact, the power supply in the graph above does not have the most modern internal design, whose efficiency tends to be quite flat from about 30% load.
• Just as we would have more efficiency under maximum load, we would have much less efficiency when the equipment was idle or doing simple In the end the energy waste could be greater.
• A subtle difference in efficiency does not have much influence on the electric bill. Don’t obsess over it.

Is a 1000w Power Supply Overkill or too Much

Once we have thoroughly analyzed the concept of the power of a source, and all that it implies. Now we can analyze whether a 1000W power supply is reasonable or not.

In general, gaming PCs consume, under load, less than 400W. That is what the graph above demonstrates, where almost all the graphs move in the range of 250 to 400W. Be careful, what we see above is the consumption of the entire computer in a load situation.

It is not just what the graphics card consumes. So it might seem crazy to buy a 1000W power supply, especially after debunking the 50% myth.

However, it must be taken into account that the data above refers to an average consumption. They do not take into account the consumption peaks that may occur.

These are especially concerning on high-end or manually overclocked graphics cards as they are designed to give the highest possible performance, even at the cost of high power consumption.

This justifies the purchase of power supplies of at least 850W, that is, 850W or 1000W. If we are going to mount a high-end graphics card (RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3090, RTX 3090 Ti), with a high-end processor (AMD Thread ripper, AMD 5950X, Intel i9-12900K).

See Also: How to Choose Power Supply for Gaming PC

If we are going to overclock, a 1000W power supply is more than justified. However, before the “quantity” there must always be the “quality”. If we buy a 1000W source, it has to be of the highest quality, or else we will be wasting money.

In general, except for certain offers, a 1000W source for less than 100 Dollars will be crap. It is a guideline. You can also look at the number of connectors it brings:

• CPU or EPS connectors. You have to bring 2. Sometimes up to 3.
• PCI Express connectors (for graphics cards) 6+2 pins. It should have at least 6. The normal thing is that it has 8. If it only has 2 or 3, stay This source is surely a real bomb, because they are the normal connectors on a 500W or 600W source. (If you have the new 12 pin connectors it would be worth less)

When to choose a 1000W, 850W, 600W or 500W Power Supply

We have already seen that a 1000W power supply can be ideal in a computer with a high-end graphics card, but in general 750W or 850W is more than enough.

Keep in mind that NVIDIA itself recommends a 750W power supply for its 3080 Ti and 3090, and 850W for its 3090 Ti. They tend to be very cautious with their recommendations.

As for the lower wattage power supplies, 650W, 600W, 550W or 500W, they are certainly the right choice for any mid-range PC, that is, from the RTX 3070 and below.

Keep in mind that it is normal for graphics cards to consume less year after year. This has been breached in recent generations, but above all it is a high-end problem, which is why we recommend 750W, 850W or 1000W.

Never forget that the key is in the quality of the source, it is not just a matter of having more or less W.

We hope that this article has been useful to you when choosing your power supply. The key concept that we wanted to convey is that 1000W is not too much if you mount high-end components.

But the most important thing is the quality of that power supply. Remember that you can leave us your comments if you have any questions about it, we will be happy to help you.