Question about power efficiency - titanium rated power supplies?

Cromulent

Cromulent

Cromulent

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I currently have a gold rated power supply and when I upgrade my computer next I'm thinking of going with a titanium power supply mainly because I keep the same computer for a minimum of five years. Power efficiency is a big part of how much a computer costs to run.

Would I save a significant sum of money going with a titanium rated power supply over my current gold rated power supply? I've read the wiki article on what the new ratings mean but I'm confused as to how this will actually translate into actual financial savings.

Do you think it is worth it to get a titanium rated power supply? My new computer will likely be quite power hungry with two GPUs installed and quite a few other hardware components.

Say I got the same 1200W power supply as I have now except titanium rated what would I be looking at savings wise in a percentage form?
 
You'd see an 6/4/3% increase at 20/50/100% loads.

That's a good amount of saving. However you have to consider your actual usage to factor in whether you'd see any saving based on new PSU costs vs old PSU sale or whatever.

You need to do some maths.
 
Cromulent said:
Power efficiency is a big part of how much a computer costs to run.
Click to expand...

Really? I'd expect actual running cost difference (as in the difference between bronze, gold and titanium rated PSU) to be tiny. Skip that large posh coffee and job done... Or spend X amount more on a titanium rated PSU. Unless you run the PC near max load most of the time...

Modern computers are fairly good at idle power use. Even watching HD video is more or less idle.
 
As Tealc says, you'll need to do the maths, factoring in how heavily loaded your computer will be and how long it'll be on for. If you want to get really detailed, then you could also consider how much your electricity tariff charges you for electricity usage at different times of the day. Even with 2 GPUs in use though, I'd guess the price difference between a titanium and a gold power supply would mean you'd only start recuperating money after 5 years.
 
Hmm thanks for the replies. I'll look into working it out. I'll have to check what our electricity tariff is at the moment. Thanks for the percentages as well that'll help a great deal.

For information the computer is turned on about 12 hours a day 7 days a week so being as efficient as possible should make a big difference.
 
I did some maths. It might be wrong. It's been a while...

A new 1200W Titanium power supply is likely going to cost £200-£250

Over 5 years it's about 12p a day.

12p is about the price of a unit of leccy or one kilowatt hour.

1000 watt hours/12 hours is 83(.333333 etc) watts.

You'll need to be saving over 80 watts an hour with the efficiency of your new unit to justify the cost. Not going to happen.
 
Disco_P said:
I did some maths. It might be wrong. It's been a while...

A new 1200W Titanium power supply is likely going to cost £200-£250

Over 5 years it's about 12p a day.

12p is about the price of a unit of leccy or one kilowatt hour.

1000 watt hours/12 hours is 83(.333333 etc) watts.

You'll need to be saving over 80 watts an hour with the efficiency of your new unit to justify the cost. Not going to happen.
Click to expand...

Ah. Thank you very much :).

Guess I'll spend less of the power supply then. I still think they are an essential component but maybe not at that price. I'll remember that for when I upgrade my system.
 
The other benefit is that with better efficiency
You will have a lower heat output
The power supply will run cooler and quieter and possibly silent for a good chunk of its capacity
And the quality components usually make a better overall performance
 
tres_kun said:
The other benefit is that with better efficiency
You will have a lower heat output
The power supply will run cooler and quieter and possibly silent for a good chunk of its capacity
And the quality components usually make a better overall performance
Click to expand...

That is very true but honestly I haven't noticed that much noise from my current 1200W gold rated power supply. I bought it at the time because I thought it was a quality component and I wasn't sure how much power my PC would need.
 
I am not exactly advising a platinum PSU
Obviously one should build a balanced system
Depending on the budget and the components
With power hungry components the difference between gold and titanium will become noticeable
30% lower heat output at 1KW will make it worth it
 
i use my computer about 30-40% of the time in load, rest of it is in idle state(youtube, movies, browsing).
in idle if you've got a 1000W+ psu, you are more than likely using around 10% of it.
THAT's what titanium is all about. the 10% efficiency. The difference between platinum/titanium at 20/50/100 is a couple of percent here and there (2-3). The jist of it is that at 10% a Titanium certified PSU is promising 90%.
Very good Platinum PSU's have the efficiency at 10% load around 86-87%. Titanium ones are 90-92%-> 4%. Coming from a Gold or Silver? that's even better.
 
Generally to justify a move from one or two level of efficiency ratings the PSU would have to be at full tilt for several years to see an overall saving. The purchase price differential is just too great to overcome in the short term. If you have a capable Gold unit stick with that.

At 1000W system usage you'd see around 1136W on a Gold rated PSU vs 1099W on a Titanium rated PSU. So to break even you'd need to run it for 5 years. (37W differential)
At 20% power draw (240W) the differential is 23W.
At Idle 100W system power then at 90% efficiency is 111W, compared with even 80% efficiency there's only 14W difference. It's going to take 11.8 years to recoup £200.

There will be a small difference in heat output coming from Gold to Titanium but you'd be hard pushed to notice it.
 
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