EVGA Power Meter

I think they're overestimating a bit (unless you've got a weird system, it's likely more around 458w than 548w), however you'd be wise to go for something of 600w or more anyway as it's not a great idea to have a PSU running close to it's limit.
 
Power calculators are generally rubbish. I have live power draw displayed on my fan controller and the most I have ever seen drawn is 402w at the wall and that was only because I was stressing the cpu and gpu both at 100% at the same time. Normal gaming use is anything between 122w and 338w depending on the game. That power calculator put my power draw at 501w and then went on to recommend PSU's from 500w, talk about cutting it close!!

My PC is custom water cooled so power draw includes 2x D5 pumps, 8x 140mm fans, 4x 200mm fans, 2x fan controllers plus a couple of temp sensors and led lights.
 
Better for it to overestimate than underestimate, I liked this power calculator because it’s nice and easy to use and gives you a recommended PSU size. Comes from a well known PSU brand too.
 
Z87/4970k @ 5GHZ

(32GB Ram, not counted in Calc).

3090 FE OC'd

4x SSD's

2x Mech HDD (ext)


Recommends me a 750w EVGA unit (not sure how their 850w handles Transient Spikes), no thanks as I run it on a AX1600i :cry:
 
pastymuncher said:
Power calculators are generally rubbish. I have live power draw displayed on my fan controller and the most I have ever seen drawn is 402w at the wall and that was only because I was stressing the cpu and gpu both at 100% at the same time. Normal gaming use is anything between 122w and 338w depending on the game.
Click to expand...
Any cheaper power draw meters have accuracy "challenges" and no doubt rather poor measuring of spikes.
And transients PSU sees are pretty much out of their reach.

If transients of components were like 20% over average that wouldn't be problem.
Especially if that base level is like 150-200W, extra doesn't make much.
But its entirely different thing with high end graphics card having well pst 300W average draw and transients 50+% over average.

There's simply as wide gap between power requirements of different systems as ever.
 
This is getting far to technical for me, I only intended the power meter to be a guide. Not saying you should buy an EVGA unit but use their power meter to gauge what PSU size you might need.

Particularly helpful to those who don’t have much technical knowledge about PSUs. By all means use the meter then go ahead and buy a Corsair RM series of recommended size. I’m not an EVGA fanboy.
 
It's rubbish though just like the majority of these power calculators. For example, it asks if your cpu is overclocked to which you answer yes and then it doesn't ask by how much and how much voltage is used. It cut's things way too fine and doesn't take into account things like spikes that tend to happen with modern GPU's. I certainly wouldn't want to run a PSU near enough maxxed out all of the time. Not only will it heat it up quickly and make more fan noise it will be running nowhere near it's peak efficiency.
 
pastymuncher said:
I certainly wouldn't want to run a PSU near enough maxxed out all of the time. Not only will it heat it up quickly and make more fan noise it will be running nowhere near it's peak efficiency.
Click to expand...

I guess it’s designed to be a simple tool to help their customers choose a suitable PSU for their system from their range. It overestimates so it’s not really running maxed out all the time.
 
If you take my example it says that I have a system power draw of 501w and then recommends PSU's from 500w. Not that that much power could ever be drawn by my PC but if it could and I bought a PSU based on their minimum recommendation that would have the PSU running at 100%. Even my worst case actual power draw of 402w only leaves 98w of headroom from their minimum recommendation of 500w which is too close for my liking. What it should be doing is giving the actual power draw of the entered components and then give a minimum recommended size of PSU along with a explanation of why you shouldn't be running your PSU maxxed out all of the time. Other calculators ask for voltages used in overclocking, if you are watercooling and if so what pump and how many of them, size and how many fans, any DVD or Blu-Ray, what model GPU and not just what series. This is important because a bog standard GPU will draw a lot less power than a top end factory overclocked version. EVGA's calculator has none of these options. Look at all the options on Outervisions calculator. It's still not perfect but that gives a better idea of what EVGA should be doing. That actually recommended a minimum of 600w for my pc which is much more comfortable. On the downside it did suggest a crappy EVGA white label 600w which is garbage. Asking on a forum such as this will give a better result, usually along with several recommendations. The person should then note down the PSU's that have been recommended and go and look at reviews, something they should be doing for any components anyway.

Yes, a power calculator can be a handy thing to get a rough estimate of what size PSU you may need but many people will take it as gospel and buy the minimum size that is recommended and that can end in disaster. Knowing a rough size is only part of the puzzle though as you then need to know about the massive variation in quality of PSU's. The sad reality is that people often see the PSU as a place to save money and often buy garbage because they know no better and have been sucked in by the big label on the side saying 750w, all for a bargain price of only £35. They will see the wattage and the price and think, "wow, just what I need as I am a little short after paying £1900 for my awesome GPU". Anybody who believes they are getting any quality in a PSU at that price is deluded and to think that that bargain PSU they have just purchased can actually deliver 750w on the 12v rail often turns into a very costly mistake. Sadly we see it quite often even on here. Just because a PSU has (for example) 750w in big bold numbers on the box and the side of the unit doesn't always mean that it can deliver that much on the all important 12v rail(s). Cheap PSU's and older designs will actually have much less than that, sometimes half as much or even less on the 12v rail(s), the rest will be on the minor rails. Take a look at the awful Kolink Core and KL series that OCUK sell for example. If someone with little or no knowledge of PSU's use EVGA's or any of the other poor calculators and take their minimum recommendation as gospel then goes off to look for that size psu elsewhere and ends up buying a bargain special they can be in for a rude awakening when they first press the power button. This is why I dislike power calculators and why EVGA's is a poor example. I believe they all should try to get across the importance of buying a quality PSU that can actually deliver the required power on the 12v rail where it is needed and not just give a minimum recommended wattage.
 
If you look at my system you’ll see that I’m not running a £ 1900 GPU/CPU or whatever it’s mid range at best. My PSU wasn’t 750W for £ 35 it was £ 70 including VAT and can deliver 744W on the 12v.

https://www.evga.com/products/Specs/PSU.aspx?pn=9b847cc8-dbf8-421c-aebb-45ef91000953

The PSU suits the rest of my system which was not super expensive. So I’m not spending mega bucks on a system then skimping on the PSU.

I’ve been building PCs for over 20 years and have never had a PSU blow up and take out components, the only name brand PSUs I’ve ever had was a Corsair HX 520W in 2008, an Antec Basiq 550W in 2010 and now my EVGA 750W Bronze.

I’ve also used some of them crappy Colors IT PSUs that used to come in cheap cases and I’ve never had one of them fail either. Maybe I’m just lucky but I’ve only ever had good luck with my PSU choices.
 
WTF are you on about? I didn't mention you at all so stop getting stroppy. I actually said many people will take the supplied minimum recommendation as gospel and then went on about them seeing a bargain 750w psu and snapping it up. It happens as we see it all too often. I never mentioned or insinuated that it was aimed at anyone. Grow up.
 
Just been through this process myself. Apparently the Outervision Extreme PSU calculator is the most accurate, as they test numerous configurations. You can specify speed and voltage of processor and GPU (it fills in the default). It certainly has more options than others. Whether it's actually accurate, who knows.
 
nlel1975 said:
I don’t like it as it tends to underestimate in my experience.
Click to expand...
Good to know, thanks. It said I'd be fine with my 650W PSU and a 3080Ti. To be fair, there's an article from Anandtech that supports this if you don't mind leaving less than 10% headroom. However, I chickened out and ordered an 850W anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom