[SOLVED] 1000W worth the premium over 850W for 6800xt or RTX 3080 build??

[Josh-Sweeny]

Planning on upgrading my rig completely relatively soon (depending on stock) to hopefully a ryzen 5600x and either rtx 3000 series or AMD 6000 series GPU and have realised my 600W power supply won't be enough even if it wasn't 7 years old.

As supply is likely not to be getting better any time soon I'm looking at a new PSU now just so I can make sure I get a good one for when I eventually get the new hardware.

Orginally was going for 850W but looking at availability and price it looks like it may even be worth going for 1000W due to efficiency benefits of not having a PSU under max load and generally being a more reliable unit. Currently the 850W ones on my eye that are in stock are
Corsair 850W TXM Gold ~ £110
Corsair 850W RM (2019) ~£130
EVGA 850W GQ ~ £115
but I have also seen some corsair 1000W PSUs for around £160. These being the RMx and HX Platinum.

Is the benefit of these PSUs worth the £30-40 difference when considering the hardware it is supplying?

 

[Eximo]

I don't think so in this case. Even overclocked you should still have plenty of power left over at 850W.

65W x2 = 130W

300W X 1.5 = 450W (Assuming it will let you draw that much)

Still well within the ideal range of an 850W. Now if you start extreme overclocking, then yes 1000W or more.

 

[Josh-Sweeny]

I don't think so in this case. Even overclocked you should still have plenty of power left over at 850W.

65W x2 = 130W

300W X 1.5 = 450W (Assuming it will let you draw that much)

Still well within the ideal range of an 850W. Now if you start extreme overclocking, then yes 1000W or more.

What would be considered "extreme" overclocking? I am planning to overclock the GPU and CPU somewhat, however I'm not planning on watercooling or anything more.

 

[Eximo]

Modified BIOS, shunt mods, yes, water cooling would give you more thermal headroom, and consume more power to run.

That 65W for AMD is pretty accurate if you leave it alone, but if you stick a big cooler on it and aim high you can easily get it to output similar wattage as the larger offerings, basically limited by the socket/motherboard. So we know 105W is in range, and you can overclock those chips.

Can't say on the GPU yet, but under normal circumstances, if they say 300W, it will be in that range under stock conditions. 75W+225W means a 6-pin + 8-pin minimum. They've gone for dual 8-pin, so they've left it up to "375W". Though with boost these days, they will be running near max when you get them anyway, so usually not much headroom.

Now that doesn't account for custom high end cards which may have unlocked power limits and 'performance' BIOS, so 450W is a reasonable guess for a worst case.

 

[Josh-Sweeny]

Modified BIOS, shunt mods, yes, water cooling would give you more thermal headroom, and consume more power to run.

That 65W for AMD is pretty accurate if you leave it alone, but if you stick a big cooler on it and aim high you can easily get it to output similar wattage as the larger offerings, basically limited by the socket/motherboard. So we know 105W is in range, and you can overclock those chips.

Can't say on the GPU yet, but under normal circumstances, if they say 300W, it will be in that range under stock conditions. 75W+225W means a 6-pin + 8-pin minimum. They've gone for dual 8-pin, so they've left it up to "375W". Though with boost these days, they will be running near max when you get them anyway, so usually not much headroom.

Now that doesn't account for custom high end cards which may have unlocked power limits and 'performance' BIOS, so 450W is a reasonable guess for a worst case.

I don't think I will be going as extreme as a shunt mod, mainly overclocking as far as I can get using software like MSI Afterburner. So far only planning on air cooling but not ruling out custom water cooling in the future. Would an 850W PSU cover this if i decide to custom water cool?

 

[Eximo]

Probably, you could go overly extreme with pumps and fans. They do add up eventually. But you would be losing the fans on the CPU and GPU to compensate. And cooler electronics actually do use less power, of course the goal of overclocking is to then use that headroom.

I probably pull about 150W for my CPU, Only a single 8-pin on my GPU though (claimed 180W), 7 fans and a pump. Using an older model RM850x. I feel I have left room for a 375W GPU.

 

[Josh-Sweeny]

OK thank you, think 850W will be much better suited to my needs then.