[SOLVED] 850W vs 1200W PSU, 1200W use more electricity?

[Gintama69]

If I had two identical setups with two different power supply units(same efficiency rating), would they use same amount of electricity?

i.e. Lets just say I have two identical computers with i9 10900K, MSI Z490 Ace mobo, MSI RTX2080Ti Gaming X and 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD(and everything running at stock settings and nothings overclocked). But one system's got Corsair HX850 and other system's got Corsair HX1200 power supply units.

Would both system use same amount of electricity since they have identical hardware components(beside the power supply)?
Or one with 1200W power supply will use more electricity cos it's got much higher rated(extra 350W) power supply unit?

Both Corsair HX850 and Corsair HX1200 have Platinum rating.

 

[Gintama69]

I'm just trying to work out if I should go for HX850( which should be plenty for 10900K and RTX2080Ti and one M.2 SSD) to save some electricity bills.. cos I usually have PC on 24/7..

Or go for HX1200, cos it's put less stress on power supply, and hopefully also run silent all the time cos it's only using ~650W at most..

 

[beers]

There's a small difference depending on the specific efficiency curve across each PSU, but nothing really notable from a cost or consumption perspective. A higher capacity unit doesn't magically make your components consume more electricity.

 

[geofelt]

A psu will only use the wattage demanded of it, regardless of the max capability.
The peak efficiency of a psu is likely to be in the middle third of the range.
So which psu will use less electricity will depend on the loading.
The difference in your electricity bill should be trivial.

 

[Gintama69]

Ok thanks, so it would be definitely better to go for 1600W PSU over 800W PSU if the prices were same, right?

 

[beers]

Ok thanks, so it would be definitely better to go for 1600W PSU over 800W PSU if the prices were same, right?

Depends on your goals, but if they're at the same price (and of comparable quality) then sure. That's why I have a 1600W PSU since I "won" a drawing to get it super cheap.

Given the components for your build you'd effectively not see a difference unless you started rolling multi GPU and/or a huge amount of extra accessories, but on the 1600W side you'd have the options to roll pretty much whatever setup you want without having to budget power.

 

[Zerk2012]

Ok thanks, so it would be definitely better to go for 1600W PSU over 800W PSU if the prices were same, right?

Not really if you look at this from the 850 watt it had the best results at 50%.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/corsair-hx850-psu,5257-4.html

For your original question they in theory would have the same TDP (this is in theory only but would be fairly close) ( you can buy 2 identical cars and one of them will get a bit better gas mileage) Even with the TDP being the same one will pull more watts from the wall than the other because of the efficiency difference at the load level using 2 different wattage power supplies.

Just to throw this in your not going to get the same brand and model going from 850 to 1600 watts for the same price! The difference in price would probably pay the difference in the electric bill for many years!

Also their not a HX 1600 watt!

Your spending over 2K on a PC and are stressed over 1 or 2 buck a month difference on the electric bill? That would probably be the difference (or less) in buying any power supply with any rating with at least enough watts to run the PC.

 

[geofelt]

No. a 1600w psu will be operating at such a low level that the efficiency will be less.
Past that, such a monster is going to be longer and heavier, not good things either.