Are 500w+ PSUs worth it with components getting more power efficient every gen?

[EnsisTheSlayer]

Soon ascending, and wondering if anyone thinks getting a 500w+ PSU is worth it for a regular single-GPU build in this day and age where GPUs specifically keep getting more and more power efficient every year? Even a GTX 1070 can be used on a 430w PSU (which is the power supply I'm currently considering getting), but what do you guys think about future GPUs?

 

[greens]

We are getting dramatically more power for the... power haha, but i wouldn't say that they have gone down all that much in overall requirement...

GTX 1080 - 180W
GTX 980 - 165W
GTX 780 - 250W
GTX 680 - 195W

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Yes, components are using less power than they did in previous generations, at least for nVidia. However:

1. In most cases a quality 600+ watt PSU will cost roughly the same as a quality 430 watt one.

S12 430B is $47
S12 520 is $53
S12 220 is $59

2. PSUs hit peak efficiency at 50% load, which means your purchase costs savings will be recovered quickly in electricity costs ....PSU size rule of thumb is 1.5 times average power usage.

3. Larger PSUs will run quieter and produce less heat at actual load

4. The closer you get to rated load, the more performance is impacted ... voltage stability decreases and ripple increases which negatively impacts CPU and GPU OCs.

As for the 1070 w/ 430 watt PSU .. not recommended:

1. nVidia says no
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/10series/geforce-gtx-1070/

Thermal and Power Specs:
94C = Maximum GPU Temperature (in C)
150 W = Graphics Card Power (W)
500 W = Recommended System Power (W)4
8-Pin = Supplementary Power Connectors

2. AIB cards draw more than reference.

3. Overclocking can add 20% more power draw .

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_1070_Gaming_X/22.html

The 1070 here is drawing 175 watts in typical gaming ... 175 + 20% = 210 watts ... add overclocked CPU at 130 watts and already at 340 watts ... 60 - 75 watts for everything else, capacitor aging and peaks ... 430 just too close.

The 1080 even more so....199 - 254 watts + 20% for OC = 239 - 305 watts

 

[EnsisTheSlayer]

Yes, components are using less power than they did in previous generations, at least for nVidia. However:

1. In most cases a quality 600+ watt PSU will cost roughly the same as a quality 430 watt one.

S12 430B is $47
S12 520 is $53
S12 220 is $59

2. PSUs hit peak efficiency at 50% load, which means your purchase costs savings will be recovered quickly in electricity costs ....PSU size rule of thumb is 1.5 times average power usage.

3. Larger PSUs will run quieter and produce less heat at actual load

4. The closer you get to rated load, the more performance is impacted ... voltage stability decreases and ripple increases which negatively impacts CPU and GPU OCs.

As for the 1070 w/ 430 watt PSU .. not recommended:

1. nVidia says no
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/10series/geforce-gtx-1070/

Thermal and Power Specs:
94C = Maximum GPU Temperature (in C)
150 W = Graphics Card Power (W)
500 W = Recommended System Power (W)4
8-Pin = Supplementary Power Connectors

2. AIB cards draw more than reference.

3. Overclocking can add 20% more power draw .

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_1070_Gaming_X/22.html

The 1070 here is drawing 175 watts in typical gaming ... 175 + 20% = 210 watts ... add overclocked CPU at 130 watts and already at 340 watts ... 60 - 75 watts for everything else, capacitor aging and peaks ... 430 just too close.

The 1080 even more so....199 - 254 watts + 20% for OC = 239 - 305 watts

The benchmarks show that there is a difference of less than 10% in OCing the CPU and GPU in the latest titles (I won't be playing all of the latest AAA games anyways), and with my budget I would prefer not spending an extra $140 on a Z170 mobo and a 6600k and a dedicated CPU cooler anyways (since the new Kaby Lake i3 OCed to 5GHz performs less than the 7500 in most games at the same price before mobo and cooler) since the performance difference with the OC is not worth it to me. I don't really want to OC the GPU anyways either since the benefits would be so small and I could risk doing something wrong.

And the 1070 I'm looking at is this: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/b3673/gigabyte-gtx-1070-mini-itx-oc at 150w
So with your mathematic formula; 150w + 65w for the i5-6500 = 215w (and the PCPP maximum power draw for my entire planned build is 315W, leaving 115w open).

My question is if you think future graphics cards will need more juice to the point where it's worth it to spend the extra on a 500w PSU since -70 cards seems to (over time) go down in TPD (470 - 215w, 570 - 220w, 670 - 170w, 970- 145w, 1070 - 150w) and that I don't plan on getting into the big overpriced overclocking bandwagon.