Does power supply affact performance?

Mahir_2

Commendable
Jun 14, 2016
14
0
1,520
My specs are
GPU: Gtx 1080 Gigabyte Windforce OC (My gpu is not overclocked)
CPU: Intel I5-8600k clocked at 4.1ghz
RAM: GSkill ripjaws V 2400mhz 8gb & Gskill Ripjaws V 3200mhz 8gb (clocked down to 2400mhz)
MOBO: Gigabyte b360m ds3h
Toshiba DT01ACA100 1TB hdd
WDC WD10EZRZ-00HTKB0 1 TB hdd
No ssd and windows is installed on hdd
a psu of 500w cooler master something i am not sure

Comparing to other people's gaming performance, i am getting higher frametime and lower frame per second. Is it the power supply which is limiting?
 
That power supply is not only poor quality, almost certainly, but it's also about 100w below what we'd generally recommend for that kind of unit. If you had an exceptional power supply, you might get by with a 550w model, but it would need to be really good.

Generally, we'd recommend a 550-750w power supply of very good quality for use with a configuration like yours. The power supply itself has no direct relationship with poor frame rates, however, if the graphics card or the rest of the system are starving for power it could certainly have an indirect affect on anything and everything. Every problem you might ever see with any piece of hardware could be imitated by a faulty or low quality power supply.

What is the EXACT model of your power supply? Look on the power supply. There will be a label or printing directly on the power supply that contains the specifications for that unit, including the power supply model. That is what we'd need to verify the quality of the unit. The fact that it is below the recommended capacity, we don't need to see the model to know that.

I'd suspect that poor memory performance from memory modules that are totally different and have incompatible secondary or tertiary timings, the fact that you are running on hard drives rather than SSDs and probably also have not done a clean install of the graphics card drivers, are more likely to be your problems.

Try this first, then go from there.

*Graphics card CLEAN install tutorial using the DDU*
 


cooler master thunder 500w (rs-500-acab-m3) Is my power supply. Power supply calculator shows that my pc uses about 437W and recommends 487w power supply.

Also recommend me some power supplies i could be getting for my rig today?
 
Calculators are irrelevant and they don't factor in things like increased power consumption due to driver changes, voltage spikes, differences between models of the same hardware or factory overclocking. They are just plain inaccurate and should be avoided.

If you want to know what the recommended power capacity is for most any given system, based on what graphics card you have installed, always refer to the RealHardTechX recommendation chart. Yes, it gives you a small amount of headroom but that is a good thing. You ALWAYS want about 100-200w more than what you actually need, or about 40% overhead, so that the system runs in the power envelope at about 60% of your power supplies maximum sustainable (NOT PEAK, which is different than what it can actually sustain) capacity in order to keep ripple, noise and voltage regulation issues to a minimum, plus to keep the unit running well below capacity so it runs cooler and does not tend to run at full fan all the time while gaming.

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

All of which neglects the fact that the Cooler master Thunder units are not good to begin with and that PSU is probably lucky if it can sustain even 75% of its rated capacity for any period of time at all. Maybe less. Regardless, it's a low quality unit as are the majority of Cooler Master and Thermaltake power supplies, among others.

Click the spoiler box for my thoughts on power supply selection.

Let's start with the biggest misconception out there, which is that if a unit has high watts it will be ok or is good. No. Just, no.

There are plenty of 750-1000w units out there that I wouldn't trust to power a light bulb and might in fact be more dangerous due to their supposedly high capacity due to poor or non-existent protections inside the unit.

If the platform isn't good to begin with, how many watts or amps it says it can support is irrelevant.

Higher 80plus certification doesn't mean anything, UNLESS it's on an already known to be high quality PSU platform. For example, a Seasonic Prime platinum unit is going to be a better product than a Seasonic Prime Gold unit, because we already know the Prime platform is very good, and platinum efficiency along with it shows there are some improvements internally to account for the higher efficiency.

In a case like that, it might be worth it. It's likely the unit will create less heat, it will probably have better performance in regard to ripple, noise and voltage regulation. It might shave a few pennies, or dollars, off the electric bill over the course of a year.

Other than that, it is not going to perform any better than the same platform with Gold efficiency. On the other hand, just because a unit has Titanium 80plus ratings doesn't mean the unit is any good at all. For example, there are Raidmax units with Titanium efficiency and I wouldn't trust one of those to power a light bulb. There are a lot of units like this out there.

If the platform isn't good to begin with, whether or not it has an 80plus certification or not is irrelevant.

Whatever you do, don't EVER buy a power supply based on whether it has RGB or lighting, or looks like it might be a quality unit. Some of the biggest hunks of junk out there look just as good as a Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium, but I assure you, they are not. So far as I've seen there are really no excellent units out there that have RGB built in. Maybe one or two models, but rest assured you'll be be paying for the lighting, not for the quality of the power supply.

I don't know what country you reside in, and I know that sometimes it's hard to come by good units in some regions, but when possible, when it comes time to get that PSU, I'd stick to the following if you can.

Seasonic. Just about anything made by Seasonic is good quality for the most part. There are really no bad Seasonic units and only a very few that are even somewhat mediocre. They do make a few less-good quality OEM style units, but mostly those are not going to be units you come across at most vendors, and they are still not bad. Also, the S12II and M12II 520 and 620w units are older, group regulated models. At one time they were among the best units you could buy. Now, they are outdated and not as good as almost any other Seasonic models. They are however still better than a LOT of newer designs by other manufacturers.

The Seasonic 520w and 620w S12II/M12II units CAN be used on newer Intel platforms, if you turn off C6/C7 in the bios, but I'd really recommend a newer platform whenever possible. Prices are usually pretty good on those though, so sometimes it's worth accepting the lack of DC-DC on the internal platform. Higher capacity versions of the High current gamer are not based on that platform, so they are fine. Those being the 750w and higher versions.

Corsair. The CX and CXm units are ok as a budget option, but I do not recommend pairing them with gaming cards. The newer 2017 models of CX and CXm are better than the older ones, but still not what we'd call terrific, so if it specifically says 2017 model, or it has a capacity other than an even 100, like 550w, 650w, 750w, etc., then it's likely at least better than those older ones. Aside from that, any of the TX, RMx, RMi, HX, HXi, AX or AXi units are good. Those are listed from best to worst, with the best being the AX and AXi units.

Antec. The True power classic units are made by Seasonic, and are very good, but are not modular. The High current gamer 520w and 620w, or any other PSU you see on the market that is 520w or 620w, are also made by Seasonic, based on the S12II and M12II platform for modern versions, and are pretty good units but again they are an older platform that is group regulated so if you go with a Haswell or newer Intel configuration you will want to avoid those because they do not support the C6/C7 Intel low power states.

The Antec High current gamer 750w and 850w units are very good and are not the older design, which came in 520w and 620w capacities and were good for back then but again, are an aging Seasonic platform that is not the best choice most of the time these days. Occasionally, these older units MIGHT be the best unit available and you could do worse than one of them, but a newer DC-DC platform is desirable when possible if it doesn't mean sacrificing quality elsewhere in the platform. There are however older and newer HCG models, so exact model number will likely be a factor if choosing one of these however both the older models and the newer models are good.

Antec Edge units are ok too, but reviews indicate that they have noisy fan profiles. I'd only choose this model if it is on sale or the aesthetics match up with your color scheme or design. Still a good power supply but maybe a little aggressive on the fan profile. This may have been cured on newer Edge models so reading professional tear down reviews is still the best idea.

BeQuiet. BeQuiet does have a few decent models, BUT, you must be VERY selective about which of their models you put your trust in. From model to model their are huge differences in both quality and performance, even with the same series. If you cannot find a review for a BeQuiet unit on HardOCP, JonnyGuru or Tom's hardware that SPECIFICALLY says it is a very good unit, and does not have any significant issues in the "cons" category, I would avoid it. In fact, I'd probably avoid it anyhow unless there is a very great sale on one that has good reviews, because their units are generally more expensive than MUCH better units from Antec, Seasonic, EVGA and Corsair.

Super Flower. They are like Seasonic and they make power supplies for a variety of other companies, like EVGA. Super Flower units are usually pretty good. I'd stick to the Leadex, Leadex II and Golden Green models.

EVGA. They have BOTH good and not very good models.

Not very good are the W1, N1, B1, B3, BR (All models except the 650w model) and G1 NEX models.

Good models are the B2, B3 650w, G2, G2L, G3, GQ, P2 and T2 models.

FSP. They used to be very mediocre, and are a PSU manufacturer like Seasonic and Super Flower, although not as well trusted based on historical performance. Currently the FSP Hydro G and Hydro X units are pretty good.

I would avoid Thermaltake and Cooler Master. They do have a few good units, but most of the models they sell are either poor or mediocre, and the ones they have that ARE good are usually way overpriced.

This is just ONE example of why I say that. Very new and modern CM unit. One of the worst scores ever seen on JG for a well known brand name product. Doesn't look to be much better than a Raidmax unit. Sad.

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story6&reid=563

And most of the models I have linked to the reviews of at the following link are at least good, with most of them being fantastic.


Certainly there ARE some good units out there that you won't see above among those I've listed, but they are few and far between, much as a hidden nugget of gold you find in a crevice among otherwise ordinary rocks and don't EVER assume a unit is good just because of the brand.

If you cannot find an IN DEPTH, REPUTABLE review on Tom's hardware, JonnyGuru, HardOCP, Hardware secrets (Old reviews by Gabe Torres), Kitguru (Only Aris reviews), TechPowerUP, SilentPC crew or a similar site that does much more than simply a review of the unboxing and basic tests that don't include reliable results for ripple, noise, voltage regulation and a complete teardown of the unit including identification of the internal platform, then the unit is a big fat question mark.

I recommend not trusting such units as companies generally always send out review samples of any unit they feel is going to get a good review, and don't send them out if they know they are going to get hammered by the reviewer. No review usually equals poor quality. Usually.

Other models that should never be trusted OR USED AT ALL, under any circumstances, include A-Top, Apevia, Apex (Supercase/Allied), Artic, Ace, Aerocool (There might be one model worth using, but I'd still avoid them.), Aspire (Turbocase), Atadc, Atrix, Broadway com corp, CIT, Coolmax, Deer, Diablotek, Dynapower, Dynex, Eagletech, Enlight, Evo labs, EZ cool, Foxconn, G7, HEC/Compucase Orion, HEDY, iBall, iStar computer co., Jeantec, JPac, Just PC, Linkworld electronics, Logisys, Macron, MSI, NmediaPC, Norwood Micro (CompUSA), Okia, Powercool, Powmax, Pulsepower, Q-tec, Raidmax, RaveRocketfish, SFC, Sharkoon, Shuttle, Skyhawk, Startech, Storm, Sumvision, Tesla, Trust, Ultra, Wintech, Winpower, Xilence (Until I see a reputable review of a model showing different), xTreme (Cyberpower), Youngbear and Zebronics.