[SOLVED] Is BeQuiet PSU calculator software good ?

[KappaLenny]

So I wanted to know my psu requirements for my future pc list, but there are many sites that calculates how much wattage you need, and BeQuiet is one of the reliable sources of good quality PSUs but many of the other good sites, like coolermaster, newegg and seasonic PSU calculator has a lower total of wattage, while BeQuiet PSU calculator has higher wattage and pretty much following the Nvidia baseline wattage requirements for the 30 series and calculates more of there are high power eating CPU like the intel 12 th gen high end CPUs , so is it any good ?

 

[Eximo]

They are all quite generic really. Just a database of simple power requirements and it adds them together.

You can do the same by looking at the power requirements for each component.

As for 30 series power requirements, they are well known for having large power spikes that can overwhelm some PSU over current protections.

Depends on the card you are wanting to use, but I typically throw this list out.

RTX3050 550W
RTX3060 3060Ti 650W
RTX 3070 3070Ti 750W
RTX3080 3080Ti 850W
RTX3090 3090Ti 1000W

Keep in mind the beefier CPUs are running up around 200W.

 

[--SID--]

It's not wattage only that counts!

 

[KyaraM]

They are all quite generic really. Just a database of simple power requirements and it adds them together.

You can do the same by looking at the power requirements for each component.

As for 30 series power requirements, they are well known for having large power spikes that can overwhelm some PSU over current protections.

Depends on the card you are wanting to use, but I typically throw this list out.

RTX3050 550W
RTX3060 3060Ti 650W
RTX 3070 3070Ti 750W
RTX3080 3080Ti 850W
RTX3090 3090Ti 1000W

Keep in mind the beefier CPUs are running up around 200W.

Yes, CPUs like the 12th gen i7 and i9 can get that high. But not in gaming. The chances of both ramping up to their maximum wattage at the same time should be very, very slim. When gaming, my CPU sits around 40-70W depending on game and load and the GPU at around 230-240W. I run a 12700k and a 3070Ti. It's nowhere near the 750W my PSU can provide. I use HWInfo to monitor my system. Tbh, I think the most important thing is to get a quality PSU anyways that has many peotection features live under-or overvoltage protections. Who it is from is secondary, though BeQuiet certainly is a great pick. I use their PSUs for years now.

Generally speaking, I would go with the GPU vendor recommendation as a baseline and then, if you think you might upgrade the GPU later, add some. But currently with the new GPUs around the corner, and the supposed new PSU connectoes requiered for PCIe 5, I'm not sure it makes sense unless you want to upgrade within the same generation.

 

[Eximo]

Yes, wattage is not the only factor. There are entire threads dedicated to power supply quality. However, this thread was regarding the accuracy of PSU calculators, which are suspect. But they operate on simple concepts.

While I agree that CPUs are not likely to reach maximum draw while gaming, that wasn't really listed as what the system will be used for, so we can't make that assumption. I don't know about you, but I tend to benchmark my PCs when I build them to see how they stack up.

Regardless, if you are not planning for a worst case scenario, or accounting for PSU aging over time, it could bite you later.

GPU power spikes go well beyond the average power consumption. They don't often list the OCP limits on PSUs, so you more or less have to rely on reviews or known good power supplies.

Worrying about PCIe 5.0 and ATX 3.0 isn't really worth it yet. It takes a long, long time for ATX standards to shift. There will still be a market for ATX 2.x PSUs for at least ten years. Just as there was, and still is, a market for ATX 1.x and even AT power supplies. GPUs will come with appropriate adapters and PSUs will as well for a while. Also there are limits to what I would be willing to cool in a system, and I am about there with a 350W GPU. I probably would not opt for a 450W+ GPU if I could avoid it. That will just make for a computer much larger than I would want.

 

[KyaraM]

Yes, wattage is not the only factor. There are entire threads dedicated to power supply quality. However, this thread was regarding the accuracy of PSU calculators, which are suspect. But they operate on simple concepts.

While I agree that CPUs are not likely to reach maximum draw while gaming, that wasn't really listed as what the system will be used for, so we can't make that assumption. I don't know about you, but I tend to benchmark my PCs when I build them to see how they stack up.

Regardless, if you are not planning for a worst case scenario, or accounting for PSU aging over time, it could bite you later.

GPU power spikes go well beyond the average power consumption. They don't often list the OCP limits on PSUs, so you more or less have to rely on reviews or known good power supplies.

Worrying about PCIe 5.0 and ATX 3.0 isn't really worth it yet. It takes a long, long time for ATX standards to shift. There will still be a market for ATX 2.x PSUs for at least ten years. Just as there was, and still is, a market for ATX 1.x and even AT power supplies. GPUs will come with appropriate adapters and PSUs will as well for a while. Also there are limits to what I would be willing to cool in a system, and I am about there with a 350W GPU. I probably would not opt for a 450W+ GPU if I could avoid it. That will just make for a computer much larger than I would want.

Can you give me a link to where it's shown that the GPU spikes to twice its usual power draw or whatever, because I never saw that happen in my systems. The above is not an average, but the fluctuation given in my system for the individual parts, and it's kinda weird that no sensor seems to pick any of that up yet I have never seen any extreme readings. Also, what workload would cause very high GPU and CPU loads at the same time?

 

[punkncat]

Generally speaking, I look up the suggested PSU for the specific GPU I am or plan to use. It's also good to look into the maximum wattage draw of the card. In addition, look up the max wattage of your CPU (as mentioned above). This should put you in the ballpark.
I like to use Outervision Power Calculator such that it allows you to add the peripherals into the build wattage total.

Lastly, I like to cross reference that suggested output with (such as ) Toms really good PSU hierarchy list and find a unit that not only puts out what the system needs, but is considered of good quality for the build and in particular with new equipment.

 

[Eximo]

Can you give me a link to where it's shown that the GPU spikes to twice its usual power draw or whatever, because I never saw that happen in my systems. The above is not an average, but the fluctuation given in my system for the individual parts, and it's kinda weird that no sensor seems to pick any of that up yet I have never seen any extreme readings. Also, what workload would cause very high GPU and CPU loads at the same time?

Igor's lab has pretty good coverage of the spiking issue. There were also a smattering of forum posts of people experiencing this problem. Other anecdotal evidence from a few sources where undersized power supplies died under the onslaught of RTX3080.

Most of what I know is from reading Jonny Guru's responses on my posts and others when this was a new issue, current Corsair engineer.

As for workloads. There are a lot of video encoding tasks that can do it. 3D rendering can do it (the preview visualizations are pretty CPU intensive). Apparently VR is another common one (I suppose the CPU workload is heavy when it comes to movement and positioning?) There are a few games that will let GPUs run wild (which has also caused GPU failure) Deep learning and AI tasks were also known to cause this.

As for monitoring software. Depends on the polling rate. Igor was looking at 1ms transients.

Really comes down to the individual system. I run 7 fans, a pump, an i9 capable of about 140-150W, and a 350W GPU (that really does sit there during gaming). I would say I am looking at around 500-550W while gaming. Not too bad for an 850W power supply, nicely in that middle range of efficiency. But with headroom for heavy CPU usage and GPU spikes.

 

[KyaraM]

Igor's lab has pretty good coverage of the spiking issue. There were also a smattering of forum posts of people experiencing this problem. Other anecdotal evidence from a few sources where undersized power supplies died under the onslaught of RTX3080.

Most of what I know is from reading Jonny Guru's responses on my posts and others when this was a new issue, current Corsair engineer.

As for workloads. There are a lot of video encoding tasks that can do it. 3D rendering can do it (the preview visualizations are pretty CPU intensive). Apparently VR is another common one (I suppose the CPU workload is heavy when it comes to movement and positioning?) There are a few games that will let GPUs run wild (which has also caused GPU failure) Deep learning and AI tasks were also known to cause this.

As for monitoring software. Depends on the polling rate. Igor was looking at 1ms transients.

Really comes down to the individual system. I run 7 fans, a pump, an i9 capable of about 140-150W, and a 350W GPU (that really does sit there during gaming). I would say I am looking at around 500-550W while gaming. Not too bad for an 850W power supply, nicely in that middle range of efficiency. But with headroom for heavy CPU usage and GPU spikes.

Well, I'm doing none of those things so I don't really have to worry about it.

I'm running a 12700K and a 3070Ti. 12700K has a PL2 of 190W, but in Cinebench, for example, it caps out at around 168W due to my undervolt. I also usually cap FPS to my screen's refresh rate since it doesn't make sense to me to go higher. It's a 144Hz monitor, WQHD. The GPU has a TDP of 290W and cannot be adjusted upwards like some others can. Highest draw, 1ms transients, was 289W today with 99% load, so well within the limit. This is actually the highest I have seen yet in a game. Not exactly crazy high, though. So combined they get to 480W of we use the full 190W for the processor, where it is capped. Then there is one M.2 and one internal HDD. There are 4 fans (5 with CPU cooler), mouse, keyboard, external 2.5" HDD, and optionally a USB 2.0 Blu-ray player connected. According to the data sheet, the SSD uses around 3W max, the HDD 7. So together 10W. RAM is 12W. Mouse plus keyboard are 3W iirc. Let's calculate the 5 fans with 5W each, though it's most likely less. So 25W. Another 2W for the external drive and the Blu-ray, which is hardest to gauge for me but seems to be around 15W? So another 65W or so watts. So pretty comparable to your system if everything is connected but with a 750W PSU that, according to BeQuiet!, can take spikes up to 820W. I got a load of about 72%, so still some headroom, and the buffer for the short time spikes. And that's when we calculate everything at max and generously (fans are likely closer to 3W, for example, and especially the Blu-ray drive isn't always connected) , which it basically never is. I think the 750W are adequate here, and the GPU vendor recommendation.