From what I recall that was just the Focus gold and platinum units. I have seen reports for most of the seasonic PSUs from that era, including the PRIME units like the one I have, but it was unit to unit specific. Most people's PSUs in those model did fine.
Yes, it was a specific line of PSUs from Seasonic and its other label counterparts made by Seasonic. It was just the PSU to have around the time of the 1080 Ti/2080 Ti, and many people upgraded to 30 series and got shutdowns while gaming. Other PSUs had the same issue, but most were not as high quality/expensive units and the expectation wasn't there.
Thing is, your PSU is top-end and one of the best ones money can buy. So, your confidence in pushing your PSU has grounds, since PSU can handle it.
For each individual CPU-GPU combo, there is data out there what each component can pull at max load (and quite a bit data on GPU transient spikes as well). So, if one would spend considerably more time to dig up all that data, one can calculate possible max wattage draw for CPU and GPU. The rest of the build (MoBo, RAM, SSD, fans etc) power draw can also be found out by the component specs/reviews. But to gather all that info - takes time.
It is easy to test build's power draw when you have components at hand and also wattmeter to measure it. But for those who do not have components purchased, there is no such convenience.
The problem I see in general with PSU wattage recommendations is that people overprovision something that is already overprovisioned. Your man build for example. Assuming they exist, an A tier 400w PSU would have been around double what you can actually have that system pull in testing. The theoretical max draw for all components cumulatively added up plus adding a 100-200 watts buffer is way overboard. Its nearly impossible in practical use to have everything reach peak draw simultaneously. I am definitely not advocating for people to buy lower quality PSUs, just that wattage recommendations of said PSUs seem to always err on the extreme side of 'more than needed.'
There are some A tier 450W units out there, like: Be Quiet Straight Power 11, Bitfenix Formula Gold/Whisper M and Seasonic Focus Gold GM/PRIME Fanless. There are also few SFX/SFX-L 450W A tier PSUs.
With over-provision wattage wise, there is actually another reason. And that is to do with build upgrades.
I agree. My original build was a 3900x and a 2070s, then got a 3080, then a while later the 5800X3D on release day, and then 2 months or so ago I got a 5090. An entire PC build has to be considered within a budget. If you can get away with a lower wattage A tier PSU to get a faster CPU, GPU, better motherboard, et cetera, that should be considered but just know that a limitation may be set in the future to do so. Do I want more power now, or less limitations later? It's a balancing act. I often see the balance tipping much further into large capacity PSUs now at the cost of performance now with recommendations. This matters less the larger the budget is, and matter more the lower the budget is. Just my humble opinion.
Among those I believe the 6700 XT strikes the right balance. Intel graphics drivers have come a long way but are still a bit of a concern with older games. The 6700 XT is roughly the same performance as the 1080 ti as well. The more you spend now, the less you will have in the future for a truly massive graphics performance or platform upgrade.
Personally, i'd go with Intel as well. Not because it is the most expensive one, but because it is new and comes with a warranty. While other two have no warranty. And that RTX 3060 could be ex-mining GPU.
Yes, it is a balance.
The thing is, i don't know the financial situation of anyone i'm suggesting PSUs to. In 2-4 years time when GPU upgrade rolls around, they may have more funds or they may have less.
In general, I believe we agree.
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