How do I measure energy consumption?

[PunMister]

I'm trying to upgrade my PC's graphics card to a 2080 Super and 32 gigs of ram but I don't know if I'll need a new power supply.

I've seen some ways of finding the consumption but they just aren't that good (mainly the websites that "estimate it").

Is there any way I can test it so I can see if I'll need a new power supply? Maybe some sort of software?

 

Thanks in advance.

[PSUGuru]

What's your system specs?

Chances are, you'd be fine with a good 650w unit. Probably could getaway with 550w.

[Lorant]

You can get a KillaWatt unit and it will tell you how much juice you're pulling from the wall, but that's a backward way of doing it to see if you need a new PSU.  Since you'll be using said PSU to do so.

 

Folks here tend to know rough estimates about usage, someone can ballpark it for you better than the estimator websites.

 

What are you using now?

[minibois]

1. with a physical device (like a kill-a-watt). That measures how much your PSU actually uses out of the wall. But that is not applicable in this case, since if your PSU were not powerful enough, it could never pull the power out of the wall either.

2. referencing reviews. For example, this review shows the 2080 Super will use about 254W on full load: https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/msi_geforce_rtx_2070_super_gaming_x_review,5.html . This is not perfect (the way they measure the power is described on the page), but it's a decent way to see how much power a specific component will use (same can be done for CPU)

3. Use a website that is not trying to sell you a PSU, to measure how much it will use. My recommendation is PCPartPicker

4. Ask the community. People here have done their research and can tell you what it will will use, recommendations on PSU's, etc. If people are wrong, others will point it out, thus you have the most accurate info.

 

So if you want a recommendation and some advice here, be sure to post your entire setup and we will be able to tell you what the best course of action is, or if the current PSU you have is actually perfectly fine for it.

I would recommend you spec out your system in PCPartPicker: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/

And then post your setup with the BBCode option: 

[Joshcanread]

get one of these for exact wattage https://reductionrevolution.com.au/products/plug-in-power-meter?variant=28203487113&currency=AUD&gclid=Cj0KCQiAuefvBRDXARIsAFEOQ9HiR7ZTTiPFm1PZsyjgesq489gGaou2whT6FvPomHWXJ5qj33qWxTwaAi-kEALw_wcB

 

or 

use this website to calculate it https://www.coolermaster.com/power-supply-calculator/

[Fasauceome]

16 minutes ago, Joshcanread said:

or 

use this website to calculate it https://www.coolermaster.com/power-supply-calculator

It's too bad this'll overestimate like crazy

[mariushm]

A video card is allowed to consume:

 

* up to 75w taken from the pci-e slot

PLUS

* up to 75w from any pci-e 6 pin connector

* up to 150w from any pci-e 8 pin connector

 

but OVERALL, it should not consume more than 300 watts.

So if the video card has a single pci-e 8 pin connector, it should never consume more than 75w (pci-e slot) + 150w (8pin) = 225 watts.

 

Some video card manufacturers use a bigger connector than needed, if they decide to not use the power from the pci-e slot, or if the total power at factory settings is close to the maximum limit of the connectors. 

For example, if card consumes 200 watts, the video card may use a 6pin and 8 pin because a single 8 pin would be too close (225w is very close to 200w) and the extra 75w margin would allow use to overclock and reduce the strain on the pci-e slot power.

 

Assume the RX 2080 Super consumes up to 250 watts from the 12v rail of your power supply.

Depending on CPU, amount of hard drives, assume another 100-150 watts from the 12v rail of your power supply will be used.

So, your power supply should provide at least 400 watts + some margin on 12v... let's go with 450 watts on 12v  (450w / 12v = ~38 A )

Any modern 550w power supply should be able to provide this much current on 12v alone.

 

If your power supply can not provide this much current on 12v alone, it's recommended to upgrade your power supply.

 

 

[Juular]

Chances are if you will need to upgrade the PSU, that's not because it has insufficient wattage per se but because it's suboptimal unit as a whole. What's your PSU ?

As of finding PC parts power consumption, just refer to a couple of reviews on these parts, Tomshardware, Techpowerup, Guru3d etc. Generally speaking, for your average gaming build 550W will be enough, 650\750W if you hate to hear your PSU. But again, wattage is no way to choose a PSU. See this thread for advice :