what efficiency is this?

[Big Drill]

im looking at getting a gpu good enough for doom eternal ray tracing with every setting on nightmare, my psu in my asus prebuilt has an input of 100-240v and my output is 500w(according to asus support), they apparently dont have the efficiency on record, so this is my last option, how efficient is this? is this at least good enough to run an i5-10600k and a 2060 Super?

[Elisis]

There's literally no way to discern the efficiency from what you've said here. Start with the model number.

[Big Drill]

6 minutes ago, Elisis said:

There's literally no way to discern the efficiency from what you've said here. Start with the model number.

okay, ill take out the psu and find out what i can

[--SID--]

13 minutes ago, Big Drill said:

okay, ill take out the psu and find out what i can

Show us a picture of the label.

 

Edit: is it a Delta DPS-500AB-6-A

[mariushm]

Your power supply can produce 432 watts on 12v , and up to 130 watts on 3.3v and 5v.

 

The video card and the processor in your computer consume power from 12v only, so both will take some amount of power from those 432 watts available on 12v output of your power supply.

If you use a processor like AMD 5600x, that processor will consume up to around 80-100 watts of power, which means you're gonna have around 330 watts of power available for the video card, fans, motors on hard drives and so on.

 

The efficiency of a power supply is about the difference between how much power it takes from the socket on your wall, and how much power is delivered to the components.

No matter how efficient a  power supply is,  a power supply MUST be able to give components as much power as it says on the label, in your case 432 watts on 12v is the important bit. 

Some power supply manufacturers LIE or inflate the numbers on the label, but Delta is a pretty decent manufacturer and that power supply should be capable of the advertised numbers. 

 

 

This exact model was not tested by 80plus organization, but I know from experience that the power supply is Bronze efficiency - it should be around 82% efficient at 20% load and around 88% efficient at 50% load or more. 

 

This means that when the power supply gives 20% of its maximum of 500 watts to components, so around 100 watts, that 100 watts is only 82% of what it takes from the power socket on your wall - so the power supply takes around 120 watts and only 100 watts goes to components, 20 watts are lost as heat and pushed out by the fan.

 

At 50% of its maximum capability or around 250 watts, that 250 watts is only 88% of what it takes from the power socket, so the power supply will take  250w / 88 * 100 = 285 watts from the wall and 35 watts will be more or less heat which needs to be pushed out using the fan.

 

Because the power supply can only produce 432 watts on 12v, you need to be careful about what video card you use.  As I said, assume you can use a video card that consumes up to around 250 watts - this means pretty much any video card that has a single 8 pin connector because the video cards are allowed to take up to 75w from the pci-e slot, and up to 150 watts from the extra 8 pin connector.

 

edit:  just saw your first post :

 

48 minutes ago, Big Drill said:

so this is my last option, how efficient is this? is this at least good enough to run an i5-10600k and a 2060 Super?

If you don't overclock the CPU, it's gonna peak at around 107 watts in very heavy benchmarks. In games, the cpu is gonna consume a bit less (it's probably gonna hover around 70-80 watts while you're playing games because the game won't use all cores at 100% all the time) :

 

A RTX 2060 Super will probably peak at around 200 watts, but the average power consumption will be closer to 180 watts from the 12v output .

 

So let's  say in worst case scenario 110 watts for CPU, 200 watts for video card, 20 watts for fans and motherboard... you'll probably go up to around 350 watts on the 12v output, which is around 81% of the maximum that Delta psu can do, which means you should be fine with that power supply.

In real world, it's probably gonna be under 300 watts.

There's plenty of reserves and you're not "overloading" or "stressing" that power supply.

 

 

 

[Big Drill]

i took 2 pictures as good as i could

 

 

all I need to know is can this support a 2060 super? or if not what 8GB Card can it support?

[mariushm]

3 minutes ago, Big Drill said:

i took 2 pictures as good as i could

 

 

all I need to know is can this support a 2060 super? or if not what 8GB Card can it support?

The pictures are not readable, they're very low resolution. Can't read the labels.

 

But as I explained to you in my post that used the Delta power supply SID mentioned as example by mistake ... use the same reasoning I made with your power supply. Determine the maximum output of the power supply on 12v and go from there.

The "efficiency" of the power supply - which is probably Bronze - doesn't matter. What matters is how much power it can provide on 12v output.  I gave you the numbers for how much your components should consume in worst case scenario so read my post again and go from there.

 

[Big Drill]

okay, im kind of new to this, but are the cpu and gpu the only things i need to keep in mind when it comes to psu compatibility?

[mariushm]

Yes, because those components are the most power hungry components in a computer.

 

Everything else either uses 5v or 3.3v, or uses very little power from 12v.

For example, a fan typically uses 3-5 watts  (check the fan label, you'll see something like 12v x 0.25A = 3 watts ) , a mechanical hard drive will use around 5w from 12v for the motor and around 2-3w from 5v for the electronics, a SSD is powered only by 5v and uses some significant amount of power only when writing data to it (around 5-8w),  the RAM (around 3-5w per stick) should be powered from 5v, onboard audio and network and chipset are probably also powered from 5v and consume only a few watts.

 

CPU should consume under 100 watts during regular use.

Your video card's absolute maximum power consumption will be defined by the connectors it has. The organization that invented the pci-e standard and standardized the connectors on video cards forces manufacturers to respect some limits so the video card is not allowed to take more than 75w from the pci-e slot and more than 150w from a pci-e 8 pin connector.

So no matter what video quality settings you use (maximum, ultra, nightmare etc) the video card should not consume more than that hard limit defined by the connectors.

 

In the case of 2060 Super, the card will actually consume less than maximum available (based on connectors used) - it will use around 180 watts. It will have short bursts up to 200 watts - I mean, for a quarter of a second once in a while it may consume 200 watts.   Even on nightmare or whatever setting you choose, it will still consume around 180 watts.

 

You can overclock it and increase the power budget with a tool like MSI Afterburner or EVGA's overclocking tool, and then the video card will consume a bit more power but BY DEFAULT, it shouldn't consume more than around 180 watts.

 

[Big Drill]

thank you, wait so if this is the case, why is it everywhere i have looked up until now people say the 2060 super requires minimum of 550w psu? is that because they are using low tier psu's? because from the sounds of it, with 500w i could even run a 30 series card if i could afford it during this time

[--SID--]

9 minutes ago, Big Drill said:

thank you, wait so if this is the case, why is it everywhere i have looked up until now people say the 2060 super requires minimum of 550w psu? is that because they are using low tier psu's? because from the sounds of it, with 500w i could even run a 30 series card if i could afford it during this time

It's not only about the wattage. Quality and topology of the PSU is more important. Both Delta and Chicony PSUs are groupregulated and shouldn't be used in any system with dedicated GPU since a decade.

[Big Drill]

but at the very leasts would you say that my psu is good? Its a Chicony psu and i've not had any issues with it, if i can get multiple people to vouch that a 2060 Super upgrade will not cause my pc any issues like shutdowns or what not then ill upgrade to it, but if not i need to find another 8GB Card, regardless, im going to upgrade my psu within the next 6 months

[mariushm]

22 minutes ago, Big Drill said:

thank you, wait so if this is the case, why is it everywhere i have looked up until now people say the 2060 super requires minimum of 550w psu? is that because they are using low tier psu's? because from the sounds of it, with 500w i could even run a 30 series card if i could afford it during this time

nVidia and the video card manufacturers are lying to you and tell you a bigger number, because they have no way of knowing what power supply model you're actually going to buy, and they don't know what other components you're going to use in your computer.

 

For example, you could use the video card with a 4 core Ryzen 1400 and two sticks of ram and then the total power consumption would be 180w (video card) + 50w (cpu) + 5w (ram) + 10w (motherboard) + 5w (ssd and fans)  = 250w on 12v, which means they could suggest a 350w-400w power supply as ideal for such system.

 

But, someone spending 2-300$ on a video card may also have enough money for a Ryzen 5900x and a higher end motherboard and 4 ram sticks and 4 mechanical hard drives and some RGB fans and some led strips so then the total power consumption would be 180w (video card) + 100w (cpu) + 25w (motherboard) + 5w (ssd) + 25w (4 mechanical hard drives) + 10w (4 ram sticks)  + 15w (led strips and fans)  = 360w on 12v and now a 350w-400w is no longer suitable, a computer with such configuration would crash and the user would blame the video card, because the system worked fine before the video card was inserted.

 

So nVidia and video card manufacturers say 550 watts, because there's a very high possibility such power supply would have enough power on 12v to not cause problems. It's not the minimum, it's "cover our asses" recommended value.

 

Like I said in the example above, they could say minimum 400w but then some user may buy a 400w power supply like this one  which in reality only supplies 360w on 12v output, and only if the ambient temperature is 25C : https://www.newegg.com/p/1HU-030W-00131

 

 

In order to make the psu look better, EVGA says the power supply can do 360 watts on 12v, but it's only capable of producing that much power if the temperature is kept at around 25 degrees.  If the ambient temperature is higher, you're supposed to derate the power supply by about 10-20%, so your 360w maximum power becomes around 300-320 watts maximum.

 

In real world, if you use a video card like 2060 Super in a case, it will make enough heat to warm up the insides of a case so that the ambient temperature will definitely be above 25c ambient temperature making things worse.

 

So would this power supply work with a 2060 Super?  Yes, because the 2060  Super consumes only 180w, but only if the rest of the configuration consumes very little power, for example let's  say at most a quad core or a six core cpu and a SSD.

 

Decent power supplies will be capable of providing the advertised power at 40-50c ambient temperature.

 

5 minutes ago, Big Drill said:

but at the very leasts would you say that my psu is good? Its a Chicony psu and i've not had any issues with it, if i can get multiple people to vouch that a 2060 Super upgrade will not cause my pc any issues like shutdowns or what not then ill upgrade to it, but if not i need to find another 8GB Card, regardless, im going to upgrade my psu within the next 6 months

 

If the power supply can provide at least 350-400w on 12v, it should be fine. Ignore the snobs and people that say it's not good because it's group regulated design ... doesn't really matter. It will be fine.

 

[Big Drill]

okay this is very good information, thank you, ill make sure i keep an archive of this conversation for future studying when im ready to upgrade a graphics card again, thank you again for reassuring my choice. one last question though. How do i know which power supplies to purchase when im ready to upgrade?

[mariushm]

Buy something that's rated at least at 40c ambient temperature  (should say on label, or in manual or specifications on the website)

Buy something that's from a reputable manufacturer with at least 80 bronze efficiency rating - the rating is NOT an indicator of quality, there can be really bad power supplies out there yet efficient enough to be in the Bronze efficiency, but at least it cuts out power supplies based on very old designs that may have difficulty handling demands of modern components.

Pay attention to the maximum power available on 12v output as that's most important.

Look at the number of connectors and variety of connectors the power supply offers and see if those meet your needs.

 

Pick a few models that look good to you and are in the price range you can handle and then do a quick search for reviews for the - type MANUFACTURER  MODEL review and see what various review websites tell about that model. If you can't find decent reviews, look for the models just a bit above or below it, as often it's pretty much the same model inside .. for example if you search for Corsair RM750x review and can't find anything, try searching for Corsair RM850x  or Corsair RM650x .

 

Again, it's not always true, but often a manufacturer may use the same model with a few more or a few less components inside (ex 6 mosfets for 12v output on 850w model,  4 mosfets on 12v output for the 650..750w models)  so the conclusions of the 850w model review should apply to the others. But usually on the budget range / cheaper end, some manufacturers may use different factories to make models and you have to be careful then - for example, the 650w model may be made in-house with more care about quality of soldering, consistent use of same components, while the 500w model may be outsourced to a factory which may have worst quality control, or have more difficulty maintaining stock of a part so depending on your luck you may get one out of 3 options for that component (and one option could be slightly less good quality)

 

 

[Big Drill]

okay thank you that makes everything a bit more easier

[--SID--]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

If the power supply can provide at least 350-400w on 12v, it should be fine. Ignore the snobs and people that say it's not good because it's group regulated design ... doesn't really matter. It will be fine.

Don't talk BS