PSU downgrade

Inet · January 1, 2017

Hi
Your opinion please.
My pc has an H81 board and an I3 4160 and I was planning to buy a GTX 970 graphics card. For this, and according to users from some forums, I bought an XFX TS 80+ Bronze 550W ( here, users love XFX PSU and it sells like small breads ). However, the RX 470/480/GTX 1060/GTX 1050TI graphics cards have come up, and suddenly I have a problem: I begin to think that I have a PSU with too much power for my needs. Because although I go to change my I3 for an I5, and therefore I need more power, I am in doubt about which graphic card I'm going to buy. If I buy a RX 480, a 550w PSU is ideal, but if I opt for a GTX 1050ti I think I don't need such power. Some people say that it's preferable to have more power than less, but I do not agree, because there is something called low power consumption efficiency. If PSU 80% efficiency is almost always only reached above 30% of total power consumption of the whole pc, it makes no sense for me to use a 550w PSU in conjunction with a GTX 1050ti and an I5, because in its normal use ( and possibly playing ), the pc total power consumption will not reach a range in which the PSU is minimum 80% efficient. Possibly it will reach a range where efficiency will be well below 80%. So I think I should change my PSU to a less powerful one, because the total PC power requirement would always be below the PSU 30% capacities, and i need to get that minimum value to obtain 80% of efficiency.
I do not know if you understood my idea. But I think it's an important subject that many users do not think about. If the price of your energy is very high ( like in my country ) the difference in energy consumption can be brutal if you use the pc 4/5 hours every day.
I would like to know your opinion and your advice and excuse my English, but it is not my mother tongue.
Thanks

DarkBlade2117 · January 1, 2017

Eh... it really isn't worth it. By time you buy a new PSU, the amount of money you could possibly save on your power bill would take decades to make up for the cost of it

STRMfrmXMN · January 1, 2017

5 minutes ago, Inet said:

Hi
Your opinion please.
My pc has an H81 board and an I3 4160 and I was planning to buy a GTX 970 graphics card. For this, and according to users from some forums, I bought an XFX TS 80+ Bronze 550W ( here, users love XFX PSU and it sells like small breads ). However, the RX 470/480/GTX 1060/GTX 1050TI graphics cards have come up, and suddenly I have a problem: I begin to think that I have a PSU with too much power for my needs. Because although I go to change my I3 for an I5, and therefore I need more power, I am in doubt about which graphic card I'm going to buy. If I buy a RX 480, a 550w PSU is ideal, but if I opt for a GTX 1050ti I think I don't need such power. Some people say that it's preferable to have more power than less, but I do not agree, because there is something called low power consumption efficiency. If PSU 80% efficiency is almost always only reached above 30% of total power consumption of the whole pc, it makes no sense for me to use a 550w PSU in conjunction with a GTX 1050ti and an I5, because in its normal use ( and possibly playing ), the pc total power consumption will not reach a range in which the PSU is minimum 80% efficient. Possibly it will reach a range where efficiency will be well below 80%. So I think I should change my PSU to a less powerful one, because the total PC power requirement would always be below the PSU 30% capacities, and i need to get that minimum value to obtain 80% of efficiency.
I do not know if you understood my idea. But I think it's an important subject that many users do not think about. If the price of your energy is very high ( like in my country ) the difference in energy consumption can be brutal if you use the pc 4/5 hours every day.
I would like to know your opinion and your advice and excuse my English, but it is not my mother tongue.
Thanks

Doesn't even make sense to sell it. Just keep it.