The higher the PSU wattage, the maximum budget you have to pay. Therefore many beginners are confused about how powerful PSU they should pick. This article will tell you everything, whether you need the 850W Power Supply or it is overkilling for your system.
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Here’s Does Your System Need 850W PSU or Not
Generally, the 500 Watt to 750 Watt PSU is considered as the sweet spot for the users. Still, in a few circumstances, you need 850Watt PSUs, such as for high-end PC parts, heavy overclocking, installing multiple CPUs or GPUs in systems, and for future proofing purposes.
But, buying 850Watt PSU will put more pressure on your pocket; therefore, experts always recommend buying a slightly higher PSU wattage based on your requirements.
Below, I have thoroughly explained all the conditions when you need the 850W PSU and when the 850W PSU would overkilling for you.
Why Do You Need 850W PSU?
In a few circumstances, you have to buy an 850W Power Supply, and the reasons behind this are-
High-End PC Parts
If you want to use mid-level system components inside your PC, you can use the Power Supply between 500W-750W. But, for installing high-end PC parts, 850W is mainly recommended by the experts.
When it comes to the PC’s power consumption, then the graphics card is the most power-hungry component of our PC.
According to the data of tomshardware.com, today’s graphics card’s power consumption can go up to 270W, especially the top model Power Supplies. So, we at least have to consider the power between 200W to 250W for our GPUs.
Besides the GPU, other components consume lots of power, such as the standard CPU consumes power between 65W to 85W, and for the motherboard, we have to leave at least 100W.
Moreover, hard drives also use around 10 watts of Power, so if you have more than one hard drive, it will consume 20 watts or more.
Furthermore, people are using RGBs in their systems for beautiful lighting, which consumes more electricity than regular systems.
If you calculate the power consumption of all these components, the power consumption would be between 500W -550W.
So, by using these PC parts and looking at the power consumption, if you pick an 850W PSU, it will be worth it for you in the future.
Future Upgrade
As time is going, more and more powerful CPUs & GPUs are entering the market. Suppose your current system consumes 500w of power, and you have a 550w PSU.
Now, if you want to upgrade to an ultra-powerful CPU or GPU, your system’s overall power consumption can go up to more than 550W, and your PSU will become inefficient in supplying the required power.
Therefore, for futureproofing and upgradation purposes 850Watt power supply is probably the best choice for the users.
Overclocking
In computing, overclocking refers to increasing the component’s clock rate, running it at a higher speed than it is designed to run. Many gamers these days are overclocking their components, such as CPUs & GPUs, to get better performance.
You have to do serious overclocking if you are a pro gamer.
According to the data of corsair.com, a CPU or GPU overclocking can easily take up to 50Watts to 100Watts more than the regular power consumption. Besides that, if you use high-end PC parts, the power consumption may increase.
Therefore, many gamers recommend using the Power Supply between 750W to 850W for this overclocking purpose.
Multiple CPUs & GPUs
Many motherboards these days come with multiple CPU sockets and multiple PCIe x16 slots, and many users are installing multiple CPUs & GPUs on their motherboards.
If you are also willing to do this kind of task, then you need the Power Supply wattage between 850w to 1000w.
Is 850w PSU Overkilling?
If you are not using too many power-hungry components inside your system, then 850W is overkilling for you. It will impact your budget for PC building.
Budget
I have checked some good brands like (EVGA, Corsair, Thermaltake, MSI, CoolerMaster, and Seasonic’s) 850w Power Supply on Amazon. After doing a complete analysis, I found that the 850W power supplies are available within the budget (105$ to 140$).
So, if you are building a PC for playing regular games, office tasks, or video editing, then investing this money isn’t worth it. Instead, you can pick any Power Supply wattage between 600W to 750W.
But, if there is a sale and you are getting a good brand’s 850W Power Supply between 90 to 100$, it will be worth it.
Because branded 750w PSU costs 80$ to 90$ so, by putting 10$ more, you are getting 100W extra backups which will be good for your futureproofing stuff.
If you are still confused that buying a powerful PSU would damage your system or not, then you can read this article- Is Buying Too Powerful PSU bad or not?
What Graphics Can A 850W PSU Handle?
An 850W power supply is enough to supply power to most of the modern power-consuming graphics cards. Below, I have mentioned some power-consuming graphics cards & their minimum power requirements.
| Graphics Card | Recomended Power Wattage By Experts |
| RTX 3090 RTX 3080 Ti RTX 3080 RTX 3070 Ti | 750W (Minimum) |
| RTX 3070 | 650W (Minimum) |
| AMD Radeon RX 6900XT | 850W (Minimum) |
| AMD Radeon RX 6800XT | 750W (Minimum) |
| Radeon RX 6800 | 650W (Minumum), 800W (Recomended) |
The table shows that the 850W PSU is sufficient for the latest powerful graphics cards.
Here’s The Best 850W PSU That You Can Check
If you are planning to buy an 850W Power Supply for your systems, then the EVGA 220-G5-0850-X1 Super Nova 850w is probably the best choice. It is the most sold-out 850w Power Supply, and many experts recommend this PSU.
This fully modular Power Supply is 80 plus gold certified with 91% efficiency. You can check this Power Supply on Amazon.
Final Verdict
At the end of this article, I want to summarize everything: for installing multiple CPUs or GPUs to your system for extreme overclocking and for putting high-end PC parts & for futureproofing purposes, you need an 850W PSU. Otherwise, the wattage between 500w to 650w would be sufficient for your requirements.
I hope this article is helpful for you and if you want to know more about Power Supplies, Motherboards, and other PC components, then keep following this blog regularly.
