Does my PSU use full power when I'm not gaming?

A

alexjb

Member
Hi everyone :)

I have looked around on the internet but I cannot seem to find an answer,

my PSU supply is 600w and I am wondering that does it only use 600w when I'm playing games, so for example, if I'm just browsing the internet is my computer using a lot more electricity than what is needed or does it go into power saving mode for example, and then uses more power once I start playing a game?

I know that my PC probably does not use the 600watts that is available, but lets say it uses 430watts, does it constantly use 430 watts or does it go down to say 250 while I'm only on the internet?

thanks :)
 
Your power supply will only draw as much power from the wall as it needs.

If the hardware inside your PC isn't running at full load, then it isn't using as much power, meaning that your PSU also won't be running at full load and so it will only draw as much power as it needs.
 
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Your PC only uses as much power as it needs at that point in time. So no, when you're just idling or browsing the web, you're probably only using about 20-40% of your available power.

EDIT: Jason got it just as I did :P
 
spirit said:
Your power supply will only draw as much power from the wall as it needs.

If the hardware inside your PC isn't running at full load, then it is using as much power, meaning that your PSU also won't be running at full load and so it will only draw as much power as it needs.
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thank you so much :) great to know :)
 
voyagerfan99 said:
Your PC only uses as much power as it needs at that point in time. So no, when you're just idling or browsing the web, you're probably only using about 20-40% of your available power.

EDIT: Jason got it just as I did :P
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thanks :) I was worrying about the electricity bill lol
 
Don't worry too much about your electricity bills - most modern PCs at idle are actually very efficient and don't draw a lot of power at all.
 
Over the year your electricity bill really wont be affected too much by your PC. Even with the price hikes, say you used your computer for 5 hours a day at full load all year, or maybe less but then you used it for a couple of hours just browsing the net or with it turned on doing nothing, that is only about £55-60 a year.
 
thanks its good to know that they don't use too much power, also I guess they will only get more and more energy efficient over time :)

Just wondering though, does a 24 inch led monitor + a high end gaming computer use a lot more electric than a 32 inch led tv, and a console?

Thanks again everyone :)
 
alexjb said:
Just wondering though, does a 24 inch led monitor + a high end gaming computer use a lot more electric than a 32 inch led tv, and a console?
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I wouldn't have really thought so. I wouldn't worry about it though.
 
alexjb said:
thanks its good to know that they don't use too much power, also I guess they will only get more and more energy efficient over time :)

Just wondering though, does a 24 inch led monitor + a high end gaming computer use a lot more electric than a 32 inch led tv, and a console?

Thanks again everyone :)
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That depends on which console and on the specs of the PC.

The TV will use at most a couple of watts more power than the monitor, assuming they are the same efficiency as each other. If you had both displays on for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year the cost difference would be about 2 quid... you are talking pennies difference with how much each will actually be used.

If you have an old fat PlayStation 3, they used around 200W playing a game and not so much out of it. That isn't far off your PC at moderate load. If your PC was running a high end CPU, a couple of high end graphics cards all overclocked, even with the worlds most efficient power supply you are still going to be drawing a minimum of 3 times what the console is at full load.

Remember though that you will only have your console on when playing a game or movie, it won't be idle or use for just browsing the net or writing something up like your PC will, so although at load your PC will use more power, for every day use and idle it will bring the figures closer to even
 
Aastii said:
That depends on which console and on the specs of the PC.

The TV will use at most a couple of watts more power than the monitor, assuming they are the same efficiency as each other. If you had both displays on for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year the cost difference would be about 2 quid... you are talking pennies difference with how much each will actually be used.

If you have an old fat PlayStation 3, they used around 200W playing a game and not so much out of it. That isn't far off your PC at moderate load. If your PC was running a high end CPU, a couple of high end graphics cards all overclocked, even with the worlds most efficient power supply you are still going to be drawing a minimum of 3 times what the console is at full load.

Remember though that you will only have your console on when playing a game or movie, it won't be idle or use for just browsing the net or writing something up like your PC will, so although at load your PC will use more power, for every day use and idle it will bring the figures closer to even
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thanks :) Yes I do have a original fat ps3 :) I did not realise that it uses 200watts though, I suppose its pretty close to my computers electricity then because my computer is 1 x gtx 670 and i5, with 8gb Ram, and my tv is bigger than my monitor so it probably does use more electricity too,

how much watts do you think my pc uses while playing f1 2013 on highest graphics? thats the main game I play, thanks :)
 
Under load a 670 draws about 150W, an i5 2500K about 110 watts. Your CPU consumption will vary depending on speeds and which i5 you have. With the rest of your system you are probably looking at somewhere between 300-350W. When turned on idle I would be surprised if it used any more than 30-40W, so less than your light bulbs will
 
Aastii said:
Under load a 670 draws about 150W, an i5 2500K about 110 watts. Your CPU consumption will vary depending on speeds and which i5 you have. With the rest of your system you are probably looking at somewhere between 300-350W. When turned on idle I would be surprised if it used any more than 30-40W, so less than your light bulbs will
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Thank you so much :) that's actually really good, a lot less than I expected :) just wondering do you know if I put another hard drive in, would it also use more power? or would it be such a tiny amount?

Thanks again for your help :)
 
alexjb said:
Thank you so much :) that's actually really good, a lot less than I expected :) just wondering do you know if I put another hard drive in, would it also use more power? or would it be such a tiny amount?

Thanks again for your help :)
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It will, but very little, you are talking maybe 5-8W. If you went and got an SSD they will use less than 1W
 
Why are you getting so worried about how much power each component draws? We've already said that your electricity bills will be fine because at idle your PC is only drawing as much power as it needs from the mains and most components are actually very efficient anyway.
 
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