PSU Energy consumption of my PC with i7 4790 and GTX 1070

[denixius]

Hi,

I would like to ask a humble question so that I can balance the energy consumption of my computer. Unfortunately, a large amount of price increase was made in energy consumption. I would like to point out that my question is a bit strange. Nevertheless, I believe that I will receive consistent recommendations from you.

First of all, I can see the total energy consumption I spend daily on the bills, but I am not sure how much is included in this total energy as long as I use my computer. Before creating this forum topic, I did research, but since I have doubts about its accuracy, I kindly ask for your opinions. Therefore, I would like to give you information about my daily use at the beginning.

As a remote, I work 8 hours a day, from 9 am to 5 pm on weekdays. After 5 pm I turn off my computer for about 2 or 3 hours. I know it's useless information, but in the meantime, I'm mostly reading a book. Then I turn on my computer again and play video games for 5 hours, and maybe an hour more.

I know that a large part of the energy consumption varies according to the working power of the computer hardware. From the research, it is stated that the energy consumption will not be too high unless I use a low Watt PSU.

I've included the hardware I have below. Considering the hardware and the total hours I've used my computer, is Corsair CX750 ATX 80PLUS (750W) too high? Can I get the same performance if I replace this PSU with one with a lower W rating? Do you have any recommendations?

I also want to mention the games I usually play: Rainbow 6, Elder Scrolls Online, Deep Rock Galactic, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Cyberpunk 2077, Ready or Not, Hearts of Iron 4, Crusader Kings 3, Icarus, 7 Days to Die, Solasta, Baldur's Gate 3, Old World, Elite Dangerous, Stellaris, Valheim and so on.

Monitors: LG 27M47VQ-B 27" Full HD LED and Samsung SyncMaster B2230 N 21,5"
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3600 MHz
Motherboard: GA-Z97M-D3H
Memory: 16 GB
Video Card: GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G
Display: LG 27M47VQ 27 inches 2 ms FULL HD HDMI Gaming Monitor
Case: CORSAIR Carbide 400R MidT ATX
Audio Device: Onboard
Power Supply: Corsair CX750 ATX 80PLUS (750W)
Software: Windows 10 Home Edition 64-bit

Thank you very much in advance for your valuable comments.

 

[HD64G]

I know that a large part of the energy consumption varies according to the working power of the computer hardware. From the research, it is stated that the energy consumption will not be too high unless I use a low Watt PSU.

I've included the hardware I have below. Considering the hardware and the total hours I've used my computer, is Corsair CX750 ATX 80PLUS (750W) too high? Can I get the same performance if I replace this PSU with one with a lower W rating? Do you have any recommendations?

You are well with what you have for PSU. Only thing you can do is to use the balanced profile in windows power management more with the low power setting for the CPU to 20-25%.

 

[oxrufiioxo]

No, the only thing you can do if you wan't your PSU to consume less waste wattage is getting a more efficient psu. The rated wattage is just what the psu is capable of providing not how much is uses while your pc is on.

 

[denixius]

You are well with what you have for PSU. Only thing you can do is to use the balanced profile in windows power management more with the low power setting for the CPU to 20-25%.

Thank you, I will look for Windows power management settings now.

No, the only thing you can do if you wan't your PSU to consume less waste wattage is getting a more efficient psu. The rated wattage is just what the psu is capable of providing not how much is uses while your pc is on.

Thanks, I may change it. Do you have any recommendations for the hardware I use?

 

[oxrufiioxo]

Thanks, I may change it. Do you have any recommendations for the hardware I use?

Anything Gold rated or above but your local energy cost would have to be substantial for it to be worth doing it would likely take you years to break even. I prefer Seasonic but just about every psu maker has something pretty decent. I think what @HD64G is telling you to do is the more sensible option.

 

[denixius]

I see. I checked the Power Options, and it seems I was using Ultimate Performance. I was using Power Saver, but on Advanced Settings, it was Ultimate Performance. If I set Advanced Settings to Balanced or Power Saver, how bad my gaming performance will be affected?

 

[Tetras]

Any modern 80 gold PSU (or most from the pre-gold era) have very similar power usage under gaming load (anywhere from 30-80% ish), so it's generally not worth upgrading them. Your PSU is not excessively oversized, so it's unlikely to save you much (if anything) by downgrading it. The payback on PSUs is usually measured in years, not months.

All Intel CPUs since 1st gen core clock down a lot and without a GPU have sub 30 watt, often less (depends on the motherboard) idles. In average desktop use they'll stay below 50-60 even when e.g. watching videos.

The 1070 generally has low idle power for a high-end graphics card (techpowerup's review of your model says 6 watts) and it's not a heavy user under load.

I'm not sure about your monitor, but generally speaking 1080p screens use less than 50 watts at the desktop (often more like 20-30, or less), but using a high refresh rate can increase this (the graphics card's idle too).

If you know your electricity cost per kwh you can work out exactly how much your desktop and gaming use costs and if it's worth doing anything about it.

 

[denixius]

Any modern 80 gold PSU (or most from the pre-gold era) have very similar power usage under gaming load (anywhere from 30-80% ish), so it's generally not worth upgrading them. Your PSU is not excessively oversized, so it's unlikely to save you much (if anything) by downgrading it. The payback on PSUs is usually measured in years, not months.

All Intel CPUs since 1st gen core clock down a lot and without a GPU have sub 30 watt, often less (depends on the motherboard) idles. In average desktop use they'll stay below 50-60 even when e.g. watching videos.

The 1070 generally has low idle power for a high-end graphics card (techpowerup's review of your model says 6 watts) and it's not a heavy user under load.

I'm not sure about your monitor, but generally speaking 1080p screens use less than 50 watts at the desktop (often more like 20-30, or less), but using a high refresh rate can increase this (the graphics card's idle too).

If you know your electricity cost per kwh you can work out exactly how much your desktop and gaming use costs and if it's worth doing anything about it.

Thanks for your comment, I understand what you said. It seems I forgot to add my monitors. My main monitor is LG 27M47VQ-B 27" Full HD LED, and the second monitor is Samsung SyncMaster B2230 N 21,5".

 

[AsRock]

Cap your vsync to the minimum you can deal playing with, power usage depends on game \game engine too.

 

[denixius]

I also changed the brightness of my monitors to low. This is really annoying!

And thanks for your all comments, I appreciated it!

 

[Bill_Bright]

From the research, it is stated that the energy consumption will not be too high unless I use a low Watt PSU.

No, this is total nonsense! Wherever you read that, whoever said that is totally clueless. Avoid that site!

If your computer (motherboard, CPU, RAM, drives, fans, graphics solution) demand 200W, your PSU will deliver 200W regardless if your PSU is a 350W PSU, 600W PSU or a 1000W PSU. And the PSU (regardless which one) will pull from the wall 200W, plus a little more due to PSU inefficiencies.

IF both PSUs are 80% efficient at that load level, that means both PSUs will pull from the wall exactly the same amount of power; 250W (250 x .8 = 200W).

So oxrufiioxo is exactly right. If you want to consume less power, get a more efficient PSU.

HOWEVER - I highly doubt you will see any change in your power bill. "Work" tasks place little demand on our computer systems. So I highly doubt your computer is pulling anything close to 200W while you are doing "work" tasks. You are already using an 80 PLUS "Bronze" PSU which requires the PSU to be at least 82% efficient. A "Gold" will get you maybe 5% points. It would take you a couple years to pay for a new PSU in energy savings.

Yes, gaming can run up the power demands. But it is the 8 hours of "work" we are talking about here.

If you really want to see how much power your computer is using, get a "good" UPS with AVR, one that has a decent LCD status panel and/or interconnecting communication cable and software that will tell you how much the connected devices are demand. Or, get a kill-a-watt meter and power your computer through it.

For sure, your refrigerator is most likely the biggest power hog in your home. Air conditioners are big hogs too.

One thing you might consider is to get another computer - used just for work. One with a decent (but thrifty) i3 or i5 or AMD equivalent, integrated graphics, and 8GB of RAM, and an SSD.

 

[denixius]

No, this is total nonsense! Wherever you read that, whoever said that is totally clueless. Avoid that site!

Hey, thanks for your detailed answer! The worst thing is that it wasn't just one website that claims "low Watt PSU spend low energy".

If your computer (motherboard, CPU, RAM, drives, fans, graphics solution) demand 200W, your PSU will deliver 200W regardless if your PSU is a 350W PSU, 600W PSU or a 1000W PSU. And the PSU (regardless which one) will pull from the wall 200W, plus a little more due to PSU inefficiencies.

That's a relief!

One thing you might consider is to get another computer - used just for work. One with a decent (but thrifty) i3 or i5 or AMD equivalent, integrated graphics, and 8GB of RAM, and an SSD.

I'm thinking to purchase a decent notebook at least for work, not so much thing in it. I'm thinking to charge it evenings and use while I'm working without cable.

 

[Deleted member 202104]

Based on your specifications and your usage, and the hours you do each, you probably use about 3 kWh of power per day for all of your computing activities. If you know how much power costs where you live, you can calculate how much it costs per day to use.

Estimates for your computer and monitors:

125w draw for 8 hours of working: 1 kWh (0.125 * 8)
350w draw for 5 hours of gaming: 1.75 kWh (0.35 * 5)

For a total of 2.75 kWh of usage rounded up to 3 kWh

 

[Bill_Bright]

The worst thing is that it wasn't just one website that claims "l"low Watt PSU spend low energy"

I know - there's a lot of misinformation out there. I can only assume it comes from the fact some low wattage PSUs are budget and lower quality PSUs. And many lower quality PSUs are less efficient. A less efficient PSU will waste more energy (in the form of heat). But that does NOT mean all low wattage PSUs are low quality or have lower efficiency.

On the flip side, there are many poor quality, low efficiency high wattage PSUs too! So for sure, just because a PSU is capable of delivering a lot of watts, that IN NO WAY means it is high quality, reliable, or efficient!

Another common bit of misinformation is the assumption 80 PLUS certification indicates high quality. NOT TRUE! It just means it is at least 80% efficient at 20, 50 and 100% loads (and also10% for Titanium). 80 PLUS certification does not mean the PSU meets the required maximum of ±5% output tolerances, a minimum of 17ms hold up times, or that it provides sufficient ripple suppression.

 

[HD64G]

Nice doing there. Decreasing screen brightness to the absolute needed is also a way of decreasing energy consumption. As for balanced power setting, it might allow some stuttering in specific CPU-sensitive games, so when gaming change it to the performance setting. The ultimate one is only for multithreading benchmarking imho.

 

[Tetras]

Thanks for your comment, I understand what you said. It seems I forgot to add my monitors. My main monitor is LG 27M47VQ-B 27" Full HD LED, and the second monitor is Samsung SyncMaster B2230 N 21,5".

From what I can see, LG say approx 30 watts and Samsung 45, but I'd think under usable brightness it'll be much lower than that (for both monitors).

 

[Bill_Bright]

This is something you can easily tell with a good UPS or a Kill-A-Watt meter.

But even if 10W difference, you are talking pennies over days. Instead, run around the house and turn off unnecessary lights. Unplug devices that don't need to be plugged in (cable boxes are serious 24/7 power hogs). Turn the water heater down a couple degrees. Same with the furnace, if electric. Other steps include caulking around your windows and doors and use other insulating techniques.

Then save your money and buy a modern computer - one that uses DDR4, for example. And get a more efficient graphics card.

 

[QuietBob]

There are a number of things to consider when trying to reduce your PC's energy use. As @Bill_Bright pointed out, I'd start by getting a watt meter to measure your system's total power consumption in different scenarios.

First, what kind of tasks does your daytime job involve? If it's typical office work, you'll conserve energy by limiting your computer's idle power consumption. Set your power plan to balanced, and minimum processor state to 0%, so that the CPU will only clock up when necessary. That tip applies to pretty much every use case, including gaming. There's no point in keeping the CPU's clock always at maximum.

Do you absolutely require two monitors? You will save energy by turning off the one you aren't using actively. And when gaming, your PC will consume considerably more power with a dual screen setup.

And gaming is where you're most likely to find bigger energy savings. As others have already suggested, make sure to enable V-sync. Many games play just fine at 40-60 fps. You don't actually need 144+ fps to enjoy them. Games lacking the V-sync setting may need to be manualy limited to a lower frame rate. And depending on the game, you may even consider reducing detail level and/or resolution so that your GPU isn't pegged at 99% all the time.

And lastly, new generation hardware while being more powerful is also more energy efficient. My old system used 85w in idle and up to 450w when gaming. My new system consumes just 38w on the desktop and around 110w when gaming (1200p/60 with V-sync on).

 

[Tetras]

And lastly, new generation hardware while being more powerful is also more energy efficient. My old system used 85w in idle and up to 450w when gaming. My new system consumes just 38w on the desktop and around 110w when gaming (1200p/60 with V-sync on).

Just wanted to add a caveat to this, since the OP is on Haswell. With Intel systems idle power between 2nd and 11th gen Core is not consistently improved, some platforms actually go backwards (8th gen is generally superior to 10th gen for example). Though, load is often more efficient, except for 11th gen. Ryzen (except APUs) is generally less efficient at idle than 2nd to 12th gen Core too, many Ryzen users were disappointed when switching from 3rd/4th gen Core that their idle power went up considerably.

Pascal is also one of nvidias most efficient architectures, with generally excellent idle and load power.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

The worst thing is that it wasn't just one website that claims "low Watt PSU spend low energy".

This sounds like old information that was true at the time. What they were talking about was making sure your PSU was sized correctly to run at ~50% load, where most power supplies back then were the most efficient. Today's PSU's have an almost flat efficiency graph.

 

[denixius]

This is something you can easily tell with a good UPS or a Kill-A-Watt meter.

But even if 10W difference, you are talking pennies over days. Instead, run around the house and turn off unnecessary lights. Unplug devices that don't need to be plugged in (cable boxes are serious 24/7 power hogs). Turn the water heater down a couple degrees. Same with the furnace, if electric. Other steps include caulking around your windows and doors and use other insulating techniques.

Then save your money and buy a modern computer - one that uses DDR4, for example. And get a more efficient graphics card.

TBH, I newly heard that there's something like Kill-A-Watt meter. So, I want to check that, too. Thank you.

There are a number of things to consider when trying to reduce your PC's energy use. As @Bill_Bright pointed out, I'd start by getting a watt meter to measure your system's total power consumption in different scenarios.

First, what kind of tasks does your daytime job involve? If it's typical office work, you'll conserve energy by limiting your computer's idle power consumption. Set your power plan to balanced, and minimum processor state to 0%, so that the CPU will only clock up when necessary. That tip applies to pretty much every use case, including gaming. There's no point in keeping the CPU's clock always at maximum.

Do you absolutely require two monitors? You will save energy by turning off the one you aren't using actively. And when gaming, your PC will consume considerably more power with a dual screen setup.

And gaming is where you're most likely to find bigger energy savings. As others have already suggested, make sure to enable V-sync. Many games play just fine at 40-60 fps. You don't actually need 144+ fps to enjoy them. Games lacking the V-sync setting may need to be manualy limited to a lower frame rate. And depending on the game, you may even consider reducing detail level and/or resolution so that your GPU isn't pegged at 99% all the time.

And lastly, new generation hardware while being more powerful is also more energy efficient. My old system used 85w in idle and up to 450w when gaming. My new system consumes just 38w on the desktop and around 110w when gaming (1200p/60 with V-sync on).

I don't need a second monitor while gaming, I only need it for work. From now on, I will turn off my second monitor while gaming. However, most of the game doesn't have V-Sync in their options, but I will turn it on if I can.

 

[Toothless]

Your 4790 will at most pull 80-90w. Your GPU probably maxes at like 200w. Your entire setup is at most 500w or so from the wall. Just let the desktop idle and monitors turn themselves off and you'll be alright.

 

[JustBenching]

Most of the consumption comes from the gpu, when gaming. When you are just working (and I guess you mean word / excels and light programs) it doesn't really consume much, maybe 100watts max? When gaming you can enable Vsync . it forces 60fps max to lower your GPU power consumption You can also try undervolting your CARD, for example my 3090 can drop from 470 to 380watts running at the same clockspeeds with undervolting.