No, a 1000W PSU is Not Overkill for 2023 Gaming PCs

As an avid gamer who loves building high-end systems and keeping up with the latest hardware, I get asked this question a lot: "Isn‘t a 1000 watt power supply overkill?"

The short answer? For most modern GPUs and CPUs intended for hardcore gaming or content creation, a quality 80 Plus Gold or Platinum 1000W PSU hits the sweet spot.

Far from being overkill, it‘s more of a "just right" future-proof power capacity for today‘s bleeding edge gear, with some headroom to grow. I‘ll expand on why I feel this way from a fellow enthusiast‘s perspective.

Average Gaming PC Power Requirements

First, let‘s quantify what kind of power is needed for different classes of gaming PCs.

This data comes from Corsair‘s 2022 PC power consumption study across thousands of real-world systems:

As you can see, average load power consumption ranges from 300W to 650W depending on performance level.

But peak transient spikes during intense gaming can go quite a bit higher. I‘ll come back to why those peaks matter later regarding PSU capacity.

Why 1000W is Recommended for Flagship GPUs

Nvidia‘s official recommendation calls for a minimum 750W PSU for their new GeForce RTX 4090 flagship gaming GPU.

However, many enthusiasts and industry experts actually recommend a 1000W unit instead.

For example, Tom‘s Hardware says 850W can work, but 1000+ watts gives more ideal headroom:

"You can probably get by with an 850W PSU with the RTX 4090 if you have a fairly mainstream CPU like the Core i7-12700K or Ryzen 7 5800X3D. However, if you want to overclock your GPU or CPU, then we recommend a 1,000W+ unit like Corsair‘s HX1000."

Linus Tech Tips similarly suggests 1000-1200W in their RTX 4090 launch review, unless you have a very conservative 65W CPU like the 5800X3D.

Why this 150-200W difference between Nvidia‘s stated requirements and seasoned veterans‘ recommendations? Transient power spikes.

Brief Spikes Over 450 Watts are Normal

Here‘s the thing about GPU power consumption – there are normal millisecond-scale spikes way above the average or sustained loads.

When monitoring my RTX 3090 Ti‘s power in games like Cyberpunk 2077, I routinely see spikes over 450W even as average draw stays around 320W.

Based on testing hardware, the RTX 4090 has even higher peaks potentially exceeding 700 watts!

Having a PSU sized closer to those peaks improves stability and prevents overload shutdowns. I suspect Nvidia‘s 750W guideline is based purely on sustained average load, not accounting for those spikes.

So while possible to run a 750/850W unit without immediately exploding, the danger of shutdowns from overload protection leads experts to recommend 1000W or more instead.

Efficiency Differences are Minimal Between 1000W and 750W PSUs

One thing I hear is whether running a massively oversized 1000W+ PSU will waste energy.

"Wouldn‘t a 750W unit running closer to its ceiling be more efficient?"

This is understandable logic, but modern PSU efficiency curves have changed the game here.

Based on this Cybenetics Gold 650W review, a good PSU actually peaks around 50% load before tapering again past that point:

So with a 650W PSU, max efficiency happens around 300-400W draw. As you scale up in capacity to 750W and 1000W, that peak efficiency band shifts higher too.

The end result? A 1000W PSU running a 700W peak/500W average gaming rig is actually in its sweet spot too!

I crunched some numbers on 80 Plus Gold units at 50% load:

See – they‘re all about the same efficiency wise here. The 1000W just has way more headroom before hitting its ceiling.

And 80 Plus Platinum models achieve 94-96% efficiency at 50% load regardless of capacity. So no disadvantage for bigger PSUs there either.

1000+ Watts Opens the Door for Extreme Upgrades

One appeal of going with an 80 Plus Gold or Platinum 1000W+ unit today is being ready for tomorrow‘s GPU power leapfrogs.

Nvidia‘s Founders Edition RTX 4090 spikes over 700W already. Radeon‘s next-gen flagships likely will too.

Rumors point to 50-60% more power draw again for Nvidia‘s next-next-gen offerings codenamed Lovelace in 2024.

While multi-GPU is fading away, the raw power budget needed to push 8K 120 FPS or silky smooth 4K 240 FPS VR will keep increasing.

Having a 1000W+ PSU offers much more overclocking headroom and future upgrade flexibility without needing to swap out the PSU again down the road.

If nothing else, it removes power capacity from ever being a concern in your gaming PC.

80 Plus Efficiency Ratings Explained

If you aren‘t familiar with 80 Plus certifications, here‘s a quick primer:

These ratings represent power supply efficiency across their load range.

For example, an 80 Plus Gold 1000W PSU pulling 700W from the wall is actually delivering around 630-690W to your PC‘s components.

So 90%+ real-world efficiency cuts down waste heat and power draw from the outlet nicely!

1000 Watts Lets Your PC Components Shine

At the end of day, we enthusiasts want our gaming and content creation PCs to have access to every last ounce of clean, stable power needed to achieve their full performance potential.

Without needing to worry about overload shutdowns, efficiency losses, transient spikes, or future upgrades.

That‘s the beauty of having an 80 Plus Gold or Platinum 1000W+ PSU purring away in your system.

Overkill? I see it as just enough kill!

What do you think – is a quality 1000W power supply right-sized for today‘s high-end GPUs, or more capacity than most gaming builds need? I‘m curious to hear your perspective in the comments!