901W And Above Power Supplies (1 product)

Return to top

Is a 901W And Above PSU Overkill?

Even though top-tier CPUs and GPUs can on paper consumer hundreds of watts each, real world power consumption is often much lower. In games, for example, the total system power consumption of an RTX 4090-equipped PC is on average 500W. NVIDIA themselves recommend an 850W PSU for an RTX 4090 system, which as a reminder is one of the world's fastest graphics cards. So, you may be asking yourself why you'd need a 1,000W or even a 1,500W power supply. Let's examine some uses cases where 901W-and-above PSUs would come in handy.

Multi-GPU Machines

Most modern games do not support NVIDIA's SLI/NVLink or AMD's Crossfire technologies, which enable the use of multiple graphics cards to render out a single image. However, the multi-GPU dream is alive and well in professional applications and workloads. It's not that uncommon for a high-spec workstation to be equipped with not one but two, three, or even for ultra-high-end graphics card to, say, shorten the training time of a deep neural network. This will, of course, necessitate a seriously high-wattage power supply.

Cooling and Noise

Let's say you were looking to build a gaming PC with an average power consumption of 400W. A 500W PSU could technically handle this, but it'd put the power supply under quite a heavy load. Its cooling solution is designed to be able to dissipate 500 watts' worth of heat, so 400W is getting up there. A 1,000W PSU, on the other hand, is built to withstand much higher wattages. So at these relatively low wattages, a 1,000W PSU wouldn't even break a sweat. A 1,000W PSU would run cooler and, in turn, produce less noise compared to a 500W unit in this scenario. At such low usage, a 1,000W PSU's fan may not even spin up.

Overclocking

Then there's overclocking, the process of raising a component's frequencies higher than its stock, from-the-factory state for extra performance. Most hardware is tuned to hit a performance-per-watt sweet spot out of the box. So to achieve these higher frequencies via overclocking, you have to pump a lot more power into the component. It's not a linear progression, either; a 20% increase in frequency will likely require more than a 20% increase in power. Simply put, efficiency goes out of the window when you overclock. An ultra-high wattage power supply is needed to meet these exponential power requirements, but this isn't going to stop those wanting to push their hardware to the absolute limits.

Upgradability

You may not need a 901W-and-above power supply now, but you may need one in the future. If you've got the budget to spare, it's arguably worth picking up a power supply with a slightly higher wattage than you need. So when it comes time to upgrade to new, more power-hungry hardware, you won't have to also buy a new PSU to power it all, saving you money in the long run.

It's also worth pointing out the fact that these 901W-and-above power supplies are usually 80 PLUS Gold-certified at the minimum, with 80 PLUS Platinum and Titanium (the highest tier) units being readily available, too. As noted on the main PSU page, 80 PLUS is the measure of a PSU's efficiency, not its quality. However, higher efficiency components tend to be of a higher quality as well. Nevertheless, these 901W-and-above power supplies are built to last, with many backed by comprehensive 10-year warranties.

901W And Above Power Supplies at Ebuyer

Here at Ebuyer, we stock a range of 901W-and-above power supplies from all the top brands, including Corsair, Cooler Master, and ASUS.

If you want your new ultra-high wattage power supply by tomorrow, next-day delivery is available. We also offer finance packages for added flexibility. And don't forget the Ebuyer Price Match Promise - we won't be beaten on price.