Specifically graphics cards. How do we come to the conclusion that the official PSU requirement for a GPU by the manufacturer is higher than what it actually needs? If a GPU is meant to be 340W, is that always the case or only when it’s really number crunching when a game is modern and is set to ultra settings?
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TDP(Thermal Design Power) is the max design power so running at full load at factory settings that’s the most power it should draw and the most heat it should produce. At low load it turns off chunks and reduces speed to greatly reduce power draw
The PSU recommendations from the GPU manufacturers aren’t just for the GPU, it also needs to power the rest of the system like 150W for the CPU, and account for the fact that many 550W PSUs will be very sad if you try to pull 550W from the 12V rail(what feeds the CPU and GPU but not drives) for a few hours. Good ones will be fine, but assuming good parts in recommendations is asking for trouble
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