PSU Hierarchy 2020 – PC Power Supply Tier List

When building a new PC or upgrading your old one, it’s important to have a good power supply unit as they are a direct source of energy for your computer.

It’s no use to have high-performing CPU or GPU if you’re going to saddle it with a lesser PSU. It’s understandably hard process already to try and match all the PC parts into a cohesive unit, especially if you’re looking at the mountain of GPU choice, so we’ve created a definitive PSU hierarchy to help you choose what’s best for you.

This hierarchy is decided based on stuff, performance, and efficiency. There are also other important things that aren’t among deciding factors but are worth mentioning and explaining.

Namely, we’re talking about PSU efficiency and the 80 Plus rating. This is a certification created to indicate that a power supply is at least 80% efficient at 20%, 50%, and 100% loads. There are six different certificates that point to a PSU’s efficiency and their names are pretty self-explanatory. They are as follows: Regular, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinium, and Titanium.

With each tier in the PSU hierarchy, there will be explanations and suggestions for the best use of the PSUs in that tier, and in order to avoid clutter, we’ve chosen to only showcase a maximum of 2 models per manufacturer in each tier.

S Tier

Starting from the top, and like in almost any other PC component hierarchy, places here are reserved for what can be called enthusiast class. PSUs in this range will hold at least an 80 Plus Platinium rating and often an 80 Plus Titanium rating.

There’s also a little bit of extra classification in this tier in the form of a single-rail/multi-rail options, but with the advancement of power supply technology, these are becoming irrelevant.

Here’s a good video showing the difference between them.

These PSUs are reserved for very high-performing systems and unless you’re running a top of the line CPU and GPU and intending to overclock them, these aren’t for you.

One thing that’s extremely interesting to point out in regards to the future of this tier is that with the increased focus from hardware manufacturers on energy efficiency, there might not be a future at all for these enthusiast-class PSUs. That prediction might seem outlandish but given Nvidia’s and AMD’s tendencies of one-upmanship in every possible little detail for their GPUs (which are considered the top power consumers), it’s very possible that these powerful PSUs might soon become a thing of the past.

Multi-Rail

Single-Rail

A Tier

Here’s a little more affordable range, but will still cost a pretty penny. These PSUs aren’t exactly an overkill even when overclocking the GPU and CPU, and might in fact be the best option, long-term. PSUs in this tier might also be closer to that enthusiast range, and the power they generate might still be too much overhead room for the majority of gamers.

Getting an A tier PSU is still not recommended for people who are building a PC for the first time as they likely don’t have enough knowledge to take full advantage of these powerful PSUs. Furthermore, if you’re a first-timer, you likely won’t even need a PSU from this tier and could probably save some money and get a better GPU.

In this range, it’s safest to stay with the manufacturers with a good track record like Thermaltake or Deepcool because a lot of new companies will try to make the best possible PSU and will want to make it high-end and that might not be a thing that’s possible right off the bat.

B Tier

This is probably the best tier for the majority of PC builders as the price is acceptable, and the quality is consistent. Of course, you might not be able to overclock your high-end hardware, but if affordable reliability is what you’re looking for, then PSUs in this tier are perfect for you.

Like in the previous tier, it’s a safe bet to stick with a reliable manufacturer, but in this tier, it might be worth your time (and money) to get something from a relatively unproven brand.

Overall, here is where you’ll find the best value for your money in our PSU hierarchy.

C Tier

We’re now in the bottom half of our PSU hierarchy and past this point, there aren’t going to be many power supply units that will be able to support high-end gaming.

In fact, they might even struggle at mid-level gaming as they’re not exactly best suited for a system with a dedicated GPU and would probably be better with an integrated GPU.

D Tier

The second-to-last tier in our list is reserved for PSUs that are only suitable for the lowest of the low budgets and should not be used for gaming.

While PSUs from this tier will technically work, they’re not recommended for anything outside of a work computer that will run Microsoft Office and even that might be stretching it.

Mostly older units will be in this tier and they are slowly but surely approaching their expiration date.

F Tier

We’ve reached the absolute bottom of the barrel of the PSU hierarchy. Members of this tier are an actual physical risk to your PC, as in, they could easily malfunction and short circuit your board or any other component.

Of course, there are circumstances where that can happen to almost any PSU out there, but these are not recommended for anyone.

Final Words On The PSU Hierarchy

It’s very important to accentuate that this isn’t a definitive and final PSU hierarchy list. Like many things in technology, power supply units evolve and their rankings are subject to constant change.

You can refer to the tier list on Linus Tech Tips for more information about PSUs.

However, where PSU should be appreciated a lot more is the fact that they’re reliable, long-lasting, and relatively cheap, especially compared to things like GPUs which go out of fashion lightning fast.