AMD expects that graphics cards will require more power in the future, which will also increase the consumption of gaming PCs.
Enlarge
Current graphics cards require significantly more power than their predecessors.
© amd.com
Anyone who is already annoyed about a high electricity bill caused by their own gaming PC will probably have to dig even deeper into their pockets in the coming years. Because not only has the purchase of a current graphics card become more expensive in recent years, the power consumption of the GPUs is also increasing continuously. In an interview, AMD’s Senior Vice President Sam Naffziger confirmed that graphics cards will require more and more power in the coming years.
New manufacturing processes are coming too slowly
One reason for this can be found in the delayed change to more efficient manufacturing processes for graphics chips. Although one can take countermeasures with optimizations, in principle an increase in performance is also associated with an increased hunger for energy. Compared to the competitor Nvidia, AMD still sees an advantage: In order to be able to continue to offer faster graphics cards, Nvidia has significantly reduced power consumption in recent years; current graphics cards require much more power than their predecessors. In the end, however, AMD could also increase power consumption in order to remain competitive.
Over 400 watts just for the graphics card
An RTX 2080 Ti from 2018 officially requires 250 watts, while the RTX 3080 already has 320 watts. The RTX 4000 GPUs expected for the fourth quarter of 2022 should require even more energy. Increases of 100 watts are under discussion. With that, an RTX 4080 might draw 420 watts from the power supply. And AMD could also give the new RX 7000 series up to 400 watts.
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4000: Everything about performance, price and release
