Nvidia RTX 4000 rumor sparks more power consumption fears

Nvidia RTX 4000 rumor sparks more power consumption fears

Nvidia's next-gen flagship RTX 4090 might have a revealing power draw, at least at first glance according to the latest rumour, but there's more to it than meets the eye (plus better news later: the RTX 4000 range).

This all comes from a well-established hardware leaker on Twitter, Kopite7kimi, who outlined some alleged power details for Nvidia's Lovelace chips, from the AD102 (the flagship) on down (as spotted by VideoCardz (opens in a new tab)).

The truth. Power limits: AD102, 800W; AD103 (DT), 450W, AD103 (Mobile), 175W; AD104 (DT), 400W, AD104 (Mobile), 175W; AD106 (DT), 260 W, AD106 (Mobile), 140 W. But I don't think we need to use the maximum power limit. June 18, 2022

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So the theory is that the AD102 GPU will have a 'power cap' of 800W, which sounds very heavy and worrisome (and recalls earlier speculation that the Lovelace will draw a lot of power).

However, what we need to keep in mind here is that this power limit refers to the maximum possible power for the GPU, and in reality, the nominal TDP will be considerably lower than that of basic graphics cards. We'll come back to delve into what that means in a moment.

The better news is that while the AD102 tops out at 800W, Nvidia is reportedly dropping the GPU that's supposed to power the RTX 4080, with the AD103 sitting at 450W (again, this is the maximum power possible). Then AD104 is set to 400W and AD106 to 260W.

Kopite7kimi also mentions mobile GPUs, with the AD103 and AD104 mobile chips apparently set to run at a 175W cap, and with mobile AD106 we're theoretically aiming for 140W.

Analysis: putting things in perspective in terms of power

Okay, before we worry too much about the whopping 800W figure that was put into the AD102 chip, let's remember that this is just a rumour, and we've seen a number of speculations about where Lovelace's power draw might end up. But then again, that doesn't necessarily mean that the RTX 4090, which is supposed to be the first graphics card that Nvidia will launch with the next-gen Lovelace family, will be this monstrous.

As noted above, 800W refers to the maximum power possible for the GPU, and the nominal TDP will be less than that, with only more advanced third-party graphics cards pushing things much faster with clock speeds (and powerful cooling). ) approaching this ceiling (also leaving room for overclocking).

The other key takeaway with AD102 is that the RTX 4090 will have a scaled-down version of the GPU, and Vine believes it will run on 16,384 CUDA cores (the maximum assumed for the chip is 18,432). There will be other models, most likely an RTX 4090 Ti, and we could even see an RTX Titan for Lovelace above, and perhaps only the Titan will push to fully exploit that maximum power limit.

When you take those two factors into account, the RTX 4090 is likely to be much lower in terms of actual power consumption, and it will be the full AD102 models, and faster high-end cards, for that matter. – that they will increase their consumption until approaching this 800 W mark (if that is true in the first place).

So don't start worrying about the RTX 4090 power-wise just yet - the GPU could easily match some of the other recent rumors we've heard, like 600W for the TDP, although speculation about a 450W TDP seems more brittle in this new light (these TDPs are also claims by Kopite7kimi, in fact, and RedGamingTech on YouTube in the latter case).

Another interesting point to note here is that the maximum power drops to 450W for the RTX 4080. Very recently, Kopite7kimi said that the 4080 could sit at around 420W for its TDP, but this new information offers a tentative suggestion of which could be a bit lower than that (previous rumors had us expecting around 400W). And that would be better news for the much larger number of gamers who will want to buy an RTX 4080, compared to the more specialized RTX 4090 with its undoubtedly exorbitant price tag.

In short, let's not get carried away with concerns about potential power demands, though the possibility of needed PSU upgrades, and indeed better cooling solutions to keep the inside of the PC at a reasonable temperature, remains a concern. for those looking for a high-end Lovelace GPU.

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