The AMD Radeon RX 6000 requires over 300 watts

Recent data on the “Big Navi” and Radeon RX 6000 series has spoken of not only high clock speeds of 2.3 GHz, but also modest power consumption in the order of 255 watts – something that now makes Igor Labs founder Igor Wallossek look red. Where the previous leak from Patrick Schur placed the TGP figure (Total Graphics Power) at 255 watts, Wallossek believes that the figure itself is a half-truth based on what AMD calls “Graphics Power”.

To Graphics Power namely, AMD only takes into account the power consumption of the graphics processor itself and the graphics memory – and should therefore not be compared with Nvidia and its dimensions TGP, Total Graphics Power, which counts the entire card’s power supply, according to Wallossek. AMD’s equivalent to TGP is instead called TBP, Total/Typical Board Power, a figure that is instead significantly higher.

In addition to breaking down the semantics, Wallosek also chooses to estimate the power consumption of complete graphics cards shod with the upcoming graphics processor Navi 21, based on just Graphics Powerfigure of 255 watts. This includes 16 GB of Samsung’s GDDR6 memory, at a speed of 16 Gbps for the top model Navi 21 XT, while the upper middle class Navi 21 XL is estimated to have lower clock frequencies of 14 Gbps on the memory, but also on the graphics circuit itself.

The result is a reference card that aligns with the Geforce RTX 3080 at 320 watts when all components that make up a complete graphics card are included. According to Wallossek, “Big Navi” graphics cards developed with overclocking in mind are expected to land at around 355 watts as a result of allowing the graphics processor to stretch its legs by a further 35 watts, while cards built around the Navi 21 XL as a whole are estimated to draw around 290 watts.

On the memory front for the Navi 21 XT, Wallossek also believes that AMD has issued a strong recommendation to its partners to use the K4ZAF325BM-HC16 memory circuit from Samsung, the only circuit that currently offers speeds of 16 Gbps and a capacity of 2 GB per capsule. Here, too, Wallossek believes that power consumption may run away, as the figure of 20 watts for eight memory circuits can be conservatively calculated using average consumption.

In other words, the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series may become a hot story – exactly how hot we will become aware of when AMD officially presents the product series on October 28.

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