The next generation graphics card can draw up to 500 W

Traditionally, graphics cards have stuck to one Thermal Design Power (TDP) corresponding to approximately 200–250 W in recent years. There are some exceptions, especially when it comes to cards with several graphics circuits, such as the Geforce GTX 590, but AMD also had some single-circuit boards such as the Radeon RX 290 which was up and sniffed at 300 W.

Raging TDP has often coincided with manufacturers getting stuck on a manufacturing node, but still wanting to push for more performance out of a new graphics card. Other scenarios, in addition to multi-circuit graphics cards, are for example when adding a new performance segment on top of what has previously been offered. Geforce RTX 3090 and Geforce GTX 1080 Ti can be considered examples of this.

Now rumors are that the next generation of graphics cards from Nvidia could potentially consume more power than previously seen in a graphics card with a single circuit. The well-known leaks kopite7kimi and greymon55 mean that the upcoming graphics cards can draw anything between 450 and 500 W.

Techpowerup also reports that similar figures are to be expected for RDNA 3, as estimates of 450–480 W appeared via, among others, 3DCenter. In other words, it may be time to think twice if you intend to buy a new power supply soon.

Do you care how much power your graphics card draws in addition to any heat issues?