Rumors in the last hours speak that the graphics cards equipped with the AD102 GPU could have an excessively high consumption figure and that it almost doubles the 450 W of the RTX 3090 Ti. Are we really going to see an RTX 40 at 850 W or have the internet gossips simply lost their way?
There is no doubt that gaming graphics cards will increase consumption for the next generation, the clue being the new PCI Express connector that can deliver up to 600W of power with a single cable and the recent introduction of the RTX 3090 Ti that can reach 450W
The reason for going to higher consumption is due to the increase in the cost of wafers that make it impossible to achieve certain yields by increasing the number of cores due to lack of space on the chip. What forces to increase the clock speed and with it the power necessary to work. If we add to this the new GDDR6 speeds that were recently announced, then we have the perfect cocktail.
NVIDIA RTX 4090 at 850W TGP?
The surprise, however, has come to us a few hours ago when one of the best-known information leakers, GreyMon55, has dropped that the AD102 chip, which would correspond in principle to the GPUs ranging from the RTX 4080 to the RTX 4090 TI, would come in three different versions depending on their TGP: 450 W, 650 W and 850 W.
On the other hand, Kopite7Kimi also points in the same direction, but with a somewhat more modest configuration, 450 W, 600 W and 800 W. Given the history of the latter when it comes to leaking information from NVIDIA and the fact that the two The first consumptions correspond to the 12+0 mode and the 12+4 mode of the new PCIe Gen 5 power connector suits us much more.
What about the 800W version that Kopite7Kimi is talking about? Well, it is possible that there are cards that combine 6 or 8 pin cables with the new 12 or 16, we have already seen it before. So it should not surprise us to see consumption higher than 600 W, but none of them obtains a consumption of 800 W unless NVIDIA decides to create a new connector for an RTX 40 at 800 or 850 W.
Is 850W possible on an RTX 40?
Taking into account the four different connector variants, we should be able to deduce the full range of the different theoretical consumption levels that the different graphics cards should have by combining using two connectors. Remember that we have the 6-pin that gives 75 W, the 8-pin gives 150 W, 450 W from the 12-pin and to finish 600 W with the 16-pin or also known as 12 + 4.
Under this premise we find that the consumption that can be obtained for the graphics card would be the following by using the new PCIe Gen 5 connector in combination with one of the previous ones.
- 16pin + 8pin: 750W
- 16pin + 6pin: 675W
- 16-pin only: 600W
- 12 pins + 8 pins: 600 W and therefore redundant with the previous one, which is why we do not think we will see it.
- 12pin + 6pin: 525W
- 12 Pin Only: 450W
The rest of the combinations would correspond to those that are possible with the current connectors and that already exist in the vast majority of graphics cards that are already on the market. So it is possible to power a graphics card with up to 750 W of power, but not 850 W.
Are we going to see a graph with those consumption levels?
We must also take into account the heat generated, which requires extremely expensive and advanced liquid cooling systems to be able to keep the GPU and its VRAM at a temperature to work continuously. The paradox is that you get to the point where reaching certain clock speeds means increasing the voltage so much that the performance per watt plummets.
Our opinion as experts? We think we are going to see a 450W model making use of the 12+0 connector, possibly the RTX 4080 and then another for the 600W 12+4 connector for the RTX 4090, but not beyond that. Moreover, we doubt that NVIDIA will combine the new connector with the 6 or 8 pin ones.
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