Every year, companies release new models of processors and graphics adapters. For a long time, the power consumption in the CPU remained at about the same level. Was it better before? Let’s take a look at whether modern graphics cards/processors really require that much power.

High energy consumption worries ordinary users, but not manufacturers. They don’t care that the buyer will have to spend a few hundred more dollars on liquid cooling or a more powerful power supply. Is this the only way to increase computing power?

Was it better before?

HEDT owners of the LGA 1366 platform know well how hot Intel Core Extreme processors were. The benchmark Intel Core i7-980 X had quite a difference between Stock/OC. Base frequencies were low (3.3 GHz), but the model had good overclocking potential.

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This CPU was pushing the top X58 motherboards well. Base power consumption is only 130 W. Changes in overclocking simply crossed the 200-250W limit. It all depends on the skills of the overclocker, the motherboard and the “luck” of the crystal.

Source Hardware Unboxed YT

Let’s remember AMD’s worst times. The FX series almost buried the company. Incredibly unsuccessful processors that did not compete with Intel. One of the last “Frankensteins” of this series was the FX-9590. This slow monster consumed 220 watts. And it’s in the drain.

Knowing the overclocking potential of bulldozers, it can easily compete with the Intel Core i9-13900K, but only in terms of electricity consumption. His productivity is terrible. The ratio of performance to energy consumption is key. This option gets better every year.

Power Limit consumption limits have not changed much over the past few generations. Intel Core i9-10900K has set a bar that they have been trying to follow for 4 years.

Source Techspot

The situation is similar with video cards. In the early 2000s, all components really consumed little energy. Then began a rapid development, which provoked an extensive increase in capacity.

In 2009, the mid-level video card was equipped with a 6 Pin power connector, and the top models had 2×6 Pin, a little later 2×8 Pin. This trend has almost stopped when looking at Radeon cards. NVIDIA increased the TDP slightly more.

Radeon HD 7990 is a dual-chip video card of the 2013 release. It was equipped with two 8-pin power connectors. The officially declared TDP is 375 W. The announced new RX 7900 XTX has a TDP of 355 W and is equipped with the same power connectors. This also applies to the RX 6900 XT. Where is the increase in energy consumption, which is talked about in the “horror news”? The difference in performance between HD 7990 and RX 6900 XT is almost four times with the same consumption of “electrons”.

Energy-efficient NVIDIA video cards

ITC editors had the opportunity to test the new NVIDIA ADA flagships. We have verified from our own experience that the specified power consumption of RTX 4090 and 4080 has almost no connection with reality.

The maximum recorded consumption rate of the entire PC with RTX 4090. Game A Plague Tale Requiem. 2160p ULTRA graphics.

Real tests have shown that many RTX 4090 toys consume between 200-250 W. Some projects force this value to 400 watts. But no mythical 600-800 W could be recorded. The entire PC consumed much less than some unconfirmed sources claim.

RTX 4090 consumes 400 W at maximum load in the game A Plague Tale Requiem. 2160p ULTRA graphics.

Most importantly, productivity has increased significantly. The TDP of the RTX ADA remained at the same level as the previous generation. RTX 3070 Ti consumes energy in the same way as RTX 4080. And this despite the fact that the latter is 2.5-3 times faster. The configuration of Intel Core i9-13900K+RTX 4080 was enough for the 850 W power supply, which was never loaded more than 75%.

RTX 4080 consumes 300W at maximum load in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. 2160p ULTRA graphics.

At 1080p resolution in AAA eSports games like Call of Duty Warzone, the RTX 4090 consumed just 100W. Add here the efficiency of the power supply, and the top graphics adapter of 2022 required about 110 W from the outlet.

The NVIDIA GTX 590 has a claimed TDP of 365W. Two chips, terrible cooling system and high power consumption. Do computer enthusiasts still think that things used to be better?

Everything has already been done for you

We have already published an article about overclocking in modern realities. In fact, overclocking has not disappeared anywhere. It only became the occupation of the producer himself. Processors and video cards have already been squeezed out of all the juice at the factory. Companies try to give the highest possible frequencies. Overclocking a modern CPU gives an incredibly small gain. This also applies to the video card.

Old CPUs run at low frequencies. The average user couldn’t get the most out of the processor they paid for. Conventional Intel Core i5-11400F on a good motherboard “overclocks” itself. But how can you overclock a processor with a locked multiplier? This is only conditional overclocking. It’s all about TDP limits.

The manufacturer places certain restrictions on temperature control. If the processor consumes more than 65 watts, it starts to overclock to accommodate this figure. For a modern Core i5, 65 W is very little.

As practice shows, it can consume 2-3 times more. The new Intel Core i5-13600K shows phenomenal results. If you remove the limits, it consumes almost 200 watts. But the speed is also better than that of recent Intel Core i7 and i9 flagships.

Intel Core i5-11400 loses a lot of performance with limited TDP. Source Hardwarecanucks

The latest Ryzen 7000 series also follows this trend. Incredibly high frequencies of the conditional Ryzen 7 7700X make overclocking irrational. It is enough to buy a good board and cooling. Does the user not want this? Then you will get lower frequencies and slightly lower performance.

Dependence of Intel Core i9-12900K performance on the set power consumption limits. Source Videocardz

Therefore, the user gets the most from the purchased product with minimal effort. This is the right approach, despite overclockers’ love for manual settings. Returning to the topic of the article, previously processors could also be overclocked well. Their TDP easily increased by 2 times.

Old CPUs did not know how to “push” themselves like that out of the box. They could only hope for acceleration by the skillful hands of a computer specialist. Therefore, one gets the impression that modern CPUs have become demanding, while the old ones were very economical. At base frequencies, processors of the latest generations consume energy within 10-15 years of their predecessors.

Conclusions

There is a reasonable limit to electricity consumption, and manufacturers understand this perfectly. From generation to generation there is an extensive (Comet Lake > Rocket Lake) or intensive (Rocket Lake > Alder Lake) transition. The release of new technologies makes it possible to reduce energy consumption and increase productivity. As history shows, the market has seen quite a few TDP/performance jumps like this.

35-you cotton wool Intel Core i9-11900T and Intel Core i7-11700T

The processors did not become hotter, but only overclocked directly at the factory. Now it is enough to set the Power Limit, and not to suffer with the selection of voltage, multiplier and bus. The RX 7900 XTX video card promises to be as affordable as its predecessor. In the Radeon camp, we don’t see any spikes in power consumption. This partly applies to NVIDIA as well. The RTX 4000 line showed 2-3 times better performance per 1 W than the RTX 3000.

You should not expect massive kilowatt GPUs and 300-400 W CPUs. The average home PC in 2020 uses far more energy than a similar computer from 2000. But the difference between 2010 and 2020 is not so big. Especially if you stick to the basic limits on a modern PC or overclock an old system.