Tuesday, August 23rd 2022
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Could Get 23 Gbps GDDR6X Memory with 340 Watt Total Board Power
NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards are less than two months from the official launch. As we near the final specification draft, we are constantly getting updates from hardware leakers claiming that the specification is ever-changing. Today, @kopite7kimi has updated his GeForce RTX 4080 GPU predictions with some exciting changes. First off, the GPU memory will get an upgrade over the previously believed specification. Before, we thought that the SKU used GDDR6X running at 21 Gbps; however, now, it is assumed that it uses a 23 Gbps variant. Faster memory will definitely result in better overall performance, and we are yet to see what it can achieve with overclocking.
Next, another update for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 comes with the SKU's total board power (TBP). Previously we believed it came with a 420 Watt TBP; however, the sources of kopite7kimi claim that it has a 340 Watt TBP. This 60 Watt reduction is rather significant and could be attributed to NVIDIA's optimization to have the most efficient design possible.
Sources:
kopite7kimi (Twitter), via VideoCardz
Next, another update for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 comes with the SKU's total board power (TBP). Previously we believed it came with a 420 Watt TBP; however, the sources of kopite7kimi claim that it has a 340 Watt TBP. This 60 Watt reduction is rather significant and could be attributed to NVIDIA's optimization to have the most efficient design possible.
82 Comments on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Could Get 23 Gbps GDDR6X Memory with 340 Watt Total Board Power
Part of me seems convinced they do this on purpose to test the market, so we had heaps of backlash at the higher power draws and now the rumors are a lot kore sane. I mean circa 340w for some people still isn't sane but it's acceptable for such a tier product, in this day and age.
Until they decrease max. voltage (below 1V) along side it, TDP "tweaking" is meaningless.
EDIT : Oh, it should make PSU manufacturers feel better - so, there's that.
People need to stop rationalizing this senseless increases in power draw, it's absurd pure and simple. I'm sure they'd be a lot happier with another insane increase in board power that would allow them to sell another psu upgrade and continue to ship the very high power psu's that now will sit on shelves after crypto went bust for a bit
And double that in Euro is another limit here. Going over? No buy...
I think we could see a '150W TDP' rumor in the middle of September.
No matter the content, if you engaged in any sort then it worked.
The PR is very effective now days, see how much talk about W is being generated.
So easy to make people move to participate in the PR loop.
I'm doing my part also of course, free entertainment that keep my busy for a while, sort of geek HW escapism, and the PR machine get it's profit.
Win-Win situations :)
While there are several contributors to this phenomenon, the paramount impetus is capitalism, specifically the paradigm of infinite expansion, growth and production. For example, while workers are literally more productive than ever, we are on average working more than we were in 1970 and that's because any gains in productivity and production efficiency are NEVER utilized to lower net consumption or to maintain current levels of production (i.e. workers decrease from 40 to 32 hours per week, but production levels stay the same), but to increase net production and therefore increase energy/resourse consumption as well (i.e. at best workers continue working thr same amount, but more often either work more hours or are expected to produce more units in the same amount of time).
When it comes to GPUs, the tradition of perpetually claiming higher performance every new generation coupled with marketing that specific aspect and placing its primacy above above all others (like efficiency) in the marketing itself, has transformed it into a convention from which the companies, their marketing departments, and the overwhelming majority of consumers anticipate and from which they refuse to deviate. I think we can all agree that if either AMD or Nvidia applied efficiency gains harvested from node shrinks, architectural improvements, etc into a new generation that provided just a 10% gain in performance, but a 100% increase in efficiency, not only would the marketing departments not know what to do with such a product, but consumers would largely criticize and reject it. Would an extremely energy efficient video card capable of being cooled with a now "old fashioned" one or two slot cooler experience wide spread market adoption? I think not. But far from blaming consumers, this current reality is also the result of years of constant, incremental conditioning by companies to tolerate and accept ever higher energy consumption and ever larger video cards to manage that consumption....if we were to show a 2017 audience the four slot 3090 ti cooler that is basically the default across the GPU line and completely transcends brand variance, I think they'd probably laugh from the ridiculousness of it and be mystified at how it arrived to such an endpoint (this reaction would be even more poignant if this hypothetical audience came from the end of 2014 when Nvidia's Maxwell architecture was released and every Nvidia fanboy couldn't bring up "efficiency" enough as a cited advantage over AMD's competing GCN architectural iteration).
This has been the issue with CPUs as well. As a whole AMD has previously decreased power draw on their CPUs, while Intel has continuously increased it to the point that a leak from just the other day showed an engineering sample of raptor lake consuming nearly 400 watts when a water chiller was deployed and the frequency approached 6ghz...that's what 64 core Epyc Milans consume! And unfortunately, while there has been sporadic criticism of Intel's high power draw from the enthusiast community, on a whole, consumers have largely accepted this trend without opposition. Even more unfortunate is that AMD has undoubtedly taken notice of the market's seemingly infinite patience with perpetually increasing power draw and increased the tdp (or whatever AMD calls it) of their soon to be released 16 core zen4 cpu from 105 watts to 170 watts. Intel has been doing this for a while and has experienced no market backlash, therefore AMD has been forced into a situation by both Intel and Nvidia to increase the power draw in both the CPU and dGPU market to stay competitive. It's a great example of how when a company would, or at least could, prioritize efficiency, the behavior of their competition which maintains a substantially larger market share and thereby dictates the trends and direction of those markets creates pressures for which a company like AMD, who not only has to match, but greatly exceed their competition's performance to be considered by fickle consumers, is forced to abandon such priorities to gain market share and even just to maintain their current position. This ultimately results in the evaporation of any alternate choice for consumers who wish to prioritize efficiency or decrease their overall energy consumption and thereby basically forcing ALL consumers to increase their net energy consumption whether they will it or not.
I have made and continue to make large efforts to be as responsible as I can. I have solar power (and game my consumption to use it as much as feasible), I recycle (and separate multiple different kinds of recyclables, I compost, I have a water-wise garden, I've set up my house as best I can to be passively insulated instead of throwing power at the problem of comfort, I sold my motorcycle and I ride a pushbike or electric scooter to work instead, I eat leftovers, I walk when it's close, the car we have was bought with an eye to economy and emissions, the list goes on, including undervolting my system and making it run in the efficiency sweetspot. But I'm at the point in my life where I have little time for hobbies, and one that keeps me at home, safe, out of trouble etc is a winner, but I'm also at the point where I have reasonable money to spend on this hobby.
So yeah, I do have a 320w GPU now, and may have an even more power hungry one in a few months (you can bet I'll undervolt it tho), and one day I might need to pay again for that, socially, physically or otherwise.
Like always, make up your own mind what's acceptable to buy, to support too, voting with your wallet might even get these companies to change the trend, I'd like to believe that's possible.
In the scheme of the world where people waste needlessly, buy gas guzzling v8 trucks, litter never mind being responsible with real waste, they buy massive air conditioners and heaters and live in comfort etc, and this is regular middle class people, never mind the 1% or 0.1% of planet rapers...
I have a high end PC with a power hungry GPU, and I'll do it again. Sorry.
I was worried about that when I got my 6800 XT, but I've been able to tune it so that it rarely goes above 200W while gaming (limited to 240W). It performs nearly twice as well as my old 5700 XT, and yet it only uses about 20-40W more to do so.
The higher psu spec for 4090 leaves us room for future ti revisions ( and also a jump in 4080 ti power consumption, if rdna 3 is as competitive as it was last gen.)
We will have to see what the rest of the board powers are, but I highly doubt they'll be much different!
Whataboutisms wont get you, me or any of our kids anywhere. At its core all that is, is egocentric behaviour. Hypocrisy. Its up to each of us to set boundaries. If this post represents yours, fine, but dont even begin telling anyone you're somehow doing something right.... all you do is justify utter waste for yourself.
If you can own that, enjoy that 400W bullshit GPU ;) If your gut tells you it doesnt feel right, the solution is very simple; dont buy into it. Thatis consumer power and that is how 'we' enforce change. You literally even said so yourself. If it doesnt feel right, its not right. Screw what 'the industry' pushes for. Thats the very 1% YOU are catering for. The 1% that releases a product you yourself consider 'a bit too much' even!
Signed: an EV driving, solar powered home owner. The point isnt saving a few more kwh than the next guy, the point is what we as consumers keep feeding. My point is: dont feed ever more power hungry GPUs because node advancements are stalling!
And... again.. 'the price of RT...' :) Worth?!