The power demands of the GeForce RTX 40 Series may not be as worrisome as earlier rumors had indicated.
Leaker kopite7kimi resurfaced today with updated claims that suggest NVIDIA has dialed down the power demands of two of its upcoming graphics cards, the GeForce RTX 4080 and GeForce RTX 4070. Supposedly, the GeForce RTX 4080 will now release with only a 320-watt TBP, while its weaker sibling will debut with a 285-watt TBP.
Earlier rumors had pegged the GeForce RTX 4080 to draw as much as 450 watts, but the new figure, if true, would put it directly in line with the GeForce RTX 3080 (10 GB) in the power department. NVIDIA has listed the 10 GB and 12 GB models of the GeForce RTX 3080 with a 320-watt and 350-watt TBP, respectively.
A chart shared by Tom’s Hardware that illustrates the previous estimates has indicated a pretty steep power drop of nearly 30% for the GeForce RTX 4080.
GeForce RTX 4080 and RTX 4070 Power Consumption Changes
| Model | Current Power Estimate | Previous Power Estimate | Percentage Drop |
|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 4080 | 320W | 450W | 29% |
| RTX 4070 | 285W | 300W | 5% |
NVIDIA’s alleged changes seem to be good news for prospective GeForce RTX 40 Series owners who don’t need any more space heaters, but as Tom’s Hardware pointed out in its coverage, this might mean lower performance.
On one side, the lower wattage will reduce the TBP of the top-tier GPUs by a considerable amount, making them much easier to cool and thereby reducing system heat and noise levels as well.
On the other side, a 29% reduction in power use on the RTX 4080 could substantially reduce GPU performance. That’s the problem with early rumors and leaks. Nvidia is also working to determine the best clock speeds, voltages, and power levels for its new Ada architecture, so everything is still in a state of flux.
Another pretty established leaker, Elysian Ream (@KittyYYuko, formerly KittyCorgi), shared a tweet today that suggested NVIDIA is also planning a new GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics card with 20 GB of memory. This is expected to “fit in between RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 specs by offering 14848 CUDA cores and 20GB of GDDR6X memory,” as noted in coverage by VideoCardz.
Source: kopite7kimi