Enthusiasts who plan to upgrade to NVIDIA’s new flagship gaming GPU may need a stronger-than-expected power supply based on a roundup of wattage requirements that’s been shared online. Palit, for one, has recommended that its GeForce RTX 4090 GameRock OC, a custom graphics card that lists a boost clock of 2,610 MHz among its specifications, be paired with a 1,200-watt power supply. This is quite a bit higher than the 850-watt minimum system power specification that NVIDIA has listed for its GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 PSU Wattage Requirements
| Models | Target Board Power | Minimum PSU Wattage |
|---|---|---|
| Asus RTX 4090 ROG Strix OC | Unknown | 1000W |
| Aorus RTX 4090 Master | Unknown | 1000W |
| MSI RTX 4090 Suprim X, Suprim Liquid X | Unknown | 850W |
| PNY RTX 4090 Verto Epic-X | 450W | 850W |
| Zotac RTX 4090 AMP Extreme, Trinity | 450W | 1000W |
| Galax RTX 4090 SG, ST | Unknown | 850W |
| All Colorful RTX 4090 Models | Unknown | Unknown |
| Inno3D RTX 4090 X3 OC iChill Black | Unknown | 850W |
| Palit RTX 4090 GameRock OC | 450W | 1200W |
| Gainward RTX 4090 Phantom GS | Unknown | Unknown |
From a Tom’s Hardware report:
[…] the star of the show — or perhaps the supernova in this case — is Palit, with its RTX 4090 GameRock graphics card recommending a whopping 1200W PSU. That’s by far the most demanding spec we’ve ever see from any graphics card company so far, though quad-SLI GTX 980 Ti back in the day could use more power. That’s obviously with four GPUs instead of just one, however.
Palit neglected to share its reasoning behind the monstrous 1200W PSU recommendation, but it could be due to a number of reasons. It’s possible that with a test setup that includes a power hungry CPU like a Core i9-12900K, heavily overclocked, it might feel 1200W is warranted. Or maybe it’s based on what you might see from extreme cards like a Galax Hall of Fame (HOF). Except Palit also lists a TBP (Total Board Power) of just 450W on its cards.
Palit’s GeForce RTX 4090 GameRock OC will presumably be available alongside many other custom GeForce RTX 4090 models when the series officially launches on October 12. Additional Ada Lovelace options will arrive in the form of the GeForce RTX 4080 (16 GB) and GeForce RTX 4080 (12 GB) in November.