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.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →And support shims, and kidney donations. ?
Makes me wonder what the total power draw of the Threadripper 3960x + 4090 + 24 fans + 3 D5 pumps will be...
:p
Good thing I just got a new 1300W then
It reminds me of the good ole SLI/CrossFireX days, and my room going dark after tripping the breaker
Three moves ago I rented a room in a house in which the gods of electricity decided that I could choose two of three of computer, air conditioner and iron. Any two would work, but three at the same time was too much.
Personally I'm less concerned about tripping the breaker these days. I can just run another 20amp circuit if I have to.
Its expelling all of that heat I am concerned about. And I am not talking out of the case. I'm talking out of the room.
Even with my current 6900xt (which granted, I have turned up to use as much as 430w) I can sit in my office, in the dead of winter, -20°F out, with the heat in my office turned off and still be uncomfortably hot after a game session has been going for a while.
And it only gets worse in the summer.
I had a similar heat problem when I went back to running folding at home and Boinc 24x7x365. Had to turn the 5950 to 65w and set the 3080ti to 85% power target to keep the heat down. On the plus side, Turning down the power really has minimal impact on gaming and folding from stock. I wonder if the 4090 is on the wrong side of the voltage curve and would save lots of power (and heat) by backing off 15-20%
Right on target with my recent purchase of a 1200W PSU.
Something I've just discovered about systems with high power draw requirements ...
Sure you may need a high wattage power supply to support the CPU, GPU, and other peripherals, but make sure your UPS (assuming you have one) has enough capacity to output the power draw. I recently discovered that my 1200VA UPS goes on alert when I ask my new 1600w power supply and 3090ti to ramp up for gaming, and that is just with the power supply cord as the only output plugged into it - no monitors or other external peripherals. I've bypassed the UPS for now, but will need to look into getting a bigger one.
You know you're right, I use line conditioners with active voltage regulation on every PC, and the one I just put the new 1300W PSU on, which is my GPU test bench, maxes out at 1200W, hasn't caused a problem yet, but I do have the monitor, and computer plugged into it.
https://www.tripplite.com/1200w-120v-power-conditioner-automatic-voltage-regulation-avr-ac-surge-protection-4-outlets~LC1200
Good point on ups. I have a 1300 watt power supply and a 1500 watt ups so I hope I'm good. Though I'm looking at an aio 4090 unless amd comes out swinging.
As an added thought at these higher wattage levels the efficiency of the power supply becomes more and more critical.
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!!!
The last time I got a new graphics card (back in 2019) I also had to get a new UPS. My PSU can output 850W but my UPS at the time could only handle 600W, which was fine because my power usage was in the 500W range. But after I got a new GPU I was going well past 600W, so I got a new UPS that could handle 900W.
Exactly the same here but also throwing in a 7.1 500-watt receiver plus however much power my various 65" TVs pulled. I thought that Mass Effect Andromeda with 2x1080s and the OC'd 4930K was going to be the death of my UPS. It got to the point where all the other equipment was on other UPS' and the computer exclusively on another with an extension cord running to another room on another circuit.
I balance strategies with this as well. In the cave, during the summer, AC is a must and even with it I can't close the room door. I often joked how I used to put steaks in a container on top of my old HAF cases to defrost while gaming. I've done the same with bacon as well.
In the living room, it isn't as bad since that room is much larger and with more air vents.
In the winter, lol, I regularly open the windows in the cave and close the air vent and door in there to prevent the house heat from coming in. Back in the living room, which usually has the most powerful rig these days, I'll occasionally open the windows and back door (our living room is weird, the front door and back door are on the same wall but we have a full screen on the back) and then turn on all my max OC settings for kicks. I'm looking forward to trying that with the 3090 Ti AIO soon and seeing how close to 2200 MHz I can get it. I have seen very brief spikes upwards of 2175 but they were for split seconds.
Pretty soon the recommendations will include a separate one of these. Already has the cable management down. Next up, rgb.
This is getting a little silly with the power requirements.
Pretty soon we will need giant monster PSUs to keep up. The Cisco UCS blade chassis we use at work have FOUR 2500w power supplies. They are about 2 feet long and weigh 15ish pounds each. I don't want that in my house. Also my 1960's wiring and breakers probably couldn't keep up.
Back when we used to do LAN parties at my friends house, in addition to your PC rig, everyone had to bring a super long extension cord (think like for yard work/weed eater). We had to snake them all over the house to get power from different rooms otherwise we would trip the breakers every 15-20 minutes during gaming.