Wednesday, June 1st 2022
PC Components with High Power Draw an Issue for an Overwhelming Majority of Users: Survey
In April, we polled our readers with the question "Are components with high power draw an issue for you?," and got back 22,040 responses. An overwhelming 85.5 percent of our readers (PC gamers and enthusiasts) take issue with high power draw for PC components. This comes in the wake of key components such as processors and discrete graphics cards rising in power-draw generation-over-generation, despite transitioning to smaller and smaller silicon fabrication nodes, signaling that Moore's Law isn't able to keep up with advances in performance and capabilities. The 85.5 percent of respondents who voted "yes," did so for very diverse reasons.
Our poll question wasn't a binary yes-or-no; and people could vote yes for different reasons—power bill, heat, noise, and the environment. 33.5 percent of respondents felt that power bill (energy costs) is the biggest reason why they chose yes. Heat is the second big factor, with 28.5 percent feeling that they don't want high power-draw component because power has a direct impact on heat, and all that heat is put out into the room despite how good the cooling solution is. The third place goes to noise at 12.2 percent, with bigger cooling requirements having an impact on system noise. Even big fat liquid cooling solutions ultimately rely on fans. Interestingly, only 11.3 percent voted that they care about the environment and hence take issue with high power-draw components. This figure, by the way, is much less than the 14.5 percent who voted that they don't care at all about components with high power draw.
Our question took shape as we followed the generation-over-generation power-draw trend of two key components—processors and graphics cards. The GeForce GTX 980 Ti, NVIDIA's fastest consumer graphics card in 2015, drew just 211 W of power under gaming workloads of the time, while the GTX 1080 Ti pulled a similar 231 W to workloads tested in 2017. The RTX 2080 Ti pulled 273 W for gaming of its time in 2018; while the current RTX 3090 Ti draws a whopping 445 W for today's games. These cards were each tested in different system setups, with different driver software and games which is why we can't put the data on a graph, but they still serve to illustrate a generationally rising power-draw. If Moore's Law held true, there should be a generational increase in performance from a new architecture at negligible increase in power, as the silicon will have transitioned to a new node with increased transistor density and improved power characteristics. This, however, isn't happening.
Our poll question wasn't a binary yes-or-no; and people could vote yes for different reasons—power bill, heat, noise, and the environment. 33.5 percent of respondents felt that power bill (energy costs) is the biggest reason why they chose yes. Heat is the second big factor, with 28.5 percent feeling that they don't want high power-draw component because power has a direct impact on heat, and all that heat is put out into the room despite how good the cooling solution is. The third place goes to noise at 12.2 percent, with bigger cooling requirements having an impact on system noise. Even big fat liquid cooling solutions ultimately rely on fans. Interestingly, only 11.3 percent voted that they care about the environment and hence take issue with high power-draw components. This figure, by the way, is much less than the 14.5 percent who voted that they don't care at all about components with high power draw.
150 Comments on PC Components with High Power Draw an Issue for an Overwhelming Majority of Users: Survey
You just need to get the right clothes, do it & get used to it. The beginning is hard, but once you get used to it, it will be the highlight of the day.
Plus you loose weight, get dam sexy legs & save on gasoline & gym bills. :)People always mistake efficiency with sustainability. The most sustainable car on the planet is most likely the Mercedes W123 Diesel.
You only need to have a look on Africa's streets. You can see this 40+ year car still almost everywhere, mostly used as taxie's. The reason for that is it's durable diesel engine, if maintained they can easily do 1m+ km. In that time you would had to buy around 5 new cars. It also isn't stuffed up with electronics that fail on you & turning your car into a brick. Another reason is the dry climate, doesn't affect the mediocre corrosion protection. Taxi drivers over there where offered a new car in exchange by the state, many refused the offer.Problem is, it doesn't come out of the box like that & less tech savy folks can't undervolt. ;) And those who are istead overclock, driving the inefficiency & consumption up even more.
There's also the issue with occuring micro stutter if you undervolt too much, as igorsLab found out in his tests.There is a reason for this, and the legendary George Carlin figured it all out decades ago:
I don't get people who drive a car to the gym... but they're usually the same that spend 80% of the time staring at their smartphones while on the equipment and even dare to GET MAD when you ask them if they're done......
Then there's the other factor already mentioned. The cost of running the AC more to remove the heat caused by electronics.
hahaha...never going to happen...humans could possibly "destroy" themselves, but they will never destroy the planet. You could irradiate the entire planet and it would eventually right itself. maybe not in the iteration that exists today , but it has been evolving for 4.5 billion years and would repair itself in what ever way it sees fit.
The only true "settled science" is that the earth has been warming since the end of the last ice age , and it will continue to warm until the beginning of the next ice age.
Humans are too stupid and short sighted to see much beyond their own wants and desire to feel good, thus Asian made components where there are few of any regulations, most beef and commodities come from South America where slash and burn continues to decimate the forest, while North America has more trees than 100 years ago. But emo peeps need something to cut themselves with
Years ago Lockheed Martin said they would have a working fusion reactor the size of a truck within 10 years. I'm not sure what the progress on that is but I will bet the old saying will make it happen not too long from now. "necessity is the mother of invention"
How much room temperature changes is the result of how much power is being used and released inside, not the operating temperature - it feeling hot to the touch, or a hot stream of air from fans isn't enough to go on.
Does it Really matter that much at the end of the day? No i don't think it does. The fastest component matters not how much power it uses, but i suppose we're all about "saving the planet" now so saving 20 or 30 watts is really gonna matter.
Ask the probably hundreds of people who bought a 3090 or 3090ti if they are bothered and i bet the answer will be no apart from the 0.001% who undervolt and underclock them.
Also remember these are top tier parts not Ryzen 3's or i3's. We all buy top tier parts for top tier performance, pretty sure we don't expect them to be the most efficient or we'd buy lower class parts.
Does it really matter well considering the effects of overlooking environmental concerns you run into issues like acid rain, asbestos, lead in the drinking supply, and other problems. Most of us consider that of high significance concern than your ability or inability to disconnect from realities over your minor inconvenience about a matter that isn't up to you in the first place manufacturers don't need to uphold to your standards. They do to the government however to some degree or another and governments responsibility is that of the people as a whole not a individuals personal luxury desires.
In terms of saving the planet humanity might not, but we might slow the progressive and descent towards extinction happening sooner rather than later which is still worth fighting towards rather than turning a blind eye and giving up entirely. If you think life so inconsequential why strive live at all or render a game at a few higher frame rates at the same time.
What is so damn important about a few frame rates higher that outweighs the concerns and importance of life itself? By all means give me a convincing argument and I'll wait because you don't have one there isn't one that exists aside from the obvious one that Putin is a cancer and the world would be better off without him.
There is both a need for performance and efficiency they aren't mutually exlcusively though we should still aim and strive to improving efficiency with higher performance and without simply raising the bar higher on power consumption in order to do so at the same time. There are example cases where the power increase is entirely justified you can argue and far more that are harder to rightfully do so at the same time and majority of people are aware of that and recognize that fact.
There are reasons to give a sh*t beyond the environment itself like added stress to the power grid and the cost of electricity not to mention if efficiency improves it opens up other possibilities while the opposite direction achieves the polar opposite things like the Steam Deck wouldn't even be readily possibly if you crank up the TDP. Also plenty of power is from burning coal at the same time. Cars not being perfect doesn't mean this issue should be disregarded and ignored in order for people's frame rates can be a touch higher. Every likes more performance that's natural, but getting to that point in a more responsible way that also saves people money thru not wasting as much energy and at more peaceful noise levels without dumping excess heat into people's rooms is being sensible compromise.
It's clear there is a segment of people that aren't in agreement with how things have been going or are headed and will take it upon themselves one way or another to proactively fight the direction of it. The issue is the goal posts keep widening at a point in time where society should be curbing such behavior or even heading in the other direction arguably. I mean a decade ago 300w was fine for a high end GPU, but it actually doesn't mean it should be today. If anything it should be lower and performance should still remain higher than a 300w GPU was a decade ago.
I do care about the environment but me not using my PC is not gonna save shit. There are far more important things to consider than the maybe 5% or less of PC users that actually buy high end components, ie us.
Maybe this discussion is not about cars but they pollute far more than I do playing my games.
Once again we aren't talking about cars and other things that pollute we're talking about technology and what it's doing and getting at the root of addressing and tackling that issue. Believe it or not there are a lot of humans we can multitask these issues to address them at once both car pollution and technology derived. Not trying to all is flat out giving up and quitting is that how you approach the games you play the quickest path to a game over?
The high end components sets the tone for the entire product lineup down the line in reality. If they widen the goal posts at the top what do you think will happen down the line at the bottom? A lot more of the same is bound to happen and then it gets normalized as opposed to being chastised for being out of hand and you end up in a full retard situation like gun control. TDP has crept up for the mid range as well and expected to further.
The car aspect on environment gets talked about regularly enough, but it doesn't mean it's the only issue or problem nor that we should ignore other ones. This a tech site and the forum topic is on power consumption of technology. Quit deflecting and start reflecting on the problem that we're all increasing become waist deep in this sh*t in the coming years and decades if we don't act more now do more about it to tackle these matters.
You're like a broken record repeating the same thing and not listening to any of the points being made. The nukes went flying, but my frame rates were screaming. Alas it was good while it lasted, before I got radioactively fragged and blasted.
The majority of PC user will not give a hoot, sorry but it is true. How much power around the globe do you think servers are pissing away with horribly high power using massive clusters? Stop pointing the finger at me for my views and my infinitesimal in comparison power use.
Maybe the poll should have been for registered TPU users only so we could have got more of an idea of what regular user are going to do. Overall i do not contribute with my PC very much at all to global downfall, and i don't have money like some on here to run mining rigs, or run multiple PC's, i have one. I also do not have a very high end power munching GPU like quite a few on here. Do you think they will ditch it for something that uses less and give up their 4K gaming :laugh: good luck with that.
I am quite happy i do not pollute much or use very much power.
I do care as i said, but unless the major contributors do something, cutting my meagre power use is going to do nothing in comparison, so i am not going to do it.
Wanting to strive towards improvement isn't a bad goal to set for oneself or others ffs the environmental concern isn't a competition better efficiency that benefits those that struggle the most isn't either for that matter. Being opposed to improving greater efficiency and more uniform equality and playing field is rather sub-human. Who said anything about pointing the finger at you specifically!!? Society can do better and should do better period. You would think the field of technology of all places would understand and be in agreement on that. It's not up for debate it's a matter of fact and it's called ethics and standards and holding ourselves to higher ones. We can set a better example and tone to follow and should be for a subset of society driven and rooted by math and science.
And I'm not talking about high draw in general, but about bad efficiency.
If a graphics card or CPU with double the performance takes double the power, thats fine, they are still at the same efficiency. Plus the faster, more power hungry part would finish a task faster or deliver a better experience, making the investment worth the cost.
And newer parts, on a more refined manufacturing process should increase efficiency, not decrease it. How can a 3090 Ti draw 70% more power than a 2080 Ti while only delivering 30-55% more performance?
I'm running a GTX 1060, mostly because it simply delivers enough performance for my needs, but out of curiosity I went and tweaked and noticed that when limited to around 1600 MHz, a 20% reduction in clock, power draw decreases by more than 40%.
On a RX 580, a card of similar performance, going to 1150 MHz instead of 1300 MHz, a 12% decrease in clock (and thus performance) reduces power draw by 30%, showing that both cards are run way past peak efficiency by default.
The same with CPUs, a 12900K doesn't need to pull 250W, when a rather small sacrifice in performance can drastically reduce power draw.
And then comes the thought of buying a highend product and running it slower, closer to peak efficiency. How would a 3080 Ti perform when power limited to the same amount as a 3060? What about a 12700K at 12400 power limits? Or a 5800X at 65W?
If it would be easier for the user to set those lower limits, or if the product would come default at those limits, everybody would benefit. The enthusiast would have the satisfaction of successfully reaching an impressive overclock, the environmentally conscious would be less wasteful, The silent friend would have an easier time to keep their machine cool and quiet.