Are components with high power draw an issue for you?

[JAB Creations]

I knew one guy who would have easily voted "No, I don't care". It was 95F with a near 100% humidity level in Florida WITH the windows open; it was a heatstroke in three minutes or less or your money back. Most bedrooms that aren't the master bedroom that I've seen are petty 10x10 feet holes that heat up very quickly. Even in living rooms, dining rooms, etc I've seen a single computer noticeably warm up a room. Being clean (e.g. not covered in my own sweat/filth) is a prerequisite to being professional. Unless your room averages 55F / 12C a year or lower and you don't care about heat you very likely need to learn how to take a shower.

 

[mechtech]

I think it should be power of PC components.

In general for someone in my shoes (2 kids, 2 dogs, wife, etc) aka minimal time for gaming, and maximum laundry, it's negligible compared to a 5500W electric dryer doing 45 loads of laundry a month, or two 500W block heaters running 3 hours each every night, etc. etc. I think my last bill was ~1200kW.hrs, of that my PC maybe was 6 lol

Yes it matters, but the degree compared to everything else I use is trivial, some-days the PC doesn't even turn on.

 

[Kapone33]

Power use = heat, more power use = more heat.
Air conditioning and fans(appliance) will need to be ran for longer periods(possibly lower temperature setting for AC too), or one's room will heat up faster if there isn't a means to exhaust the heat produced from the PC immediately out of the room.
There are various circumstances: Cost of electricity isn't a drop in the bucket everywhere, and not everyone is well off. People live in various climates, from hot/cold year round, and temperate.

Liquid cooling isn't a fix.
Ryzen 3000/5000, Nvidia's Gpu Boost - I think AMD's RDNA does it too - cooler thermals increase power use, albeit very slightly.[As far as power limits allow, anyways.]
It doesn't matter if one is getting cool and frosty thermals if 400w or whatever is still being dumped into one's room, instead of directly outside.

As someone who lives in a subtropical climate, summers get toasty. Late spring and early fall can be rather warm too(pushing 29C/85F outside).
Between the top end AMD and Nvidia gpus, I wouldn't enjoy a very big heater(3090/Ti) running very much during the summer - winter would be another story.
Excluding the transient spikes, there's about 100w or more between them and the smaller heater(6900XT), which isn't that far behind in raster performance.
100w or more is significant - to me.
Cpus typically don't use that much, save for blender renders and similar. Besides those loads, their power use has been way behind that of gaming gpus.
Fortunately, I have access to air conditioning and electricity is cheap where I live, but I'm not loaded, so I'd say power bill and heat are tied for the biggest concerns for me on the above list.

Just set your power limit my 6800XT is water cooled and does not go over 46 C but I still get a maximum of 255 watts for that card. Some Games seem to able to override it though.

 

[Nihillim]

Just set your power limit my 6800XT is water cooled and does not go over 46 C but I still get a maximum of 255 watts for that card. Some Games seem to able to override it though.

I've already got a 0.05v undervolt ready to apply via Afterburner, so that's covered.

Anyway, I've had time to rethink my thoughts on this matter, plus with the other good posts here... I'm overthinking this.
High power draw isn't an issue for me, except for around the summer. It's not like I don't care, so I'm going to say heat, due to the scenario of running the AC and a space heater at the same time.

 

[AusWolf]

As a small form factor enthusiast, heat is definitely an issue. I used to build high-end mini-ITX computers only a few years ago. Nowadays, I struggle even with midrange parts sometimes.

 

[Kapone33]

I've already got a 0.05v undervolt ready to apply via Afterburner, so that's covered.

Anyway, I've had time to rethink my thoughts on this matter, plus with the other good posts here... I'm overthinking this.
High power draw isn't an issue for me, except for around the summer. It's not like I don't care, so I'm going to say heat, due to the scenario of running the AC and a space heater at the same time.

Why use Afterburner when AMD's software does the same thing?

 

[Nihillim]

Why use Afterburner when AMD's software does the same thing?

This is my 3rd post, and I don't believe I've said what my gpu was?
1080Ti.

 

[birdie]

Vote for this poll on the frontpage - where? I don't see anything. Scrolled down to the 23th of March. Nothing.

Yes! Heat.

Some more options for the poll (all of them valid for me):

• Price (high tech electronics with high power consumption is normally the most expensive).
• Price to performance ratio.
• Performance per watt (which is usually horrible for high power consumption products).
• I don't want to replace my PSU.

 

[cvaldes]

Vote for this poll on the frontpage - where? I don't see anything. Scrolled down to the 23th of March. Nothing.

And where are the following answers:

• Price (high tech electronics with high power consumption is normally the most expensive)
• Price to performance ratio
• Performance per watt (which is usually horrible for high power consumption products)
• I don't want to replace my PSU

It shows up for me.

If you don't see this, switch off your browser extensions or try a different web browser.

The original poll choices remain; the poll author has not changed those choices which would render the previous votes invalid.

If you don't like the poll choices, don't vote. I didn't. Poll voting isn't mandatory.

Best of luck.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
@W1zzard
Should say poll is on the Home page not front page.

Otherwise change the tab name to Front

 

[Kapone33]

This is my 3rd post, and I don't believe I've said what my gpu was?
1080Ti.

Ah got it. I think even Nvidia might have an FPS counter integrated but I can't say for sure. My 3060 does not like to play nice with my 5800HX for any of these FPS counters.

Heat is the reason for 420MM Rads and cases like the Corsair 7000D and Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2. It would seem that at least Intel and Nvidia are planning to go "balls to the wall" with Power draw and that means heat. One of the issues I see is the 12900KS and 3090TI. It is crazy to think that you actually need a 1000 Watt PSU....for just those 2 components (Imagine at least dual rad with a huge reservoir or distro plate). The other side of it is that it is very wrong (whether you believe it or not Climate change is already happening) that it sucks to double the power draw for 5 to 7% more performance and then market it as the "best". I hope that the node shrink helps with that but I want to see what B660 boards will melt with a 12900KS running Cinebench for an hour.

 

[thegnome]

For me the heat and the noise aren't really the problem, coolers these days are excellent, but the way is heats the room is just the worst, especially in the summer. Even with 200-300w of power (not full blast for me) it already heats to the point I have to cool the room with a window open before I go to bed. Works okay in the winter but pretty blazing in the summer. I couldn't imagine over 600w, just an expensive sauna.

I haven't even talked the power bill yet, which in this day and age is just wrong. Luckily the power/performance goes up pretty drastically as well so undervolting and getting lower tiered cards works fine.

 

[RedBear]

The real issue with those parts (RTX 3090Ti and i9 12900KS) is that they're an extravagant investment, they're coming late in the life of their respective generation and they're going to get obsolete in 6 months or little more. Otherwise I wouldn't really say that I care for high power draw, it's a relative concept.

 

[chrcoluk]

Really nice poll but (yes all of above) would have been my ultimate vote haha.

I turn my PC off when not using it now, power that much an issue here.

 

[zlobby]

Merely 12% (as of the time of the writing) of all people here care about the environment...

Yes for noise, heat, and cost.

I'm a huge silence freak. I have all Noctua fans in my system with fine-tuned curves so that my system is silent when idle and still very quiet under load.

I also over-specced my PSU so that it'll run passively all the time, regardless of load. Under heavy loads, my system draws around 300W, and the absolute worst-case power draw is probably around 450W. In my time of having my RM850X, I've never had it spin up its fan to the point of becoming audible.

I have absolutely no interest in a GPU with a TDP of over 250W, and I hate this trend toward MOAR POWER! rather than efficiency improvements with GPUs.

Efficiency in the lower part of the utilization is terrible.

Being clean (e.g. not covered in my own sweat/filth) is a prerequisite to being professional.

Eh, I thought it's just common sense but what do I know? I am absorbent and yellow, and porous. And I live in a pineapple under the sea.

 

[ppn]

I'm willing to go 99% solar power and rain water for my needs, but that needs a lot of batteries and filters that are probably not very eco friendly. That said I couldn'care about saving nature bc I see it as a horrible meat grinder, and us as the fodder for it. Some people want to save nature because they think it's all healthy and fun and they want to have babies in it as some form of immortality and keep imposing this sickness and death over and over again, and those also think nuclear power is safe, yeah right. Some people want to save nature by ceasing to exist. But me I don't remember saying that I promise to die and be forcefully exited when is the time comes to free space for the new generation, so this means I will be killed, and obliterated from the face of the earth so I couldn't care about the envirenment so that it keeps grinding stuff in the food chain, you know all kinds of horror, so that the crocodile keeps eating the gazelle, and the crocodile and the tiger eating each other forever and ever over and over again, wonderful, and for what, this is insane stuff to support that mechanism. And in the overview we can't save the Earth, for it will be consumed by the SUN, and become just like Venera and mars long before that, So unless we can push the earth's orbit further away from the sun we are doomed, can't save it, just let it go. It doesn't matter whether we have millions or bilion years more, It will inevitably end, and we will lose the moon much sooner, and that is needed for the fish to be able to reproduce, and we are all fish, just talk and sing and dance and walk on our fins and build stuff. So Until I'm gone for good I will play my games 8 hours a day, commute/work 8 h and sleep/eat 8 hours. SO 800 watts is nothing that scary for me.

 

[nguyen]

Start using a watt meter since March 1st, so far my PC (550-600W at the wall when gaming) use ~9usd worth of electricity a month gaming 4h/day (0.13usd per KWh).
Heat is not a problem since a cheap AC can remove 2500W of heat (8000BTU) from the room.
Extra cost of running the AC is also minimal, cheap AC have 3:1 ratio (good ones have 5:1 ratio) so to remove 600W of heat it will use 200W. So yeah being a PC nerd only cost me 10usd a month in electricity , whereas I can go to the bar and blow 200usd a night easy.

 

[Rebe1]

It's a bit strange for me that this pool is not multiple choice. Heat + Noise + Env is equally important for me but there was no such an option available to choose.

 

[Bloax]

Throwing more voltage at the problem is punished by diminishing returns just like cars and horsepower; 1400hp might let you reach 275mph if the conditions and long list of caveats are met, but if you only need to drive at 60mph, a 29hp Citroen 2CV will do the job across an unpaved field with the only caveat being that it's not uphill. 50x more power doesn't even get you 5x more speed.

Current-gen GPUs are already pushed a fair way beyond the sweet spot in their efficiency curve, so pushing them even harder just gets utterly stupid. If you undervolt a 3090Ti you can probably achieve more than 90% of the performance for less than half the power. Another great example is what can be achieved with a laptop GPU - the laptop 3060 can get most of the performance of a desktop 3060, but for just 65W, compared to the 170W of a desktop part. Is that extra 30% really worth 250% of the power draw?

Indeed, my 12700k with a decent memory overclock performs admirably running at a chilly 20-40 W during load at 4.26 P/3.8 R/3.3 E @ 1.05v, and GPUs tend to be hella overvolted from the factory.

So if you manage your power well, you can have insane performance within 150-200 W on modern hardware - which for some reason isn't talked about as much.

 

[Chrispy_]

Indeed, my 12700k with a decent memory overclock performs admirably running at a chilly 20-40 W during load at 4.26 P/3.8 R/3.3 E @ 1.05v, and GPUs tend to be hella overvolted from the factory.

So if you manage your power well, you can have insane performance within 150-200 W on modern hardware - which for some reason isn't talked about as much.

Currently capped my 3600XT at 88W peak turbo using ECO mode in the BIOS, RTX3060 at 125W in afterburner.

It's an HTPC that needs to be as close to silent as possible, yet it's still good for 1080p60 gaming in any title, even AAA stuff like CP2077.

At defaults it would likely draw 142W on the CPU and 200W+ on the GPU and perhaps games would run ~10% faster but I'd hear the fans screaming in that little HTPC case.

 

[Kapone33]

Make sure you watch MSI Insider's live stream next week. They will be paring a 3090TI with a 12900KS. They used a 12900K this morning and it peaked at 930 Watts.

 

[Assimilator]

Yes, of course. But as I've noted in my other posts, reaching this point was an inevitability due to the end of the free lunch that was node halving. (It also doesn't help that different companies have different definitions of what a "nanometre" actually is, because fuck marketing departments.) This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, and honestly I doubt most people are going to care because we, as a species, have effectively declared that having shiny new things that are faster than old things, every single year, is more important than the only planet in the universe known to support life of any sort.

 

[AusWolf]

Yes, of course. But as I've noted in my other posts, reaching this point was an inevitability due to the end of the free lunch that was node halving. (It also doesn't help that different companies have different definitions of what a "nanometre" actually is, because fuck marketing departments.) This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, and honestly I doubt most people are going to care because we, as a species, have effectively declared that having shiny new things that are faster than old things, every single year, is more important than the only planet in the universe known to support life of any sort.

I see where you're coming from, and I sadly agree (we're a shitty species in our current state), but I secretly hope that Intel, nvidia and AMD will realise that just like we can't shrink nodes forever, we also can't increase power requirements and PSU sizes indefinitely. If not for the planet, then for cooling - there's only so much heat copper, aluminium and liquid solutions can conduct. Advancements in architecture design are needed big time if they want to keep up the progress.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Make sure you watch MSI Insider's live stream next week. They will be paring a 3090TI with a 12900KS. They used a 12900K this morning and it peaked at 930 Watts.

I've had 8 card mining rigs pull less.

Shit my power guzzling Vega sits within 350/500 Watt's

Yes, of course. But as I've noted in my other posts, reaching this point was an inevitability due to the end of the free lunch that was node halving. (It also doesn't help that different companies have different definitions of what a "nanometre" actually is, because fuck marketing departments.) This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, and honestly I doubt most people are going to care because we, as a species, have effectively declared that having shiny new things that are faster than old things, every single year, is more important than the only planet in the universe known to support life of any sort.

I would say it's a very very small percentage of Enthusiasts that upgrade that often, most are granular upgrades afaik and that's enthusiasts, the 98% public buy now and again.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Prices are killing upgrades for myself
Dang sellers market I've never been a fan of one I prefer buyers markets and tend to wait for it to change problem has been the market is stuck on stupid buyers market mode for seems like three years now