Nvidia's next generation Ada Lovelace GPUs are rumored to consume scary amounts of power

As we move deeper into 2022, we increasingly turn our eyes and ears towards the launch of next generation video cards. Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace and AMD’s RDNA3 cards are due to launch in the second half of the year, and as we get closer, rumors begin to swirl. 

This latest rumor is a scary one. Frankly though, it’s one that we're highly skeptical of. It suggests that Nvidia’s next generation flagship AD102 RTX 40 series card could carry a TGP as high as 800W or more. If true, that’s shocking.

One of our favorite hardware moles, Greymon55 suggests that Nvidia will launch its new series in September. They go on to have a discussion with kopite7kimi, another notable leaker. Both indicate that their sources have mentioned TGP’s in the region of 450 to 850W for AD102 GPUs. This GPU will presumably end up in cards called the RTX 4080, 4080 Ti and 4090.

It’s important to note that both sources are far from certain, and there’s the possibility that specifications can change. Nevertheless, it’s looking increasingly certain that next generation cards will consume a lot more power than those around today.

Graphics card power consumption is already high. The RTX 3090 carries a TDP of 350W, with higher ratings for 3rd party cards. Many top tier Ampere cards come with a very large triple slot cooler. Some, like the Gigabyte Xtreme come with a quad slot cooler despite having a TDP that’s just half of the rumored 800W. Bad luck if you live in the south west of the USA or Australia. Gaming might be off the agenda in summertime.

If you’re building a system with an eye towards upgrading to a next gen high end GPU, you’ll need a powerful PSU, even if the final final power requirements aren’t anywhere near 800W. You’ll want to get one with a next gen PCIe 5.0 power connector, or at the very least a good quality one that’s rated at 1200W or more.

800W! We hope that’s one rumor that doesn’t turn out to be true. In some regions, tripping a power mains switch becomes a very real possibility. It looks like you’ll be able to serve up a nicely cooked egg. Add a slice or two of bacon? Though in this case it’d probably burn.