AMD Predicts Graphics Cards To Be Power-Hungry Beasts Scaling To 700W By 2025
If you're a regular reader, you've probably already seen stories about how both AMD and NVIDIA's next-generation parts are expected to be massive, power-thirsty beasts. While some of those rumors seem to have been a bit exaggerated, we're still looking at the possibility of top-end GPUs drawing over 450 watts—even more than the powerful GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.
Well, hold on to your hats, because AMD seems to think things are only going to accelerate from here. That's "accelerate" both in terms of graphics performance—which is good!—and in terms of GPU power consumption, which is not.
AMD's Sam Naffziger, who is an SVP and Product Technology Architect, spoke to VentureBeat at length regarding AMD's focus on power efficiency. According to Naffziger, performance-per-watt has been the single most important metric that the company's been chasing for a while now, and he reiterated the claim that RDNA 3 will deliver a 50% gain on performance per watt over RDNA 2.
That's the same boon that RDNA 2 brought against the original RDNA, and that shift didn't even have the benefit of a die shrink in between. This time, they do, but AMD's also got another big trick up its sleeve for RDNA 3: chiplet design. Sadly, Naffziger didn't really share any additional details on that topic, but he speaks with considerable confidence regarding the red team's chances against Tean Green's incoming hardware.
So, what about that 700W number in the headline? Well, Naffziger didn't address that directly, himself. He did talk at considerable length about how AMD's GPUs are specifically designed to hit higher clocks, that they're able to do that due to their efficiency focus, and that NVIDIA could do the same in a much higher power envelope.
However, this chart was released to VentureBeat by AMD along with the interview. It's quite a fascinating graphic. It charts the trend line of GPU power consumption over time, with little purple dots indicating specific GPUs. Sadly, none of them are labeled, but the one that sticks out the most is obviously the one at the far right at 700W, in what appears to be the 2023 time frame.
Does this infographic mean that we'll see 700W GPUs next year, or ever? No, of course not. It's possible that this chart is based on rumors of high power draw from competitor cards. It's also possible that AMD itself expects to have a 700W GPU in the next couple of years. Since Naffziger didn't address the topic directly, we really don't know.
Still, a revitalized AMD, likely refreshed by new blood after shedding numerous employees to its competitors, is firing on all cylinders and competing in both CPU and GPU markets. NVIDIA is launching new graphics technologies all the time, and also readying its own high-performance "Grace" CPU. Then we have Intel, who seems to have been roused by AMD's Ryzen, now debuting faster CPUs and its first discrete GPUs in twenty years. It feels like 2002 all over again.
