Free wire-melter with every purchase - AMD Senior VP predicts 700 watt GPUs by 2025

[BachChain]

Summary

 

In the ongoing saga of chip manufacturers trying to replace HVAC systems with gaming PCs, Sam Naffziger, Senior Vice President of AMD, predicts that graphics cards will break the 700w power consumption threshold within the next couple years; a figure even higher than the already eye-watering rumors of 600w for the yet-to-be-announced RTX 4090. The statement came from a slide in an interview with Venture Beat discussing AMD's 30x25 efficiency goals. 700 watts, on top of being an absurd number on its own, is notable in that it exceeds the 600w limit of the recently announced ATX 3.0 12VHPWR "High Power" connector, effectively making it outdated even before it has a chance for widespread adoption.

 

 

My thoughts

While this is effectively just speculation, current industry trends and rumors make it more realistic than not. And while it would most definitely be limited to extreme halo products for now, I bet it will eventually trickle down to more worldly SKUs.

 

Sources

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-envisions-700w-gpus-by-2025

https://venturebeat.com/2022/07/06/amd-addressing-the-challenge-of-energy-efficient-computing/

[WhitetailAni]

Please no

[TetraSky]

Dear lord I hope not. At that point I may as well just get a console or xbox game pass with an ultrabook for my PC needs. The power bill ain't gonna be pretty.

They really should take a generation or two to concentrate on efficiency instead of just throwing more watts at it. Or switch us to ARM already in order to ditch the highly inefficient x86.

[Jorgemeister]

With a 24 pin connector

[sof006]

If this turns out to be the case I don't think i'll be purchasing computer graphics cards in the future, or if I do only the ones that draw either the same wattage as my current GPU or less. 700Ws would nearly be my PSUs full power output on just the GPU.

[Blademaster91]

I really hope not, GPU's already approach a reasonable limit IMO, especially with some cards having massive 3 fan coolers. And I think it would make a lot more sense if GPU manufacturers would be pushing to decrease power consumption with rising power costs.

[Needfuldoer]

It's going to get to the point where GPUs come with their own external power supplies, or even a C13 right on the IO.

 

Why? Just... why?!

[OhioYJ]

4 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

It's going to get to the point where GPUs come with their own external power supplies, or even a C13 right on the IO.

 

It's going to be worse... Your PC is going to need to be on it's own dedicated circuit. If you can actually load up 1000+ watts or more, it's likely your PC should on it's on circuit. At least here in the US where many home circuits are only 15 amps.

[porina]

28 minutes ago, BachChain said:

is notable in that it exceeds the 600w limit of the recently announced ATX 3.0 12VHPWR "High Power" connector, effectively making it outdated even before it has a chance for widespread adoption.

If this hypothetical 700W consumer GPU were to exist, it'll simply need two of those connectors. 

 

Anyway, it looks like the chart is not necessarily being used in context. AMD are saying they're improving perf/W. Are there any AMD GPUs that reach higher powers currently? Not limiting it to gamer cards. Any "pro" ones for servers? What could line up with those dots on the chart for historic products, AMD or nvidia?

[PeachGr]

We are talking about top tier products, and not entry/ mid tier cards. Also where was that "prediction guy" back at 2017 to predict 2020, so that AMD would buy double the fab capacity for GPUz from tsmc? Predictions are predictions, not reality

[da na]

Damn what are they doing over at AMD, putting FX processors on GPUs? 

[bcredeur97]

We're reaching the limits of what we can do with silicon, so all they can do is throw more power at everything. Eventually this will not work either.

Unfortunately this has seemed like writing on the wall since 2015 or so. 

It's time for something COMPLETELY new, the next big thing, whatever you want to call it.

[Thaldor]

Just to be sure, by the 2030 we will need to get the good old three-phase plugs for our PCs? Just to put it on my to-do-list for our next renovation so I don't need to rip all the walls down again to get bigger cables set. Or are we good by just getting own circuit and breaker for the PC and changing the fuse to the good old iron nail?

 

And this is for the EU, you behind the great sea could be pretty bad situation with that 120V and just 240V two-phase. Some of us at least can harvest 400V from the three-phases. Of course we could just get some Tesla batteries that can provide us a lot of wattage for our 1-2 hour gaming session per car battery assembly but that sounds a bit risky with all the possibilities of fire that realistically cannot be put out (the dunking of the burning Tesla into a water isn't putting out the battery fire, it's to prevent anything else burning with the battery and to capture/filter at least some of the not-so-great-for-attaining-old-age fumes). Or should we just cut the crap and go for supercapacitors? Our gaming sessions may be just few minutes and we need to recharge but at least we can power the future 10kW GPU. Cooling at least is simple, just dunk it into liquid neon bath that doubles as a neon sign.

[IkeaGnome]

Just to clarify, this is our own fault.

When you want 20% better performance every 2 years, but architecture can't keep up, power makes up for that. 

Stop pushing for 8k 1000 fps and they'd have time to catch up.

On the flip side of that, more fps does take more power. If you look at cards wattage when locked to 60fps we have gotten more efficient, not less efficient. 

6800xt, 6900 xt and 6950xt being the outliers.

Spoiler

TL:DR, lock to lower frame rates and you'll be fine. 

[Fasterthannothing]

This is absolutely stupid we are going back technology wise. I honestly thought at some point we would get to 3070 performance in an Ultrabook but that's obviously not happening.

[Arika]

lol now people will have a real reason to buy 1200-1800w PSUs instead of people who currently buy them for clout and/or out of stupidity.

[Zodiark1593]

4 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

We're reaching the limits of what we can do with silicon, so all they can do is throw more power at everything. Eventually this will not work either.

Unfortunately this has seemed like writing on the wall since 2015 or so. 

It's time for something COMPLETELY new, the next big thing, whatever you want to call it.

Central home servers? 

[StDragon]

This isn't mainstream, rather, a new tier of PC building. The "Elite rig". This is a market where people generally have the means to install a dedicated circuit.

 

This market would be reserved for those that play FPS competitively, or are into sims (racing, flying). Not just an up coming 4090 Ti, but a pair of them if they could do SLI (deprecated feature, but making the point)

[leadeater]

4 hours ago, Arika S said:

lol now people will have a real reason to buy 1200-1800w PSUs instead of people who currently buy them for clout and/or out of stupidity.

Hey, I'll defend my stupidity. I knew it wasn't necessary, but I got one anyway 

[Rauten]

I will not be surprised if the high end RTX4000 // RX7000 cards are more often undervolted than overclocked.

It may very well start making a hell of a lot more sense, if you're only going to lose single digit, or very low double digit, performance in exchange for requiring potentially hundreds less power and a PSU that doesn't need to have a cold fusion reactor inside.

[Vishera]

That's a deal breaker for a lot of people including me,

I had rather ger a 160W~200W card that is cool,quiet and doesn't take more than 2 slots.

[wamred]

It will never cease to baffle me about the power usage of these chips. It seems like they could figure out a way to make GPUs run more efficiently.

[Doobeedoo]

*laughs in EU circuit, solar panels, AC*

 

All jokes aside though, in a way makes it exciting performance wise, like a greater leap. But yeah for my next build 1kW PS definitely at minimum.

[Kamina]

I don't think my apartment will be able to handle it it. It's rather old and as it is already I tend to trip the breaker.

[CarlBar]

18 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Why? Just... why?!

 

https://i.imgur.com/5Z8V0Fp.mp4

 

Probably a good description of what cooling will look like too.

 

But as others have said the real issue is that whilst they cna make te low end more efficent they're really struggling to top the previous generations performance at the top end without silly power budgets.