Sources Claim Next-Gen AMD/Nvidia GPUs will Require 400-500 Watts!

It’s not exactly a secret that graphics cards over recent years have become significantly more potent than their predecessors. And where there are high levels of performance, there is (nearly always) a pretty hefty amount of power required to back it up. – Following a report via Videocardz, however, reliable sources are claiming that based on the current projections for AMD and Nvidia’s next ‘flagship’ graphics card designs, they may require anything up to 500 watts of dedicated power to operate! – Put simply, that’s a huge amount!

Next-Gen AMD/Nvidia GPUs to Require Huge Amounts of Power?

Citing that the next top-of-the-line Nvidia and AMD GPUs will require as much as 500 watts of power to operate, the easiest conclusion to draw is that this is a ridiculously huge amount. In the grand scheme of things, however, it does seem more than a little probable that this is the direction in which we are heading. – Given that the Nvidia Geforce RTX 3090 currently requires around 360 watts of power, it does seem probable that at least one model from Nvidia’s next series (such as the presumable 4090) will finally top that 400-watt mark.

It is, however, already being suggested that this power consumption level will likely be set to be broke first with AMD’s RDNA 3 graphics cards expected to launch late next year!

What Do We Think?

It’s no secret that potent gaming PCs require potent amounts of power to operate. It’s simple arithmetic based on the components used. Given how power-hungry processors have become in recent years, however, if graphics cards do start to creep over the 400 watt mark, we may, and arguably for the first time ever, see many users having to upgrade their power supply to cope with the upgrade of new CPUs and particularly so GPUs.

Given that even Nvidia themselves currently recommend a minimum 750-850 watt power supply for some of their most powerful 3000 series models, who knows, the next-generation of releases might see this creep up into the remits of 1000 watt power supplies, and while manufacturers of those will probably love it, we daresay consumers will not.

Oh, and just because it needs to be said too, a graphics card requiring up to 500 watts of power? God help whatever cooling solution that will come with it!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!