Are NVIDIA seriously developing a graphics card that consumes more power than the average PC? A recent leak pointed toward the possibility of a 900 Watt GPU for the upcoming Ada Lovelace architecture based RTX 40 series, set to release this year.
How does this compare?
NVIDIA has been releasing graphics cards since 1999. 23 years later, NVIDIA has revolutionised the computing industry with solutions that can handle extreme applications. The current top NVIDIA model is the 3090 Ti which consumes a whopping 450 Watts. A laptop typically uses about 50 watts. While gaming PCs on average consume between 300-500 Watts. The newest leak hints toward a single GPU that consumes nearly double the power of an entire PC. Similar to the power requirements of your microwave oven.
Watt we know so far
Even though NVIDIA hasn’t confirmed the 900W mega GPU, it wouldn’t come as a huge surprise. NVIDIA engineers are now using artificial intelligence and machine learning to assist in the development of the 40 series cards. Perhaps the engineers are really trying to test the boundaries, to see how far they can push their architecture to ensure NVIDIA GPUs remain the fastest. We already know that NVIDIA plans on launching a 600 Watt model which will most likely be the RTX 4090. Will the 4090Ti require an additional 300 Watts? Or are NVIDIA bringing back the TITAN series?
NVIDIA’s other developments?
The upcoming RTX 40 series continues NVIDIA’s next-gen GPU architecture rollout. These Ada Lovelace based cards will use a 4nm fabrication process. This is a giant leap from previous cards that used Samsungs 8nm ampere chips. A smaller microarchitecture allows for better performance as more transistors can fit onto the chip.
Another microarchitecture in NVIDIA’s pipeline is codenamed ‘Hopper’. Named after U.S computer scientist Grace Hopper, to be released in parallel with Lovelace and serve Data Centres. The Hopper uses TSMC’s 4nm node and will debut in the H100 GPU. The H100 hosts 80 million transistors with PCle gen 5.0 speeds. Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA said “NVIDIA H100 is the engine of the world’s AI infrastructure that enterprises use to accelerate their AI-driven businesses.”
Hopper is to be succeeded by Blackwell but that is a long way off yet. Recent speculation suggests that Intel could take over NVIDIA’s chip manufacturing. Find out more about the potential collaboration here.
Rackmount graphics experts
Whatever cards are released you can be sure G2 Digital will be at the forefront. Providing compact well built systems featuring the highest end GPUs. We are looking forward to the challenge of powering and cooling a 900 Watt GPU in our chassis. Our experts at G2 Digital can work directly with you to design and build a bespoke or tailored solution. Get in touch with our team on +44(0)1252711 114.
