Do graphics cards require less power over time?

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gary king

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Mar 5, 2013
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I've got a 550 W PSU, and high-end GPUs such as the GTX Titan suggest a minimum of 600 W. Let's say in two years, a $200 GPU has the same FPS as the GTX Titan does today, then would it still require a minimum of 600 W, or would it most likely require less power because the GPU has become more power-efficient over time? Or is that not necessarily a trend?
 
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gbryan101

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May 28, 2013
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While there is a trend towards increased efficiency, there is also a trend towards increased power/performance. This often means that a newer card will be more powerful, but use the same (or sometimes more) wattage. Also, remember that PSUs degrade over time, effectively reducing their peak power.

If you are interested in a card in the Titan class, I would recommend buying a better PSU first, just to avoid the risk of damaging the card.
 
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gary king

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Thanks, I'm just trying to future-proof (yeah I know, a naughty term). I'm running a GTX 660 right now, but realistically, in two years perhaps, I'd like to upgrade to whatever I can get for $250 or so, which surely would be quite powerful in today's standards.

I had a 630 W PSU, but that died so while it's submitted for an RMA, I purchased a 550 W PSU. I'm wondering if the 550 W PSU is enough power for a few years, or if I should return that and keep the 630 W one. Although, the wattage difference between 630 and 550 isn't really much, anyway?

Or, if I'm getting a new GPU in a few years, should I just get a PSU at the time, too? Especially since PSUs are most efficient when between 50 to 80% load, from what I've heard?
 
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gary king

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Yes, but I'm referring to NEW graphics card models, not one that I've heard for years. Of course a graphics card will become less efficient over time. But surely a newly released graphics card in a few years will use power more efficiently because of new technologies. Otherwise we might end up with GPUs using 2,000 W at some point or something...?
 
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gary king

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Okay thanks, I figured it would be something like that. I don't necessarily expect power consumption to decrease, otherwise we'd end up with a GPU of 10 W one day. I imagined that they would stay about the same, but just that they could draw more FPS in a game, etc.
 
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jaguarskx

jaguarskx

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Sorry, I read your question too quickly. As others have stated for similar performance of a current generation card, future generation cards will generally consume less power and still provide the same level of performance.

A very recent example is the Radeon HD 7750 and HD 5770. Both cards basically provide the same level of performance. However, while the newer HD 7750 only needs 43w of power, the HD 5770 needed 85w of power to provide that same level of performance.

 
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gary king

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Excellent thanks. That all makes sense. The primary thing I was wondering about was just how much more efficient future cards would be, and it seems like they will continue to be pretty efficient indeed. I guess I shouldn't expect to buy a 10,000 W PSU in the next few years!
 
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