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Power Consumption
Power Consumption at Different Loads
Power consumption in our gaming loop lands around ~327W, which is a significant step up from the 300W mark, and well above the reference model’s measurements. In return, though, the Radeon RX Vega 64 Nitro+ provides consistent performance accompanied by an acceptable noise level. Part of a card’s performance is based on its power consumption, after all, and Sapphire can’t do anything about Vega 10's inherent architecture. The company is left with cooling, voltage, and power limits in order to tune this card's behavior.
The corresponding voltages for our gaming loop and stress test at Sapphire's stock settings are plotted in the following graph:
Load on the Motherboard Slot
PCI-SIG specifies a maximum of 5.5A (66W) for the motherboard’s 12V rail. Sapphire's Radeon RX Vega 64 Nitro+ doesn’t even hit half of that number with its 2.7A peak during our stress test. The gaming benchmark is even better-looking with a 2A measurement, and the same goes for our maximum overclock. The power connector load distribution is perfectly balanced, and the motherboard slot doesn't come anywhere near being stressed by the load it shoulders.
Power Consumption In Detail
The graphs below plot detailed power consumption and current readings in order to better illustrate our findings. Naturally, gaming yields the highest peaks, registering up to 388W. That's nothing to worry about, though: the spike is far too brief to cause a problem.
The same goes for the corresponding current measurements:
Maxing out the power limit in software results in an average power consumption increase of ~60W, which is reflected in our data. Peaks as high as 421W are easily handled by modern power supplies. But it's still good to know they're there. Just make sure you buy high-quality equipment before piecing together an aggressive gaming PC.
The current can spike as high as 33A, meaning the third eight-pin PCIe power connector isn't really necessary. Without it, the specifications would have only been exceeded slightly, if at all.
The stress test registers lower peaks, but a higher average, than our gaming benchmark.
The current follows suit without any anomalies to report.
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