[SOLVED] Why does the Sapphire Pulse RX 5500 XT require an 8 pin connector if its TDP is 135w ?

[peckata2]

link to manufacturers site: https://www.sapphiretech.com/en/consumer/pulse-radeon-rx-5500-xt-4g-gddr6
Is the TDP number of 135 fake ?

 

[Metal Messiah.]

It requires an external cable since the PCI-e slot cannot feed that much power to the GPU. What PSU do you have ?

 

[Metal Messiah.]

AMD recommends a minimum 450 Watts PSU for this GPU when used in any Gaming rig. That number is not fake. Its power consumption presumably under full load.

The Typical Board Power (Desktop) of this card is 130 Watts.

 

[bignastyid]

TDP is a thermal measurement for cooling, not power usage.
Thermal Design Power
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_design_power

Now Sapphires site doesn't actually say TDP(and rightly so) they call it power power consumption. 135w is likely the average at 100% usage but there can be spikes above that(transient loads) they went from being limited to 150w(slot+6-pin) to 225w(slot +8 pin) for extra padding for transients and potentially further overclocking without the possibility of having to go out of spec on the slot or cable.