Question Why low end GPU with high power consumption GPU bad?

[jaymes2015]

What can possibly happens if your GPU uses more power? Like the drawbacks for these AMD RX series GPU. If you’re able to provide the power to the GPU that’s needed, shouldn’t it’s no problem? I read lots of sources of folks don’t like smaller GPU with high power consumption. Let me know the reasons. Thanks.

 

[rgd1101]

heat

 

[Eximo]

If you can provide the power it isn't a problem to have a high power requirement.

More power draw means more heat, literally what means. It is outputting 250W of heat or what have you. Smaller cards will have smaller heatsinks and will overheat more quickly. So larger cards with high power draw is better than a small card with the same power draw.

So a nice mid-size RX580 is going to use something like 185W vs a comparable card like the GTX1060 6GB at 120W. Given the same cooling, the RX card will run significantly hotter/ and or be louder. Now if you want equal performance the GTX1660 and 1660Ti also in the 120W column, it makes AMD look a little power hungry.

 

[jaymes2015]

Ok I might get what you guys are referring to. More heat slower the performances, then more cooling may be necessary. Well, I just bought the RX 580 red devil. Yeah I do notice the sound. But if I can provide the watts and power, I guess I am willing to put up with the card. I didn’t know about these GPU outcome until I got the RX 580. Well, learn as you go.

 

[Eximo]

Well not quite. Not more heat the slower the performance, in fact it can be quite the opposite. That is simply the power that GPU takes to run at the performance level it is designed for. Nvidia has some cards that are more efficient, but not necessarily more powerful.

An RTX2080Ti or Vega64 or Radeon VII all use more power, but also perform better. They are also typically larger cards because of this. Not only do they need more power delivery to feed the physically larger GPUs, but they need more room for heatsinks to keep it at a reasonable temperature.

This only matters with all things being equal, they are not. You could sit down and say GFLOPS/Watt or some other metric, but it would have to be the same test. GCN architecture is better at some things then Nvidia, and Nvidia certainly has a few things that AMD doesn't.

RX580 is a fine GPU. Just the way AMD has configured it to favor performance over efficiency, they pushed the clock speeds as high as they could go basically. Now that AMD has new cards coming in the next few weeks (starting at $379, so don't feel left out) they probably have something competitive when it comes to efficiency compared to Nvidia. I suspect I'll be recommending AMD for anyone that isn't buying an RTX2080 or 2080Ti.