It doesn't make any sense. Why do you need to have 600W to power a graphics card? Why do they need an independent power connector?
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Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector
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Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
This got me thinking. ( I must be missing something or having wrong assumption in my high overview of the issue. ) Do Crypto People use their GPU generated heat as heater assuming they lives in a place that requires heating anyway? Doesn't that equate to free money assuming they could actually mine crypto?
Yes. That's one of the benefits. Some people use electric heating even without crypto so using GPUs to mine crypto to get the same effect is a no brainer. Problem is that during the summer you have to get rid of the excess heat, so you need air conditioning or perhaps open air cooling. Not gonna lie, I've used my GPU to heat up my small room before.
Im no expert but coupled with solar panels you get more power during summer to run the AC
Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anecdote: A relative of mine who does home remodeling told me that over the past year most of his clients plan for dedicated office rooms now, rooms that would've been planned as guest rooms and whatnot before. They're also running 12-2 wire with 20 amp breakers to these rooms now. So yeah, not quite the laundry plugs you're describing but getting closer.
It's funny because here in europe, power plugs with 16A (some are 20A) are actually the norm: at 230V they can deliver 3600W/4600W !
> power plugs with 16A [...] at 230V they can deliver 3600W/4600W
That makes me a bit sad. We used to have a mess of plugs and sockets, with older plugs being either two round non-insulated pins or two equal-sized flat pins (sockets that could fit both kinds were not uncommon, but sockets which could fit only one kind were also not uncommon), and a Y with three flat pins for air conditioners, with NEMA 5-15 also being popular for computers (and we had sockets which could fit both the NEMA 5-15 "computer plug" and the other two types). We switched the whole country to a really neat new plug type (NBR 14136, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBR_14136 for a few pictures), but unfortunately it's only 10A (or 20A, but that's mostly for higher-power appliances like air conditioners; nearly all sockets are going to be the 10A variant, even though the 20A socket is designed to work fine with 10A plugs).
Our voltage can be either 127V or 220V depending on which city you live in (yeah, both voltages use the same plug, but that was already the case even with the older plugs), and on how your building is wired (even in places with 127V you can get 220V by wiring phase-phase instead of phase-neutral), so it's not unusual to be limited to 10A at 127V which is around 1200W only.
Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector
#114This is insane. Give me back the 75W GPUs instead. No extra power connector, just the slot.
Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's peak power. You don't run at 100kph straight for hours but you will run your gaming rig at say 500W for three hours in a day (particularly for people willing to shell out money for such a gaming rig). The total energy per day might not be that different, you'd have to account for how much is involved in commuting in traffic.
You really won't run your rig at 500W all the time either. That's also peak power. Very few people have computers capable of cooling a constant 500W.
>You really won't run your rig at 500W all the time either.
While this is true, I don't agree with your statement about cooling.
It's very possible to have sustained 500W+ draw while playing a modern game on a 3080/3090. Sometimes you might play games for a few hours with a fairly consistent 500/600W power draw - honestly I think it's cheap and easy to cool this kind of load. A few 140mm fans and a mid-level CPU cooler should be enough.
Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector
#116600 watts? That's one bar of a two-bar electric fire; in my youth, that two-bar fire was the only thing keeping some families warm.
I mean, that power all gets turned into heat anyway in the end; so sure, if you need more heating, forget the two-bar fire, and buy a graphics controller instead - playing games with the two-bar fire isn't a good plan.
I don't get why they can't make efficient GPUs. I mean, I do get that graphics depends on computation, and that all computation has an intrinsic minimum energy cost; but half a killowatt, to make a moving picture? That's more than the power supply for my gaming rig (which I retired, because the fan noise was excessive).
Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's peak power. You don't run at 100kph straight for hours but you will run your gaming rig at say 500W for three hours in a day (particularly for people willing to shell out money for such a gaming rig). The total energy per day might not be that different, you'd have to account for how much is involved in commuting in traffic.
My daily commute is 48.6 miles, at about 30 miles/gallon. 1.62 gallons per day, which when combining the energy content of the gas (38.685 kwhr/gal) and the refining energy cost (4 kwhr/gal) is a daily vehicle energy usage of 69.15 kilowatt-hours, plus whatever I use getting lunch. The greenhouse effect of my gaming rig is next to irrelevant.
Shh. People "feel" a kilowatt is a lot, because it sounds big and they want to feel superior by saying it's "conspicuous consumption". You're ruining the virtue signaling with your awful numbers and math - this is FEELINGS.
/s
Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder how hard it is to do a bottom-up conversion of the USA to 230. If the "all-electric" branch of the environmental movement are right, we'll eventually need to adopt the superior European kettle technology. Getting everyone on the same plug would be great.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jMmUoZh3Hq4
I haven’t watched the video yet, so I don’t know if he addresses this, but: considering many devices with a switching PSU support “universal” voltage, plugging a US style plug into a 220/240V source would probably be fine.
Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? Your home heating consumes 5-50kW. In colder climates, the power consumption will be compensated by less home heating.
if you compare that with an inefficient electric heater. Otherwise, your gaming gear will consume way more electricity for the same heating power than, say, a heat pump.
What's an "inefficient electric heater"? Is that a device that generates more light than heat?
Surely all the energy you put into any machine is eventually going to turn into heat? Hmm - perhaps there are heaters that generate heat mechanically, and the resulting losses are sonic.
Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector
#120600 watts? That's one bar of a two-bar electric fire; in my youth, that two-bar fire was the only thing keeping some families warm. I mean, that power all gets turned into heat anyway in the end; so sure, if you need more heating, forget the two-bar fire, and buy a graphics controller instead - playing games with the two-bar fire isn't a good plan. I don't get why they can't make efficient GPUs. I mean, I do get that…
> I don't get why they can't make efficient GPUs
They do make efficient GPUs, see smartphones. Even current desktop cards are efficient considering their computational power, but they are increasingly tuned to run with higher power budgets. Turns out people care more about FPS than power consumption I guess? Also consider that winning the performance crown has a halo effect for the rest of the portfolio, so the performance / high-end models are tuned towards that.