Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector

igorslab.de

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 182 posts

Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector

#41

Post by saberdancer »

ksec wrote: post #18
httpz wrote: post #10

Assuming you can install two GPUs using 600W, that's basically running a hair dryer in your desktop since most of the energy is converted to heat.

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.

Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector

#42

Post by noja »

turtlebits wrote: post #35
jl6 wrote: post #27

I’ve always thought of gaming as a virtuous low-impact form of entertainment, insofar as it displaces real-world pursuits like foreign ski holidays, gasoline-powered road trips, or land-hogging golf courses. But burning nearly a kilowatt on a gaming rig feels like a step too far. Sure, the power could be sourced from wind or solar plants, but there’s still a level of excessive conspicuous consumption going on here th…

Lots of things are a huge waste of electricity. Ever use your oven? At 12% efficiency you're wasting over 1kw of electricity. Unless energy prices rise, it's literally pennies.

This line of argumentation drives me insane, and it's so pervasive right now.

Why should I walk to our friends' house down the road? After all, I drive to work, so why not drive there too?

Why should I use less plastic? After all, I already use some plastic, so why not use more?

Why should I eat less meat? After all, I already eat some meat, why eat less?

Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector

#43

Post by evandijk70 »

jl6 wrote: post #27

I’ve always thought of gaming as a virtuous low-impact form of entertainment, insofar as it displaces real-world pursuits like foreign ski holidays, gasoline-powered road trips, or land-hogging golf courses. But burning nearly a kilowatt on a gaming rig feels like a step too far. Sure, the power could be sourced from wind or solar plants, but there’s still a level of excessive conspicuous consumption going on here th…

Definitely agree that a kilowatt seems very high for gaming and starts to have an environmental impact. Still, driving a car at 100kph takes around 20 kW of power, so driving somewhere is still a bigger burden on the environment than gaming.

Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector

#44

Post by detaro »

noobermin wrote: post #29
asdff wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a game dev they'd rather release a broken game and start selling sooner than spend time and money polishing it and not selling copies. Gamers don't buy games because the code is performant.

Ok you're explaining a problem though (cyberpunk was definitely a problem) albeit matter of fact, but clearly examples show that lack of performance hurts sales. You're right, people don't buy games because they are performant, they buy them because they are fun, but if your game is so unperformant then it won't be fun...ergo sales sink. Fewer people by virtue of how expensive 120+Hz equipment (not just the monitors…

Nobody is limiting their game to people with absolutely high-end setups.

Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector

#45

Post by nuerow »

sz4kerto wrote: post #33
jl6 wrote: post #27

I’ve always thought of gaming as a virtuous low-impact form of entertainment, insofar as it displaces real-world pursuits like foreign ski holidays, gasoline-powered road trips, or land-hogging golf courses. But burning nearly a kilowatt on a gaming rig feels like a step too far. Sure, the power could be sourced from wind or solar plants, but there’s still a level of excessive conspicuous consumption going on here th…

It's really low impact though. Even if your rig consumes a kW, you're still not driving anywhere (in a car that consumes at least an order of magnitude more), or going out to a restaurant (that's air conditioned), etc.

> It's really low impact though. Even if your rig consumes a kW, you're still not driving anywhere

If google didn't failed me, a good car mileage is equivalent to around 20kWh per 100 miles. Therefore, a 100 mile drive is loosely equivalent to a day or two gaming with one of these rigs.

Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector

#46

Post by adrianN »

saberdancer wrote: post #41
ksec wrote: post #18

Earlier 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.

It's not a "no brainer" if you include the cost of the GPUs. You need to do at least a little math to figure out whether it's actually cheaper that a simple resistive heater (or a heatpump).

Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector

#47

Post by evandijk70 »

noja wrote: post #42
turtlebits wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of things are a huge waste of electricity. Ever use your oven? At 12% efficiency you're wasting over 1kw of electricity. Unless energy prices rise, it's literally pennies.

This line of argumentation drives me insane, and it's so pervasive right now. Why should I walk to our friends' house down the road? After all, I drive to work, so why not drive there too? Why should I use less plastic? After all, I already use some plastic, so why not use more? Why should I eat less meat? After all, I already eat some meat, why eat less?

I think the environmental problem should be approached like a budget - figure out how much we can spend, and than allocate it accordingly. We have to avoid being 'penny wise and pound foolish' with the environment. If I look at my own environmental footprint, the biggest changes I can make are in my heating, my flying, my driving and I am trying to change those things (working from home, and changing my holiday destinations) Will be looking into isolating my house as well. Gaming does not even register compared to those, as it does for most people.

Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector

#48

Post by [deleted] »

noja wrote: post #42
turtlebits wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of things are a huge waste of electricity. Ever use your oven? At 12% efficiency you're wasting over 1kw of electricity. Unless energy prices rise, it's literally pennies.

This line of argumentation drives me insane, and it's so pervasive right now. Why should I walk to our friends' house down the road? After all, I drive to work, so why not drive there too? Why should I use less plastic? After all, I already use some plastic, so why not use more? Why should I eat less meat? After all, I already eat some meat, why eat less?

[deleted]

Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector

#49

Post by noobermin »

evandijk70 wrote: post #47
noja wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This line of argumentation drives me insane, and it's so pervasive right now. Why should I walk to our friends' house down the road? After all, I drive to work, so why not drive there too? Why should I use less plastic? After all, I already use some plastic, so why not use more? Why should I eat less meat? After all, I already eat some meat, why eat less?

I think the environmental problem should be approached like a budget - figure out how much we can spend, and than allocate it accordingly. We have to avoid being 'penny wise and pound foolish' with the environment. If I look at my own environmental footprint, the biggest changes I can make are in my heating, my flying, my driving and I am trying to change those things (working from home, and changing my holiday desti…

It will start to matter if it costs ~3KWh's of gaming per day. Probably even more if this is meant for serious gamers, they will game more than 3 hours per day.

It doesn't matter it's genshin impact or animal crossing but it definitely starts to matter when your gaming costs almost two orders of magnitude up in power from the typical case.

Re: Up to 600 watts of power for graphics cards with the new PCIe 5.0 powerconnector

#50

Post by thow-58d4e8b »

httpz wrote: post #14
noobermin wrote: post #4

I'll be honest, it's very hard for me to imagine what I would do that would demand anywhere near 600 watts for a graphics card alone. I mean my PC can draw at most 120 watts and that feels like a lot, although the PC is pretty old by now. All of this for crypto? How many games are there out there that draw anywhere near this level of wattage just for graphics?

I doubt it's for crypto though. Running two cheaper 300W GPUs will be more cost effective. Also serious miners already moved on to ASIC anyways.

Ethereum is mined with GPUs. The total mining rewards (block rewards + fees) are actually marginally higher for Ethereum than Bitcoin, with both around $51M per day
Post reply on HN