Radeon VII Power Consumption: How Much Power Does The Radeon VII Use?
The Radeon VII is a powerful GPU that AMD manufactured, to compete against Nvidia’s RTX 2080 which was a monster of a card when it first came out.
However, even though AMD made a GPU that performs similarly to the RTX 2080, they did it at a cost.
That cost was the power consumption of the Radeon VII GPU.
The Radeon VII has a TGP or Total Graphics Power of 295 Watts, which is the typical wattage it produces. When gaming you should also hit around 268 Watts. However, when idle the GPU should only produce around 12 Watts of power. (Source.)
When looking at the power draw of any GPU, the manufacturer provides a TGP or TDP of the base power and wattage that the GPU will use.
However, you should know that every GPU is different, and each one will have there own individual wattage, that’s why it’s good to not only look at the TGP of that specific model but also at the average power draw of the GPUs in certain tasks.
We will look at:
- Idle Power Consumption
- Multi-monitor power consumption
- Media Playback
- Gaming wattage
- Peak Maximum Wattage
Starting off the Radeon VII has an idle power consumption of 12 watts, which is pretty average for a GPU this powerful and surprisingly the idle power consumption doesn’t increase when you add a second monitor, so its multi-monitor power consumption is very good.
When you use your computer for media playback such as watching Youtube videos, Netflix, etc, you can expect the Radeon VII to produce around 15 watts of power, which again is pretty low.
However, once you start to use this graphics card for gaming this is where the power consumption starts to skyrocket.
You can expect to see an average power draw of around 268 watts, which is a lot for a GPU of this caliber.
Another thing that you should know with graphics cards is that you can actually surpass the TGP which is the base power consumption it’s supposed to have.
However, when you introduce your GPU to overclocking, it will surpass not only its advertised performance but also its power draw.
More performance = more power.
For this reason, if you are really into overclocking, or want to learn how to do some minor overclocking you should make sure you have an upgraded power supply unit that’s passed the recommended wattage. (Which we will explain later.)
When overclocked you can expect the Radeon VII to produce around 315 watts, and in certain cases, it can peak up to 350 watts for a few seconds when something very demanding comes up.
For example, if you just use your computer to watch videos and scroll on the internet it will use less power than playing a very graphically intensive game.
When using your computer for media playback you should experience a power draw of around 19 watts.
When looking at a GPU’s power consumption, you want to look at the TGP (Total Graphics Power) because this shows the maximum power draw you will usually get when using your GPU for intensive tasks such as gaming.
You might also hear the phrase “TDP” which can be used interchangeably with TGP. The difference is essential in that TDP is the total power consumption of a component, and TGP is the total power consumption of a GPU specifically.
What Power Supply Do I Need to Use For The Radeon VII?
According to AMD, the minimum recommended power supply unit for this GPU is 650 watts, but I would advise purchasing a power supply that is higher than this.
If you are using the Radeon VII you should get a power supply that is at least 700 watts, but I would actually recommend getting a 750-watt power supply with this model.
The reason for this is that first, the Radeon VII has a very high peak wattage, even though it will. peak to 350 watts for a few seconds, that’s all you need to have your computer crash or have a damaged PSU.
Trust me I know this first hand.
With my first computer, I had a power supply that only met the minimum wattage that was required to run my computer.
After a few months of using my computer, I started to dive into the world of overclocking.
I started by overclocking my GPU than my CPU, etc. Once I started to push the limits of my PC I forgot to factor in one thing.
The more I overclocked the more power my computer would use, and in the end, it exceeded my power supplies max wattage damaging my power supply.
I had to spend an extra $100 on a new power supply that I could’ve avoided in the first place.
So my two cents to you would be to purchase a power supply that is a little higher than recommended even if you don’t want to do any overclocking because you never know if you want to change your mind in the future.
Not to mention you also need to factor in the power consumption of the other components in your PC.
A power-hungry GPU mixed with a power-hungry CPU can use a lot more wattage than what you planned for so be careful.
When purchasing a power supply for your computer you want to keep in mind that every piece of hardware in your system has a power consumption.
If you also want to save on your electricity bill, then you should purchase a power supply that is at least 80 plus Bronze certified, with the best rating being 80 plus Gold certified.
You should read: “How Do Power Supply Ratings Work?”
For this reason, I would recommend the Cooler Master V750 Gold V2 Full Modular.
The reason why I would recommend this PSU specifically is that it is manufactured by Cooler Master which is a trusted brand that is very reliable.
Another reason is that this PSU is 80 Plus Gold Certified, which will save you money on your electricity bill, and it is fully modular.
Radeon VII Power Consumption Compared to Other GPUs
The GPUs power consumption is compared using TGP. It is essential to know and compare your graphics cards to other similar models because it will help you get a grasp on the amount of power your system is going to use.
Here is a comparison of a few graphics cards that are around the performance range of the Radeon VII.
| GPU | TGP |
| RX Vega 64 | 295 Watts |
| Radeon VII | 295 Watts |
| RTX 2080 | 225 Watts |
| RTX 4070 Ti | 285 Watts |
| RX 6900 XT | 300 Watts |
When comparing performance the Radeon VII is closest to the RTX 2080. However, when we look at this table we can see that there is a 70-watt difference between the Radeon VII and the RTX 2080.
As the Radeon VII is the predecessor of AMDs Vega Series GPUs it was appropriate to add the Vega 64 in here as well, and as you can see they have the same wattage.
What we can tell from that is AMD made these GPUs very power-hungry which explains why their power consumption is so high and why their TGP doesn’t quite match with how much performance they output.
The reason why I say it like that is that if we look at the RTX 4070 Ti and the RX 6900 XT which are obviously better graphics cards, they also have around the same wattage as the Radeon VII, which in essence makes no sense because they have some of the newest graphics technology and performance, but use around the same wattage.
If you want to compare more graphics cards on their power consumption and TGP I have provided a database where you can look at dozens of different GPUs and their power consumption, that way you don’t have to do the research yourself.
Check out the Database.
I have also provided the average power consumption when gaming, as well as the average power consumption when idle, that way you can get a better understanding.
