The RX 6950 XT is AMDs best GPU in their 6000 series, with performance that is equivalent to that of the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti by Nvidia.
With being one of the best graphics cards on the market right now you need to factor in how much power this beast of a GPU is going to use.
If you are looking to upgrade your computer with the RX 6950 XT you will most likely have to upgrade your power supply unit as well.
Keeping that in mind, we will now go through the power requirements of the RX 6950, how much power it uses, what PSU you will need, and how its power consumption adds up compared to other GPUs on the market.
How Many Watts Does The RX 6950 XT Use?
The RX 6950 XT has a TGP or Total Graphics Power of 335 Watts, which is the typical wattage it produces. This is also the average power consumption it uses when gaming. However, when idle The RX 6950 XT only uses 7 Watts of Power.
The power consumption of your GPU will change depending on what games you are playing, and what applications you are using on your computer.
Another thing to note is the number of monitors you are using with your computer. The more monitors you use the more power your GPU will consume especially when idle.
With that being said the RX 6950 XT has an extremem increase in idle power consumption when you add just a second monitor.
The RX 6950 XT with a single monitor only produces 7 watts of power, but as soon as you add a second monitor into play it shoots up to 48 watts of power.
Typically, with an extra monitor, you should expect the idle power consumption to be close to double what it would be with a single monitor, but with this graphics card the idle power draw is almost 7 times more.
When you are looking and comparing a GPUs power consumption, you want to look at the GPUs TGP or Total Graphics Power, which shows the base power draw you will get when using your GPU for things such as gaming
When talking about power consumption, you might hear the phrase “TDP” used interchangeably with the phrase “TGP”. Essentially TGP and TDP are the same things, but TDP is the total power consumption of a component and TGP is the total power consumption of a GPU specifically.
You should also note that the TGP of a GPU isn’t the true maximum power draw of the specific graphics card, and the power consumption can be increased when computing graphically intensive tasks and while overclocking.
The maximum power consumption of the RX 6950 XT is around 340 watts when gaming and can actually spike to upwards of 445 watts under certain circumstances.
RX 6950 XT 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 RX 6950 XT.
| GPU | TGP |
| RTX 3090 | 350 Watts |
| RTX 3090 Ti | 450 Watts |
| RX 6950 XT | 335 Watts |
| RX 6900 XT | 300 Watts |
From this table you can see that the RX 6950 XT uses a lot of wattage for a GPU, but when compared to graphics cards of the same calibre, you can see that it is actually pretty power efficient.
The RX 6950 XT is AMDs best GPU in the 6000 series, so it is only reasonable to compare it to Nvidias best GPU in the 30-series, the RTX 3090 Ti which has a TGP of 450 watts.
As you can see that is over a 100 watt power difference, which is pretty significant.
Even if we go down a level and use the RTX 3090 which only has a TGP of 350 Watts, the RX 6950 still has a better TGP.
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.
What Power Supply Do You Need For The RX 6950 XT?
With the RX 6950 XT, the minimum recommended power supply wattage is 700 watts, but from my experience, you should always look for a bigger power supply than what is recommended on the market.
The reason for this is that you never know what you might encounter with power spikes, upgrades, and overclocking.
I would recommend that you get a power supply that is at least 750 watts. That way you have room for upgrades in the future, and if you are planning on overclocking this will provide you with the proper wattage to do so.
Although there are many power supply brands and different qualifications out there I would recommend you go for something that is at least 80 Plus certified that comes from a trusted brand such as EVGA, or Corsair.
This will provide you with power supply hardware that is very reliable and can save you on your energy bill as well.
The reason for this is that a power supply unit that is not certified can take a significant amount of electricity out of your wall that doesn’t do anything. Not only that, but power supplies from a brand that isn’t trusted can damage other parts of your computer, or have underlying issues that you will experience sooner or later.
