The RX 7900 XT is one of AMDs most powerful GPUs released in late 2022, the RX 7900 XT produces very high performance for a graphics card, however, the increased performance also means it will need more power.
So the power consumption of this GPU is a very important aspect, which we will be going through today.
In this article, we will go through the power consumption of this GPU, what the power supply requirements are to use the RX 7900 XT, and compare it up against other GPUs of a similar caliber.
How Many Watts Does The RX 7900 XT Use?
The RX 7900 XT is a power-hungry card that has a TGP of 315W and will draw around 320W when you’re gaming. As with any graphics card, the power consumption has a significant drop when idle going down to only 11 watts.
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 there is a significant increase in wattage when you use multiple monitors with the RX 7900 XT, going from 11 watts idle to 85 watts.
This is a pretty high increase and is a pretty common trend with AMDs most recent GPUs.
When watching things on your computer such as Youtube, Netflix, Twitch, etc you should expect your GPU to draw around 75 watts of power.
In some circumstances where your GPU spikes because of extreme load or overclocking you should experience a maximum power consumption of around 412 watts, but this will only happen in rare situations, or if you put your GPU through some intensive overclocking.
When you are looking and comparing a GPUs power consumption, you want to look at the GPU 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.
What Power Supply Do You Need For The RX 7900 XT?
AMD recommends having a minimum of a 750W power supply unit.
Notice how they said minimum?
Going from personal experience you should always go a little bit above the minimum recommended PSU that the manufacturer recommends because there is a very likely possibility that you will go over that power requirement once your computer is fully built, or upgraded.
In my opinion, I would make sure to have an 800 Watt power supply, that way I will have an extra 50 watts of wiggle room to do any hardware upgrades, or overclocking in the future.
Another reason to have a slightly higher power supply than recommended is that your computer will randomly have power spikes when under intense load, if your PSU just meets the needs of your computer and experiences a power spike, it could damage your PSU or even other parts of your computer.
Trust me, this is what happened with my first computer, and I don’t want it to happen to you.
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.
For this reason, I would recommend the Cooler Master G800 Gold Power Supply
The Cooler Master G800 Gold Power Supply is an 800 Watt PSU, that is 80 Plus Gold Certified.
The reason why I am recommending this power supply is that Cooler Master is a very reliable and well-known brand, their PSU comes with a 5-year warranty, and it is also Gold certified.
This means this power supply will do a good job of taking the power that it needs to run your system (Not using excess power from your home.)
This is very important, especially if you are running a power-hungry GPU like the RX 7900 XT, and it is only around $120, which is a decent price for a very high-end power supply unit.
RX 7900 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 7900 XT.
| GPU | TGP |
| RTX 4080 | 320 Watts |
| RTX 4070 Ti | 285 Watts |
| RX 7900 XT | 315 Watts |
| RX 7900 XTX | 335 Watts |
| RX 6950 XT | 335 Watts |
As you can see from this table, these high-performance GPUs all have a very high power draw.
However, this is expected because these graphics cards are very powerful. When comparing the power consumption of a GPU you should compare it to other GPUs of the same performance, and different generations.
Looking at this table, the RX 7900 XT actually does really well compared to other GPUs.
The RX 7900 XT is more power efficient than the AMD RX 6950 XT, which is their most powerful GPU from the last generation.
Also, the RX 7900 XT has a lower TGP than the RX 7900 XTX, which is the next level-up GPU from AMD, compared to the RTX 4080 from Nvidia, which is considered to be the RX 7900 XT counterpart, it is more power efficient.
AMD has done a good job of putting a cap on the amount of power their GPUs consume even after creating new hardware and improving the performance.
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 and the average power consumption when idle, so you can get a better understanding.
