My Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon 7900 XTX sometimes draws around 350–450W while playing certain Roblox experiences. The power usage changes depending on the area, but it still seems excessive for Roblox. I'm playing at 4K on a 120Hz display with Roblox capped at 120 FPS and graphics quality set to maximum. For example, I've seen about 81% GPU utilization, 384W board power, a 54°C GPU temperature, a 79°C hotspot, and roughly 1,818 RPM fan speed. The browser and app versions behave about the same. Lowering the graphics settings reduces power draw, but I'd prefer to keep the visual quality high. Some of my 4K Steam games use considerably less power, so I'm wondering whether certain Roblox experiences are poorly optimized or if there's another setting I should check. Would lowering the FPS cap or undervolting the GPU be worthwhile?
2 Answers
The combination of 4K, maximum settings, and 120 FPS is what matters here. Roblox still has to render 120 full-resolution frames every second, and some experiences may be less optimized than commercial PC games. Try lowering the cap to 60 or 72 FPS first; that should reduce power use without affecting resolution or graphics quality as much.
A 120 FPS cap can still keep the GPU working hard, especially in areas where the game engine is demanding. Since the cap is already set, the next useful comparison is 60 FPS at the same resolution and quality. If power drops substantially, the behavior is probably normal for the workload rather than a problem with the card.
It is already capped at 120 FPS, so I’ll try 60 FPS next. I’d rather reduce frame rate than make the image look worse.
I didn’t realize the frame-rate cap could make such a big difference in Roblox. I’ll test it at 60 FPS and compare the power draw.