I'm curious about the power supply unit (PSU) recommendations for the RTX 5080 and RX 9070 XT. According to Nvidia, you need an 850W PSU for the RTX 5080, while AMD suggests a 750W PSU for the RX 9070 XT, even though the RX 9070 XT can use more power—sometimes up to 50W more than the RTX 5080. I'm trying to understand why AMD recommends a lower wattage PSU for a GPU that draws more power compared to Nvidia's recommendation. Nvidia's suggestions seem to be based on the RTX 5080 being paired with a 170W 9950X CPU, while AMD pairs the RX 9070 XT with a 120W 9800X3D processor. Taking the CPU wattage difference into account still doesn't clarify why AMD recommends a PSU with 100W less capacity for a higher power card. Thanks for any insights!
1 Answer
The RX 9070 XT actually has a thermal design power (TDP) of 300W, while the RTX 5080 has a TDP of 360W. The 110W difference between the GPUs and their respective CPUs is why Nvidia recommends an 850W PSU versus AMD's 750W for the RX 9070 XT. It’s all about the math behind the power draw!
Still, in every real-world test I've seen, the RX 9070 XT seems to draw more power than the RTX 5080.