Nvidia is reportedly preparing to launch the first few cards in its RTX 50 series at CES next week, including an RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070. The 5090 will be of particular interest to performance-obsessed, money-is-no-object PC gaming enthusiasts, as it's the first new GPU in over two years to boost the performance of The 2022 RTX 4090.
But improved performance and slower advances in chip manufacturing technology mean the 5090's maximum power consumption will far exceed that of the 4090, leakers say. VideoCardz reports that the 5090's thermal design power (TDP) will be set at 575W, compared to 450W for the already power-hungry RTX 4090. The RTX 5080's TDP will also increase to 360W, up from 320 W for the RTX 4080 Super.
That also puts the RTX 5090 close to the maximum power consumption available through a single 12VHPWR connector, which is capable of delivering up to 600W of power (but once you get the 75W available through the PCI Express slot on your motherboard, the actual maximum possible power consumption for a GPU with a single 12VHPWR connector is a slightly higher 675 W).
Higher peak power consumption doesn't necessarily mean that these cards will always consume more power than their 40-series counterparts during actual gaming. And their performance could be so good that they could still be very efficient cards in terms of performance per watt.
But if you're considering an upgrade to an RTX 5090 and these power specs are correct, you may need to consider an upgraded power supply along with your new graphics card. Nvidia recommends a minimum 850W power supply for the RTX 4090 to accommodate what the GPU needs while leaving enough power for the rest of the system. An additional 125W increase suggests Nvidia will recommend a 1,000W power supply as a minimum for the 5090.
We'll likely know more about Nvidia's next-gen cards after its CES keynote, currently scheduled for 9:30 PM Eastern/6:30 PM Pacific on Monday, January 6.
