- Nvidia RTX 5090 and 5080 are rumored to have increased power usage
- RTX 5090 may demand 575W, slightly less than some previous rumors
- RTX 5080 could hit 360W, which unfortunately is slightly up from past speculation
Nvidia’s RTX 5090 and 5080 are expected to be revealed at CES 2025 – likely alongside RTX 5070 models, too – and we’ve just heard more about the possible power consumption of these next-gen GPUs.
VideoCardz noticed that two regular hardware leakers on X, Hongxing2020 and Kopite7kimi, have chimed in with purported power figures for these Blackwell GeForce graphics cards.
Assuming their beliefs are on the money, the former leaker put forward the assertion that the RTX 5090 will demand 575W in terms of power consumption, and then Kopite7kimi replied with the claim that the recently spotted RTX 5080 is going to chug 360W of power.
No clarification is provided as to how big these GPUs might be, and whether the RTX 5090 will be kept down to a two-slot graphics card, which is the follow-up question that several denizens of X posed on the above thread.
Analysis: Sizing up next-gen options
The reason folks are asking about the size of the next-gen flagship graphics card – apart from that it’s an obvious point of curiosity, anyway – is that previous buzz from the grapevine has suggested we might see a miraculously slim RTX 5090 kept down to two slots in size by Nvidia. (Whereas the RTX 4090 takes up three slots in a PC, at least – or four in many cases).
Essentially, with the mentioned 575W figure, folks are leaping to the conclusion that this won’t be a two-slot board as per that previous rumor. (Unless Nvidia really has worked some magic with a slim cooling solution to keep a power-hungry graphics card in check). So, this is why the question is being asked.
In fact, 575W is a slight drop in a previous prediction from the rumor mill that we’ll see the RTX 5090 use 600W, and in that respect, it’s a bit of positive news. Well, kind of – Kopite7kimi also hinted that the flagship’s power consumption would drop slightly in recent times – but clearly, this is still set to be a demanding GPU. From what we’ve heard elsewhere, it’s likely to be more targeted at professional usage than PC gaming, and could be extremely pricey – though as a GeForce model, it is still officially a consumer (gaming) card, in theory.
If all this pans out, of course, the RTX 5080 is looking hefty on the power side of the equation here, too. Indeed, Kopite7kimi has indicated that it could sit at around 350W in the past, so their prediction has been revised slightly upwards to 360W here.
That could be bad news for anyone using a PC power calculator to work out whether their power supply can cope with a new RTX 5080, as pushing closer to the 400W mark could mean that even a relatively beefy PSU could be driven closer to the borderline of whether it’ll work out or not.
It certainly would put the RTX 5080 out of reach of my 650W power supply, but I’m still hoping that the RTX 5070 is going to come in considerably leaner, and will be a good fit for an upgrade to my gaming PC – or the RTX 5070 Ti, with any luck. In all honesty, I’m not expecting the RTX 5080 to be within my price range anyway, especially given the rumors around the cost of these next-gen graphics cards – other options will be on the table from AMD in RDNA 4 launches, so there’s that to consider as well.
Whether all these forecasts turn out to be accurate or not, we’ll just have to see come Nvidia’s big reveal on January 6 – but whatever the case, everything from the rumor mill is suggesting that we will see increased power consumption for Blackwell graphics cards.
As well as next-gen desktop graphics cards at CES 2025, we may also be treated to the launch of mobile versions, and perhaps DLSS 4 to boot.