Gaming Graphics Cards: Which GPU Do You Have Installed and What Power Can They Draw? 106 comments
What shares are the three relevant graphics card manufacturers represented in the Computer Basics forum, when did readers purchase their current graphics card, and which models are they specifically using? These and other questions are answered in the semi-annual format of today’s Sunday Question.
Table of Contents: Which GPU Do You Have Installed and What Power Can They Draw? Where are the community’s GPU preferences? When was the graphics card last upgraded? Which graphics cards do you have in your desktop PC? How high is the power consumption and have you adjusted it? Do you have a GPU power consumption pain threshold? Participation is highly encouraged; the last ten Sunday Questions are in the overview of motivation and data usage.
Where are the community’s GPU preferences? The question arises again and again regarding the graphics cards that the gaming community actually uses for their computers. A look at individual reviews and GPU purchase recommendations may suggest some concrete models, but the community is by no means a homogeneous mass, and as a result, the graphics cards used in gaming PCs vary greatly.
Various surveys provide a rough picture throughout the year, as does the traditional large software and hardware survey at the turn of the year. However, it is rarely broken down into individual GPU models, and certainly not across generations and manufacturers. Today’s Sunday question format should remedy this situation every six months. For the sake of clarity, there are three questions before the large survey with several dozen answer options, which should provide an early overview.
So the first question is: which manufacturer has the most powerful GPU in your main computer? In addition to desktop PCs, laptops are also included.
And which GPU series is it specifically for? The following list of answer options doesn’t claim to be complete, but rather refers to the central GPU series in recent years. If you can’t assign your own GPU, you are welcome to indicate in the comments which series you belong to.
When was the graphics card last upgraded? The following questions refer exclusively to desktop graphics cards, so notebooks are excluded. First, it asks when you purchased your current graphics card for your desktop PC, and not specifically the year the model was introduced or launched, for example.
What graphics cards do you have in your desktop PC?
The main question is which graphics card you currently use in your desktop PC for gaming. All current and latest generation graphics cards from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel, as well as selected models from older generations, are covered. The Intel Arc BattleMage, Nvidia GeForce RTX 50, and AMD Radeon RX 9000 generations have been released since the last major graphics card survey.
However, not all graphics cards from recent years can be considered so as not to completely exceed the scope of the survey. So, if you’re still gaming on a graphics card that isn’t listed in the answer options, you can report it on the forum.
How high is the power consumption, and have you adjusted it?
Finally, there are four more questions about your desktop graphics card, if available. First: How high is the power consumption of your graphics card, as specified by the manufacturer?
With the GeForce RTX 5090 and 575 WATT TDP, Nvidia reached a new, unusual milestone at the beginning of the year, but also, in general, the power consumption of new graphics cards since Nvidia Ampere has also continued to be alarming. Are you drawing the consequences of manually shutting down? Or are you using available reserves to squeeze even more power?
This leads to another question: what power limit and Gaming-Last performance targets do you use your graphics card with in practice? Do you have a pain threshold for GPU power consumption?
And finally, the question of your personal limit follows when you pick up your graphics card. Do you have such a pain threshold, and if so, how high is it?
Participation is expressly welcome.
As always, the editorial team welcomes detailed and robust reasons for your decisions in the comments to the current Sunday question. If you personally hold completely different views that aren’t covered by the answer options given in the article’s surveys, you can also report them in the forum. Ideas and suggestions for the content of current or future surveys are also welcome.
Readers who haven’t yet participated in last Sunday’s questions can do so, as the surveys always run for 30 days. The only requirement for participation is a free basic computer account. Exciting discussions are still taking place in the forum, in particular.
The last ten Sunday questions in an overview
Desktop PCs: How many M.2 slots and USB ports does your main board have? 50 years of Microsoft: What was your first Windows operating system? Printers: Do you have one, what can you avoid, and which manufacturer? Radeon RX 9070 (XT): How do you rate the new graphics cards and are you buying one? Price and performance forecasts? Rollables: Do you have a flip or fold smartphone? Or why not? Film and series streaming: Which services do you use and can you share them? Kingdom Come 2: Have you dived into the medieval role-playing game? RTX 5090 and 5080: How far has the market started, and will it benefit AMD? GeForce RTX 5090: How disappointed are you with Nvidia’s 575-watt powertrain?
Motivation and Use of Data
The data collected as part of the Sunday Questions is solely used to provide insight into the community’s mood and readers’ hardware and software preferences and developments. There is no financial or advertising context, nor is there any evaluation for market research purposes or the data shared with third parties.
Topics: AMD Arc Community GeForce Graphics Cards Intel Nvidia Radeon Sunday Question
An engineer by training, Alexandre shares his knowledge on GPU performance for gaming and creation.
