Some interesting information regarding AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX has come to light. The RDNA 3 flagship is known to draw excessive amounts of power when idle. Although AMD has released a driver fix, the ambient consumption remains higher. ComputerBase has inadvertently discovered the solution to this longstanding problem. Turn on FreeSync or, in Windows terms, Variable Refresh Rate.
| 4K144 desktop idle | 4K144 dual monitor | 4K144 window movement | 4K144 YT, SDR, 60fps | 4K144 YT, HDR, 60fps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radeon RX 6700 XT Old measurement | 34 watts | 34 watts | 43 watts | 40 watts | 45 watts |
| Radeon RX 6700 XT New measurement | 8 watts (-76 percent) | 34 watts (+-0 percent) | 41 watts (-5 percent) | 38 watts (-5 percent) | 43 watts (-4 percent) |
| GeForce RTX 3060 Ti old measurement | 18 watts | 24 watts | 43 watts | 27 watts | 42 watts |
| GeForce RTX 3060 Ti New measurement | 17 watts (-5 percent) | 24 watts (+-0 percent) | 38 watts (-12 percent) | 28 watts (+4 percent) | 36 watts (-14 percent) |
| Arc A770 Old measurement | 44 watts | 46 watts | 56 watts | 59 watts | 69 watts |
| Arc A770 New measurement | 48 watts (+9 percent) | 50 watts (+9 percent) | 62 watts (+11 percent) | 59 watts (+-0 percent) | 66 watts (-4 percent) |
| Radeon RX 6800 XT Old Measurement | 43 watts | 43 watts | 54 watts | 49 watts | 52 watts |
| Radeon RX 6800 XT New measurement | 9 watts (-79 percent) | 43 watts (+-0 percent) | 45 watts (-17 percent) | 47 watts (-4 percent) | 51 watts (-2 percent) |
| GeForce RTX 3080 old measurement | 21 watts | 23 watts | 50 watts | 33 watts | 48 watts |
| GeForce RTX 3080 New measurement | 24 watts (+14 percent) | 31 watts (+35 percent) | 45 watts (-10 percent) | 34 watts (+3 percent) | 43 watts (-11 percent) |
| Radeon RX 7900 XTX Old measurement | 104 watts | 105 watts | 111 watts | 72 watts | 109 watts |
| Radeon RX 7900 XTX New measurement | 20 watts (-81 percent) | 30 watts (-71 percent) | 71 watts (-36 percent) | 68 watts (-5 percent) | 75 watts (-31 percent) |
| GeForce RTX 4080 old measurement | 16 watts | 25 watts | 36 watts | 26 watts | 38 watts |
| GeForce RTX 4080 New measurement | 20 watts (+25 percent) | 28 watts (+12 percent) | 36 watts (+-0 percent) | 27 watts (+4 percent) | 40 watts (+5 percent) |
The idle power consumption on the Radeon RX 7900 XTX with a 4K 144Hz monitor dropped by 81% upon enabling FreeSync. A double-monitor setup saw a drop of 71%, while playing YouTube on the former with HDR was 31% more efficient. The older RDNA 2 GPUs also benefitted the same way from Variable Refresh Rate.
The Radeon RX 6800 XT was 79% more efficient at 4K 144Hz, while the RX 6700 XT experienced a drop of 76% in power consumption. Interestingly, the GeForce cards see an increase in power intake with Adaptive Sync Enabled. The RTX 4080 draws 25%, while the RTX 3080 draws 14% more power.
That said, the GeForce cards report roughly the same power consumption as their Radeon rivals when Variable Refresh Rate is enabled. The RTX 4080 and RX 7900 XTX both average 20W when idle. The former is significantly more efficient when playing YouTube or some other light activity. At 4K 144Hz HDR, the RTX 4080 sips 40W while the RX 7900 XTX ups that number to 75W.
The Radeon RX 6800 XT, on the other hand, is about as efficient as the RTX 3080 when playing YouTube. Both GPUs report a power consumption of 40-50W at 4K 60 FPS with Adaptive Sync enabled.
