this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2025
168 points (96.2% liked)
Hardware
830 readers
392 users here now
All things related to technology hardware, with a focus on computing hardware.
Rules (Click to Expand):
-
Follow the Lemmy.world Rules - https://mastodon.world/about
-
Be kind. No bullying, harassment, racism, sexism etc. against other users.
-
No Spam, illegal content, or NSFW content.
-
Please stay on topic, adjacent topics (e.g. software) are fine if they are strongly relevant to technology hardware. Another example would be business news for hardware-focused companies.
-
Please try and post original sources when possible (as opposed to summaries).
-
If posting an archived version of the article, please include a URL link to the original article in the body of the post.
Some other hardware communities across Lemmy:
- Augmented Reality - [email protected]
- Gaming Laptops - [email protected]
- Laptops - [email protected]
- Linux Hardware - [email protected]
- Mechanical Keyboards - [email protected]
- Microcontrollers - [email protected]
- Monitors - [email protected]
- Raspberry Pi - [email protected]
- Retro Computing - [email protected]
- Single Board Computers - [email protected]
- Virtual Reality - [email protected]
Icon by "icon lauk" under CC BY 3.0
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The prices are high, but what really is shocking are the power consumption figures. The 5090 is 575W(!!), while the 5080 is 360W, 5070Ti is 300W, and the 5070 is 250W.
If you are getting one of these, factor in the cost of a better PSU and your electric bill too. We're getting closer and closer to the limit of power from a US electrical socket.
1000W PSU pulls max 8.3A on a 120v circuit.
Residential circuits in USA are 15-20A, very rarely are they 10 but I've seen some super old ones or split 20A breakers in the wild.
A single duplex outlet must be rated to the same amperage as the breaker in order to be code, so with a 5090 PC you're around half capacity of what you'd normally find, worst case. Nice big monitors take about an amp each, and other peripherals are negligible.
You could easily pop a breaker if you've got a bunch of other stuff on the same circuit, but that's true for anything.
I think the power draw on a 5090 is crazy, crazy high don't get me wrong, but let's be reasonable here - electricity costs yes, but we're not getting close to the limits of a circuit/receptacle (yet).
Actually the National Electric Code (NEC) limits loads for 15 Aac receptacles to 12 Aac, and for 20 Aac receptacles 16 Aac iirc because those are the breaker ratings and you size those at 125% of the load (conversely, 1/125% = 80% where loads should be 80% of the break ratings).
So with a 15 Aac outlet and a 1000 Wac load at minimum 95% power factor, you're drawing 8.8 Aac which is ~73% of the capacity of the outlet (8.8/12). For a 20 Aac outlet, 8.8 Aac is ~55%% capacity (8.8/16).
Nonetheless, you're totally right. We're not approaching the limit of the technology unlike electric car chargers.
The NEC limits CONTINUOUS loads to 80%, not intermittent loads. Continuous loads are things like heaters, AC units, etc. Things plugged into the wall are generally not considered continuous loads, so your breakers in a residential home are usually not derated, and receptacles never are from what I've seen. (Although it could be argued that a gaming computer would be a continuous load, as it runs 3+ hours for many people, but there's still no electrician that would treat it that way, probably ever, unless it was some kind of commercial space that rented gaming seats or something. Either way it would be planned in advance)
The rule that you're describing is for the initial planning of the circuit. It's for the rating of your wires and overcurrent protections, which is done at the time of installation, based on the expected continuous and intermittent loads. For residential planning nobody treats a standard branch circuit for wall receptacles as somewhere you'd derate, so your 15A circuit is a 15A circuit, you don't need to do any more math on it and derate it further.
You could make the argument that people with 5090s do run their PCs longer than 3 hours since those folk are more prone to longer bouts of gaming to feel like they're returning on their expensive investment. And as the capabilities of our PCs become more and more robust, it will likely mean that people will more and more need to consider whether the circuit they're plugging into will take the load they're giving it.
Doesn't hurt to plan for the future regarding building wiring, since most tech folk do so regarding their PC builds.
But, up on further inspection... I may be inclined to agree with you. See this thread from licensed and qualified professionals in the space.
It seems that homeowners are given a special class of immunity when it comes to manifesting hazards associated with their use of electricity. Whether or not that immunity should be granted, given that improper use of electrical equipment in a household can lead to fires and cause undue harm to the community at large, I think is up for debate.