Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

This trick improves the power efficiency of Nvidia’s RTX 4090

Monica J. White
By

Nvidia’s latest flagship, the RTX 4090, has high power requirements, which is not surprising given its 450-watt total board power (TBP). However, there are ways to make the GPU much more power efficient.

To put that claim to the test, an owner of an RTX 4090 decided to try out power limiting and undervolting. The results were better than expected.

Nvidia's RTX 4090 undervolting chart.
QuasarZone

Before the RTX 4090 launched in October, it was the subject of a lot of speculation when it came to its power efficiency. Some sources warned about obscenely high TBP figures, in the range of 600W to 900W. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case, but the GPU is still quite power-hungry at 450W.

Recommended Videos

Even at 450W, the card requires a strong power supply and it eats up a whole lot of power. Still, it’s not as bad as expected — the RTX 4090 hardly ever utilizes all of that power. It’s currently too good for most games, even demanding AAA titles, so that helps.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!
Privacy Policy

However, it’s no secret that undervolting a GPU can limit power usage while maintaining similar performance. QuasarZone tried out two ways of improving the RTX 4090’s power efficiency — adjusting the power limit and undervolting. They then put the card to the test in five games, all played at max settings and at 4K resolution. The list of titles includes Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, Forza Horizon 5, Lost Ark, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

RTX 4090 performance at different power levels.
QuasarZone

By default, the card ran at 347W and a clock speed of 2,726MHz. Limiting the power to 60% lowered power consumption down to 268W while maintaining a clock speed of 2,443MHz. A 70% power limit seems like a sweet spot, with 305W and 2,602MHz, which is a negligible drop compared to running at 100%.

Undervolting has proved to be better than tweaking the power limit, but it’s also trickier to do. At 323 watts, QuasarZone managed to bring up the clock speed to 2,850MHz. On the lower end of the scale, they achieved 232W combined with 2,460MHz.

Regardless of the method, RTX 4090’s power efficiency was improved without hurting the card’s performance. If you own one of Nvidia’s best GPUs, this could certainly be something worth trying, especially if you worry about being hit by the melting connector fiasco.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Monica J. White
Monica J. White
Computing Writer
Monica is a UK-based freelance writer and self-proclaimed geek. A firm believer in the "PC building is just like expensive…
Nvidia just made GeForce Now so much better
Playing games with GeForce Now on a laptop.

Nvidia has just added adaptive refresh rates to GeForce Now, its cloud gaming service. The new tech, dubbed Cloud G-Sync, works on PCs with Nvidia GPUs first and foremost , but also on Macs. These include Macs with Apple Silicon, as well as older models with Intel CPUs and AMD GPUs. On the Windows PC side more broadly, Intel and AMD GPUs will not be supported right now. Nvidia has also made one more change to GeForce Now that makes it a lot easier to try out -- it introduced day passes.

Cloud G-Sync's variable refresh rate (VRR) feature will sync your monitor's refresh rate to match the frame rates you're hitting while gaming with GeForce Now. Nvidia's new cloud solution also uses Reflex to lower latency regardless of frame rates. Enabling VRR in GeForce Now should provide a major boost by reducing screen tearing and stuttering, improving the overall gaming experience on PCs and laptops that normally can't keep up with some titles. To pull this off, Nvidia uses its proprietary RTX 4080 SuperPODs.

Read more
The most common GPU problems and how to fix them
A hand grabbing MSI's RTX 4090 Suprim X.

If you use a desktop PC or laptop for long enough, chances are you're going to come across one of the common GPU problems that have plagued gamers and workers since the humble graphics card debuted for the first time. The question is, do you know how to fix them? If not, never fear. We're here to help.

Whether you're encountering poor performance, overheating, visual artifacts, or a dreaded black screen, we're going to help you diagnose and fix these common GPU problems.

Read more
GPUs just broke a 25-year-old record
Two RTX 4070 graphics cards sitting side by side.

The PC graphics card market witnessed notable growth in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to Jon Peddie Research. With shipments climbing by 6% to reach 76.2 million units, this surge marks a significant 24% increase year over year, representing the most substantial gain in over 25 years.

Projections indicate a continued upward trend, with an expected 3.6% annual growth rate from 2024 to 2026, potentially culminating in a total installed base of 5 billion units by the end of 2026, with discrete GPUs comprising 30% of the market.

Read more