We’re mere weeks away from the expected launch of Nvidia’s RTX 5000 series of gaming GPUs, and while we’ve seen dozens of leaks related to the launch over the last few months, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for a few more surprises. One such surprise could be that after months of rumors hinting that the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 power consumption could be as high as 600W, one leaker is now suggesting that won’t be the case.
The RTX 5090 is expected to inherit the best graphics card crown from its predecessor, the RTX 4090, thanks in large part to its rumored 50% increase in CUDA cores. However, many potential buyers will be hoping the new Nvidia card doesn’t stretch much beyond the 450W power rating of the RTX 4090 – and thus possibly require the purchase of a new power supply – and this latest leak gives them a smidge of hope.
The colossally high 600W power draw figure has been speculated on the back of numerous rumors, with the most prominent being by regular tech leaker kopite7kimi on X (formerly Twitter), who said back in September that the new RTX 5090 power draw would be over 550W. That already left plenty of room for the power draw rating to fall under 600W, but many believed it could go beyond this figure.
However, it’s kopite7kimi again that has now suggested the power draw will indeed come in at under 600W. Responding to a reply to another tweet about the RTX 5070 that asked “5090 Still 600W?”, kopite7kimi replied, “There may be a slight decrease.”
What’s interesting about this phrasing is that it suggests the lower figure is in fact a change in plans on Nvidia’s part. Given how much lead time is needed to develop graphics cards, it seems unlikely that Nvidia would have made a significant change at this stage, but it’s possible. After all, it’s easy to make a card run a bit slower, and thus cooler with lower power consumption. It’s getting more power out of a card at this late stage that would be particularly difficult. However, it’s also possible kopite7kimi was just using a slightly odd turn of phrase to describe the situation.
What’s also possible is that this change could be a token one, making the official figure 599W, for instance, just to sneak in under that alarming 600W marker. If that were the case, it wouldn’t change the possible need for many of us to upgrade our PC power supplies, with it likely that a 1,000W+ supply would be stipulated for use with these cards. Indeed, it’s notable just how many new power supplies have recently been launched that are rated to well beyond 1200W.
Ultimately, we’ll find out the true situation at the Nvidia CES 2025 keynote on January 6 where the company is expected to unveil the new card. For more on what we can expect from the new GPU, check out our RTX 5090 guide, which explains the rumored card’s specs, performance, price, and more.