NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4090 is incredibly power efficient despite having a lofty TBP of 450W. The graphics card rarely comes close to its maximum board power. Testing by Quasarzone shows that the RTX 4090 loses almost no performance with its peak power budget cut to 300W. The GPU is 98% as fast at 4K on average across five games, with the graphics settings maxed out.
With the power limit reduced to 60%, the GeForce RTX 4090 is 94% as fast at 4K across the same five titles. Setting the TBP to 268W brings the first notable drop in frame rates, making the Ada flagship 6% slower than stock. What’s worth noting is the average core frequency: The RTX 4090 operates at 2.72GHz at stock, 2.71GHz at 90% power, 2.69GHz at 80% power, 2.60GHz at 70%, and 2.44GHz at 60%. As you can see, reducing the TBP by 80% cuts the clocks by just 26MHz. Setting the power limit to 70% reduces the average boost clock to 2.6GHz, and 2.44GHz at 60%.
In a nutshell, if you’re looking to maximize the efficiency of your brand-new RTX 4090 without losing any notable performance, then 300-325W is the sweet spot for you. On average, you’ll lose just a few frames and reduce power consumption by at least 50W.
