I've noticed my new RTX 4090 actually runs cooler than the 3080. I too cap the global framerate at 144 since my monitor's refresh is 144Hz. The card is also a lot quieter than my old EVGA 3080. The MSI card has a really huge cooler, and very efficient fans. Even under full load I rarely see the fans go over 30%, and it doesn't feel like I have a space heater under the desk.

Now I did fire up an old game the other day, Dishonored 2, and it does something when it launches the first time - I'm guessing maybe determining the best video settings, but it scared the crap out of me. The FPS shot up to 500 somehow, despite the global cap, and the GPU and CPU fans started screaming. It got me worried, considering there were those cases of misbehaving game menus in some games a while back, killing video cards. I damn near pulled the plug on the PC but it throttled down after a few seconds and the launch screen came up, and has not done it again.

CPU power consumption really is not THAT big a deal. Yeah, it's not adding that much to your power bill. Heat is the bigger issue. I freely admit to being a bit casual about power usage. I have three media center PCs running all the time (sleep mode just doesn't work properly in Win7 Media Center), and my main workstation is on 24/7, but all modern PCs throttle the CPU down to a trickle when they're idle.

Yep, high-end Intel chips taking it easy in most games will use only 100-120W, not the 250-300W they'll pull when fully-loaded. Pay no mind to the high-end AMD chips being 95-99% as fast in those same games while using only 40-60W, with the 100-120W range representing the fully-loaded maximum draw for most of them...

Xero wrote on Sep 27, 2023, 15:57:

phinn wrote on Sep 27, 2023, 13:00:
Yea not to mention without a dedicated GPU Macs are a total joke to even consider with gaming.

Not too keen on this 14700KF either, until 15th gen comes out next year with much better power efficiency from Intel 7 node and the new core design Intel is a hard pass for me.

I'm curious just how much these power consumptions matter in the grand scheme. To put in real world perspective. I rented for 10 years of my life up until last year. My average electric bill when it wasn't summer was around 15-20 bucks. During summer and ACs running, around 40-45 bucks. This was also on my old build. i7 3k generation, lol.

I've since built a i9 on 11k gen which I've heard would be a power whore. I bought a house last year a month after that build. I have a few more electric hogs than the apartment, yet I've averaged the same electric bill (a few dollars higher) when I don't have ACs running... I mean if we're talking 1-3 dollar difference, who tf cares? lol

I will say however, heat is more of a concern and it does run very warm. Had I known prior to going with the i9 11k and the heat it puts out, I probably would have waited.

It all depends on what games you play and whether you are GPU or CPU limited. If you play games at 720p with no fps cap on something like a RTX 2060 then your CPU is going to do a lot of work and consume tons of power. "Worst case" scenario for the CPU would be something like Anno 1800 or Cities Skylines at 720p on a relatively weak GPU.

However, if you run games on a RTX 4090 at 4K with G-Sync (compatible) enabled at a limit of e.g. 120fps and if you always try to maximize your settings in every game then the CPU takes a backseat and twiddles its thumbs most of the time because the RTX 4090 is doing all the heavy lifting.

I'm in the second category. I have an i9-13900K and a RTX 4090. I limit my fps to 144 max because I have a 4K@144Hz G-Sync compatible screen. If a game allows to set a fps cap then I usually go for 120fps for action games and 80-100fps for slower games with turn-based combat.
My CPU never gets close to drawing any significant power and it runs cool most of the time. There are some poorly optimized console ports that are the outlier like the Dead Space Remake which, even at 4K, causes CPU temperatures to spike up to 90°C, but it does that on Fryzens as well, of course.

In short, the theoretical max power draw of up to 250W for Intel CPUs is just that in most real world cases: Theoretical. If you are a 4K gamer where the GPU takes precedence then your CPU will run cool and silent in 98% of all games.

Xero wrote on Sep 27, 2023, 15:57:
I will say however, heat is more of a concern and it does run very warm. Had I known prior to going with the i9 11k and the heat it puts out, I probably would have waited.

It's electronics, they do no work, so all power consumed must be is dissapated as heat. So yea when I say power I'm also referring to heat too. The compounding effect is not nothing. Intel has poor performance per watt right now so I'm just avoiding it. I'm just not intereted in a 250-300W @ PL2 K-series CPU anymore at all. I am optimistic Intel 4 will rain this in though (or Intel 20A as pointed out).

phinn wrote on Sep 27, 2023, 13:00:
Yea not to mention without a dedicated GPU Macs are a total joke to even consider with gaming.

Not too keen on this 14700KF either, until 15th gen comes out next year with much better power efficiency from Intel 7 node and the new core design Intel is a hard pass for me.

I'm curious just how much these power consumptions matter in the grand scheme. To put in real world perspective. I rented for 10 years of my life up until last year. My average electric bill when it wasn't summer was around 15-20 bucks. During summer and ACs running, around 40-45 bucks. This was also on my old build. i7 3k generation, lol.

I've since built a i9 on 11k gen which I've heard would be a power whore. I bought a house last year a month after that build. I have a few more electric hogs than the apartment, yet I've averaged the same electric bill (a few dollars higher) when I don't have ACs running... I mean if we're talking 1-3 dollar difference, who tf cares? lol

I will say however, heat is more of a concern and it does run very warm. Had I known prior to going with the i9 11k and the heat it puts out, I probably would have waited.

phinn wrote on Sep 27, 2023, 13:00:
Not too keen on this 14700KF either, until 15th gen comes out next year with much better power efficiency from Intel 7 node and the new core design Intel is a hard pass for me.

I wouldn't bet on next year. Arrow Lake Core 9 Ultra for the desktop is most likely not due before H1/2025. It will be made on the 20A node. That's a significant jump from Intel 7 so I will only believe "2024" when I actually see Arrow Lake desktop CPUs (Core 7 and Core 9 Ultra) in stores with a green availability blip next year.

Yea not to mention without a dedicated GPU Macs are a total joke to even consider with gaming.

Not too keen on this 14700KF either, until 15th gen comes out next year with much better power efficiency from Intel 7 node and the new core design Intel is a hard pass for me.

Apple adds a feature for playing games on a mac? 🤣