Rx 580 power draw: AMD Radeon RX 580 Specs

15 марта, 2023

AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB: Power Consumption

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Power Consumption

Power Consumption Overview

Our exploration of power consumption begins with a look at the loads while running different tasks. After all, this is where AMD made the most headway with Radeon RX 580.

Specifically, power consumption is way down with multiple monitors attached, so long as you’re running them all at the same resolution. Moreover, power use drops while watching video using hardware acceleration. An aggressively-overclocked card like Sapphire’s Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 Limited Edition set to its O/C mode really shows off the effect of these lower GPU and memory clock rates.

Of course, it’d be great to see AMD roll these enhancements out to older Polaris-based cards via firmware update, but it sounds like the company has no plans to do this.

At 1411 MHz in silent mode and 1450 MHz in boost mode, you’re talking about much higher clock rates than Ellesmere was originally set to run at. Impressively, Sapphire enables these frequencies without using more power than the Radeon RX 480. In our gaming loop, its Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 operates at an almost-constant 1450 MHz, whereas the previous-gen card was limited to 1350 MHz and used just as much power. One explanation for this is lower leakage current. A much better cooling solution helps keep GPU temperatures down, and we estimate this provides an advantage of ~10W.

The Radeon RX 580’s higher frequency does come at a price, though: it requires a higher voltage setting.

Sapphire’s Nitro+ Radeon RX 480 averages 1.15V and peaks at 1.1563V. Those numbers increase to an average of 1.1688V and a peak of 1.19V for the company’s Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 Limited Edition, creating more power loss. This doesn’t show up in the graph, though, because of the RX 480 card’s much higher leakage current.

A Closer Look at Silent Mode

The Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 Limited Edition ships with a silent mode clock rate of 1411 MHz, which matches the boost mode setting of Sapphire’s non-Limited Edition model. As a result, our results should apply to that card as well.

First, we present power consumption during our gaming loop:

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The rails are balanced fairly well, though there are some brief peaks that exceed the motherboard slot’s maximum rating of 5.5A.

During our stress test, all of the numbers go up (some of them significantly). Now the motherboard slot consistently nudges up to the PCI-SIG specification’s limits.

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Illustrating the motherboard slot’s results with a bar graph shows just how close to the limit Sapphire gets with its Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 Limited Edition. The peaks aren’t particularly meaningful since they’re brief; it’s the constant loads you want to focus on. Those stay well within a safe range.

A Closer Look at Boost Mode

Switching over to boost mode pushes the Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 Limited Edition to a GPU clock rate of 1450 MHz. That’s a big step up from the vanilla version’s ceiling, but it should still represent what you might see after some manual overclocking. With this in mind, let’s take a look at power consumption during our gaming loop:

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The rails are still balanced fairly well, even though we observe short peaks that exceed the motherboard slot’s maximum rating of 5.5A once again.

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Again, our results increase significantly during the stress test, with the motherboard slot’s power consumption hovering around the PCI-SIG specification’s limit.

The motherboard slot’s load doesn’t increase, since the GPU is driven by the auxiliary power connectors. However, our numbers with manually overclocked memory, which is supplied by the PCIe slot, show Sapphire toeing the line.

Power Savings with Chill

AMD is making a big deal of its Chill technology with Radeon RX 580. This isn’t new, though. Check out Benchmarking AMD Radeon Chill: Pumping The Brakes On Wasted Power from last December if you want more information.

Comparing To GeForce GTX 1060, 1070, and 1080

For a point of comparison to Radeon RX 580, check out the following power consumption measurements from several GeForce GTX 1060s. They fall well below Sapphire’s overclocked board.

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Why is it necessary to throw this information in as a post-script. Well, we think it’s pretty important to mention that Sapphire’s Nitro+ Radeon RX 580 Limited Edition uses as much power as overclocked third-party GeForce GTX 1080s in our gaming loop:

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The Radeon RX 580 shows us that when finesse isn’t in the cards, brute force works, too. Dialing in a higher core voltage (and enduring its higher power losses) are the price you pay for a few extra megahertz of GPU clock rate. The improvements to get excited about are found elsewhere: AMD’s Radeon RX 580 demonstrates lower power consumption in multi-monitor configurations and hardware-accelerated video playback thanks to a new memory clock state.

MORE: Best Graphics Cards

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RX 580 Power Consumption Guide (2022)

While it is starting to show its age a little, the RX 580 is still a great graphics card if you’re on a tight budget and you don’t mind turning down the settings on top-end games. It’s powerful enough that it’ll still handle HD gaming and can even power a VR PC too, though perhaps not for some of the more intensive titles.

If you’re looking to add an RX 580 to your budget gaming PC setup, then you’ll need to know just how much power it draws so that you know you’ve got the supply to match it.

Let’s run through the typical power consumption in this quick guide.

How Many Watts Does An RX 580 Use?

When using the RX 580 graphics card to its full capabilities, it’ll draw around 220 watts of power. When it’s idle it’ll draw a lot less – approximately 16 watts if you’re doing nothing at all, or 18 watts if you’ve got it connected up to more than one monitor.

Bear in mind that the power draw will vary a little if you’re running different monitors on different resolutions – it takes more power for the graphics card to work out how to manage the different displays at once.

If you’re using your PC to watch videos, that’ll put a small amount of demand on your graphics card, and it’ll use around 20 watts of power.  

And if you really put your RX 580 through its paces, you might see some spikes of around 238 watts, so you’ll need to make sure your power supply is able to handle that amount of demand otherwise you risk underpowering your graphics card and potentially your PC as a whole (source).

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How Many Watts Does An RX 580 Use Per Hour?

When you’re using your PC to play games or render animations, the RX 580 graphics card will use around 220 watt-hours per hour, which is the same as 0.22 kilowatt-hours per hour. Most gamers will play for around 8.5 hours a week, for a total weekly power consumption of 1.87 kilowatt-hours.

Bearing in mind the average US cost of electricity at $0.14 per kilowatt-hour, this means the graphics card will cost you around a quarter each week to run it, or around $13.60 per year for the average gamer.

But if you’re buying a power supply and using this information to help, remember that this is just the power consumption of the graphics card. All the other components in your PC are going to draw power too.

Admittedly, they won’t draw as much as the RX 580 unless you’re pairing the graphics card with a high-end processor, which wouldn’t be the wisest way to spend your money. However, if you do intend to build a high-end rig but want a cheap graphics card as a temporary solution, be aware that the best processors might push a similar power consumption.

Read more: How Many Watts Does A Gaming PC Use?

What Power Supply Do I Need For An RX 580?

The minimum recommended power supply for an RX 580 is 450 watts, but it’s better to get one with a higher power capacity to allow for any spikes and any upgrades in the future. Aim for at least 500 watts if you can, ideally even higher.

You might think this is overkill since the graphics card uses less than half the recommended 450-watt draw, but at this low power level, you can easily use components that push you close to the limit.

A typical gaming motherboard alone will draw 40 watts but a good one will push 80. That’s already 300 watts just for the GPU and board before you’ve added in processor, RAM, storage, and anything else.

And you’ll want a 20% ceiling too, just to cover you. If your total PC power consumption is around the 400-watt level, add 20% – that’d take you to 480, meaning you’d need a 500-watt power supply.

Also, make sure you’re looking for a power supply with an 80+ rating, ideally one that’s Gold or better. This refers to how efficient the power supply is, with a better rating meaning the supply wastes less power when it delivers electricity to the components.

Read more: Power Supply Ratings Explained

The Best Power Supply For An RX 580

For an RX 580 graphics card, you should choose a power supply that’s rated for 550 watts or more. This means you’ll definitely have the capacity to run the graphics card at full power along with other mid-level specs, and you’ve got a little bit of room to work with if you want to upgrade in the future.

Plus, the price difference shouldn’t be too big between that and a cheaper 500-watt model.

For the price, this EVGA SuperNOVA is an excellent-value power supply. It’s rated for 550 watts as you’ll want, and it’s 80+ Gold for efficiency, meaning you won’t be wasting a lot of power through heat loss.

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It’s also fully modular, which is great for two reasons. One, because you’re only plugging in the cables you need, it keeps your PC a lot tidier and makes it easier to set up and upgrade in the future if needed.

And two, because there are fewer cables getting in the way inside the case, airflow is improved which keeps everything cooler and running more efficiently.

What RX 580 Power Cable Do I Need?

The power cable you’ll need for your RX 580 will depend on the model but it’ll likely either be one or two 6-pin connectors. Earlier models sometimes only relied on one 6-pin connector with the PCI-e power, but later ones need two for sufficient power.

Despite the low power draw of the card compared to some later models, it does still need a decent amount of juice and so it’s important that you ensure every port is connected to the power supply.

RX 580 FAQs

Is 500W Enough For An RX 580 8GB?

A 500-watt power supply is likely to be just enough for an RX 580, but if you’re upgrading already it makes sense to add a little more leeway and choose a 550-watt PSU or better. The price difference is minimal vs the peace of mind knowing it’ll work long-term.

Is A 600 Watt Power Supply Enough For An RX 580?

A 600-watt PSU is easily enough for an RX 580 graphics card if you’re using it in a budget or mid-range PC. If you want to use a high-end PC then it’ll likely work, but you may need to upgrade the PSU in the future before you upgrade other parts.

Does RX 580 Use 6 Pin?

Some earlier RX 580 graphics cards worked on just a single 6-pin connector along with the power provided by the PCI-express slot on the motherboard. Later RX 580 versions need two 6-pin connectors to provide enough power for it to work at full capacity.

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