Intel’s Sapphire Rapids Xeon Workstation CPUs, when paired with NVIDIA’s RTX 4090, require up to 2000W power when overclocked.
Intel Sapphire Rapids Workstation CPU & NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU Combo Requires Up To 2000 Watts of Power When Overclocked
In the latest tests done by Bilibili’s content creator, Extreme Player, we get to see how the latest Intel Xeon Workstation CPUs codenamed Sapphire Rapids perform when paired with a high-end GPU such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Both the flagship Xeon W7-2495X and the W9-3495X flagship chips were tested and most importantly, we got a glimpse of what’s the maximum power consumption these chips can sip when they are overclocked.
Starting with the Intel Xeon W7-2495X which features 24 cores and 48 threads, the chip can hit up to 570-600W of power when overclocked to 4.4 GHz across all cores. Moving over to the Xeon W9-3495X with 56 cores and 112 threads, the chip can be pushed to 4 GHz across all cores for the chip to sip in 830-850W of power. The resultant performance from these overclocks is anywhere from a 10-40% jump versus the stock chip with the higher increases witnessed in pure multi-threaded test workloads.
Intel Xeon W9-3495X & W7-2495X Overclocked Statistics (Image Credits: Extreme Player):
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But that’s not all, Extreme Player also goes one step ahead and overclocks the Xeon W9-3495X and Xeon W7-2495X Sapphire Rapids Workstation CPUs a bit more to 4.2 GHz and 4.8 GHz, respectively. This yields a 65% and 45% increase over the stock chip within the Cinebench R23 benchmark which is superb.
However, all that extra performance comes at a huge cost in terms of power consumption and the temps. The Xeon W9-3495X hit a 99C at full load while the Xeon W7-2495X hit 104C at full load with the overclocks. As for power consumption, at the final tuned settings, the Xeon W9-3495X hit up to 922W power consumption while the W7-2495X hit 654W power consumption. But it does not just end here.
Intel Xeon W9-3495X & W7-2495X Overclocked Performance (Image Credits: Extreme Player):
Intel Xeon W9-3495X & W7-2495X Overclocked Temps / Power (Image Credits: Extreme Player):
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The full platform load was hitting 1500W for the Xeon W9-3495X and 1000W for the W7-2495X CPU. Extreme Player recommends that you should be running a 1500W PSU if you plan on using a Xeon W7-2495X chip (overclocked) with an NVIDIA RTX 4090 and a 2000W PSU if you have the Xeon W9-3495X in mind. Those are some really extreme requirements but enthusiasts are known to go to extreme lengths to get the best performance and hardware available on the market.
We have seen world-class overclockers make the chip hit almost 2000W when it was overclocked on LN2 cooling but this here is a more practical scenario with no use of LN2 & AIO cooling. The following PSU requirements have been recommended:
- Xeon W9-3495X OC (4.2 GHz) + RTX 4090 = 2000W PSU
- Xeon W9-3495X OC (4.0 GHz) + RTX 4090 = 1800W PSU
- Xeon W9-3495X (STOCK) + RTX 4090 = 1200W PSU
- Xeon W7-2495X OC (4.8 GHz) + RTX 4090 = 1500W PSU
- Xeon W7-2495X OC (4.4 GHz) + RTX 4090 = 1300W PSU
- Xeon W7-2495X (STOCK) + RTX 4090 = 900W PSU
We haven’t yet seen any 2000W Gen 5 PSUs on the market yet but there are several options in the ATX 2.0 range that can be coupled with a workstation system of similar specs. Do remember that besides the PSU, you should also get a high-end cooling solution for your Sapphire Rapids Xeon PC with custom-loop being the obvious choice.
Would you say 700W on air cooling is impossible? Here’s our NH-U14S DX-4677 cooling the Intel Xeon w9-3495X at a continuous load of more than 700W! @intel @ASUS @Seasonic @SKhynix pic.twitter.com/35HCtIxL30
— Noctua (@Noctua_at) April 11, 2023
Noctua also recently demonstrated its NH-U14S DX-4677 cooling a 700W Xeon W9-3495X chip but that was purely a demo. For long-term usage, cooling a 700W chip requires beefier cooling.
Written by Hassan Mujtaba