Graphics cards, processors and even CPU coolers have increased their performance tremendously in recent years. But so has the power consumption. This will be a big problem in the future.
GPU power consumption over the last 30 years; Image: AMD
An energy crisis is becoming more and more realistic by the day. Russian gas has stopped flowing to Europe since Nord Stream 1 closed the tap for maintenance. The fear is that it will not open again either. A rethinking of energy production is needed. This is currently being done through solar panels, hydropower and wind energy.
However, the above have many disadvantages: In summer there is too much electricity and it is not known where to store it. Wind energy is not efficient in the higher regions and hydroelectric power generation can only be used to a limited extent. Also, all of them have low efficiency or cannot be stored in any meaningful way.
Therefore, now is probably the best time to seriously think about power consumption and significantly improve the efficiency of various devices, if you do not want to have a collapse of the power grid.
Graphics cards are probably the best example: In recent years, power consumption has exploded, and the same with processors. This is exactly where a rethink is needed, as Apple is already doing with its M1 chips - even if they are not as powerful as the NVIDIA graphics cards.
Another disadvantage of the inefficiency of graphics cards is that you have to have a new power supply with every new generation. This hurts the environment and the power grid as the old PSUs are discarded and the new ones have a higher power consumption.
The industry is indeed on a good path with power efficiency, even more so when you see how much power laptop processors and graphics units have. But again, these are just laptops that only have a screen and a poor keyboard installed. Also, you can't upgrade the components here, such as memory, as well as you can on a desktop PC.
Therefore, it seems to make sense to me to transfer these technologies to desktop PCs and thus save electricity in large quantities - this also applies to monitors, memory, fans and everything that involves technology. This way you not only support the environment, but also the transition to renewable energy and less dependence on gas and other fossil fuels.
Your opinion is welcome in the comments.
