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> We're already not far off of that being a serious concern even on non-crazy builds.

Show me an example of a “non-crazy” build that’s over 1,200W, let alone over 1,500W. I’m genuinely curious.



I said near, we still have some breathing room. But as noted elsewhere, 15 A is a max for short periods, the practical limit for continuous use is more like 1200-1400 W which definitely seems like it might be plausible soon.

Plus other things on the circuit. Fancy ultra bright HDR monitors use a decent chunk of power, and anything else.


1200 W, even for a short period of time, is crazy for a desktop computer.

I have an i9-9900K and an RTX 3080. My computer is also plugged into a Kill-a-watt to measure its power usage.

I ran Prime95's CPU torture test using the max power option while also crypto-mining on the GPU. I peaked at 650 watts for a couple seconds until the CPU began thermal throttling.

If I can't hit 700 watts while trying to use as much energy as possible, I can't imagine what monster system would even touch 1000 watts, assuming we're still talking consumer-grade.


Counting my monitors and the small network switch on my desk, I can hit around 750-800 watts sustained with a 5950X and a 3090 running compute intensive workloads as measured at the wall by a power meter.

So yeah, there's plenty of head space but I have also hit circuit breaker issues recently on a proper (non consumer) workstation so the limit is fresh in my mind.


> But as noted elsewhere, 15 A is a max for short periods, the practical limit for continuous use is more like 1200-1400 W which definitely seems like it might be plausible soon.

Per NEC in the US, the wire used in a circuit has to be rated to handle a current draw of up to 80% continuously at the specified temperature max for the type of installation.

80% of 15 is 12, the average home in the US has split phase incoming power with a nominal voltage of 120V (1440W) with many as high as 125V (1500W). Note that is current draw over long periods of time, which a gaming rig under heavy gaming won’t usually do. Maybe a mining rig back in the day would, but otherwise it’s just not true you’re continuously drawing anywhere near 1,000+ watts on anything but the most crazy setups.

> I said near, we still have some breathing room.

No, you made a wild ass conjecture not based in fact and when gently questioned on it, you shifted goal posts and made up more conjecture.




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