They reduced the energy consumption of graphics cards by 1/4. How?

One aspect of graphics cards that gamers complain about is not only their rising prices, but also their high energy consumption. Although NVIDIA is significantly improving this aspect from generation to generation and the efficiency is increasing, many users would like to pay less for electricity. The solution to this problem may be a new technique developed by PowerColor.

PowerColor Edge AI

PowerColor has named its new solution Edge AI. Computex 2024 showed how this works on Radeon RX series graphics cards. In the case of Cyberpunk 2077, it was possible to reduce the power consumption of the graphics card from 263.2 to 205.2 W, i.e. by as much as 22.2 percent. Similar results were obtained in Final Fantasy XV.

And how was this done? Using special NPU units and machine learning. In this case, an external chip was used that was connected to the graphics card. He was responsible for the most effective use of graphics card resources, which resulted in lower energy consumption.

PowerColor integrated NPU is Radeon GPU. (Still developing)
Through AI, they claim power consumption deceased 22%. More saved than AMD Power Saving. pic.twitter.com/9I8iEikotD

— 포시포시 (@harukaze5719) June 7, 2024

According to PowerColor, this has no impact on performance, but the first on-site tests showed about 10 percent. decrease in the number of frames displayed per second.

In the case of Edge AI, the key issue seems to be which NPU (Neural Processing Unit) can be used. Will it be necessary to connect an external system, as at the show during Computex, or can it be possible to use the systems used in new AMD, Intel and Qualcomm processors? This does not change the fact that the solution itself seems interesting.