MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z: Costs 5K, Pulls Over 1000W

1. Introduction2. Meet the MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z3. Testing Methodology4. Game Benchmarks5. Clock Speed6. GPU Temperatures7. Acoustics8. Noise-Normalised Temperatures9. Power Draw and Efficiency10. Overclocking11. Closing Thoughts12. View All Pages

Power Draw

We use Nvidia PCAT to measure power draw of the graphics card only, with readings from both the PCIe slot and the PCIe power cables combined into a single figure.

We were curious to test power draw, as while MSI rates the Extreme BIOS for up to 1000W, I wasn't sure if it would actually draw that much power in the real-world.

We tested a bunch of games to find out, and did actually see peak power draw coming close to that figure, even exceeding it in Cyberpunk 2077! In most situations though, average power draw appears to settle around 650-750W.

Furmark does stress the card to a higher degree, and that resulted in sustained power draw just under 1000W. It was also pleasing to see that the power was split very evenly between the two cables – it wasn't like one was pegged at 600W and the other was pulling significantly less.

As shown in the video, we also used a current meter to measure current over the 12V wires and found nothing untoward – all of the wires hit between 6.7-7.2A, so perfectly in spec and well balanced across the two cables.

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