As it is known, Radeon RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX cards have a high idle power consumption problem. It is known that when these cards are used with a 4K resolution display or multi-monitor configuration, they encounter high power consumption when the system is idle and the consumption can go up to 100W. Now, a solution to this problem may have been found: VRR.

Idle power consumption solution VRR

Users have been complaining of high power usage of Radeon graphics cards at idle. This is particularly worrying for multi-monitor setups running at high refresh rates. According to ComputerBase’s tests, such systems can consume up to 100+ watts, much higher than their GeForce counterparts. According to tests conducted by the publication, the RX 7900 XTX consumes much less power when connected to Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) or variable refresh rate monitors.

The VRR (also known as Adaptive Sync, FreeSync, or G-Sync) setting is available in Windows and AMD drivers, and AMD drivers can now automatically enable this feature. Consumption was much better in single and dual monitor use when system was idle and windows were moved with VRR enabled. However, there doesn’t seem to be any major change in video playback in SDR mode. In the meantime, let’s point out that it doesn’t matter whether the screen uses 4K resolution, the more important thing is the refresh rate.

With VRR enabled, the biggest difference is seen in a 144Hz single and dual monitor setup. In this setup, the RX 7900 XTX exhibits even lower consumption than the RTX 4080 models. Also, it is not only the RDNA3 architecture that shows better results, but also the older Radeon 6000 models, but here the difference is much smaller. Let’s also mention that a VRR compatible monitor is required to activate this feature.