TDP (Thermal Design Power)

TDP (Thermal Design Power) states how much heat a GPU must dissipate under load — given in watts and also a rough guide to power draw. The power limit lets you cap that draw: lower the limit and the card clocks down, delivering slightly less throughput but running cooler and more efficiently. Because the last few percent of clock speed cost disproportionately more power, a modestly reduced power limit often means little performance loss for much lower consumption. An RTX 5090 has a noticeably higher TDP than a 4090. On a dedicated GPU server you get the full, unthrottled power budget.

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