GPUs to megawatts
Data Center Power
How much power a cluster of accelerators draws, what it costs a year, how much heat it rejects and what a hyperscale site needs from the grid, from GPU count, chip power, overhead and electricity price.
What this tool does
An accelerator draws several hundred to more than a thousand watts, its servers, network and storage add more, and cooling and power conversion add an overhead expressed as power usage effectiveness. The calculator multiplies chip count by chip power and a server overhead, applies the PUE, and returns the megawatts, the annual energy, the electricity bill and the equivalent number of households. It is the arithmetic behind every headline about AI and the grid.
How to use it
- Enter the number of accelerators and the power per chip, or pick a preset.
- Set the server overhead per chip, the PUE of the site and the electricity price.
- Read the site power in megawatts, the annual energy in gigawatt hours and the bill, and compare with households and wind turbines.
Good to know
- Chip power is the thermal design power; real average draw is usually lower, real peaks are not.
- PUE of 1.1 is a very good modern site; older sites run at 1.5 or worse.
- Household consumption differs widely by country; the default is a European average.
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