Mr. Bergman bluntly stated that the general PC gaming public would not accept an expensive, power-hungry GPU:
Technically, it is possible to develop a GPU with specifications that compete with them (Nvidia). However, if you put the GPU developed in this way on the market as a graphics card with a TDP (thermal design power) of 600W and a reference price of $1,600, to general PC gaming fans will you be accepted? After thinking about it, we made a choice not to take such a strategy."
Mr. Bergman seems to be referencing early rumors that Nvidia was targeting 600W for the RTX 4090. The company brought that number down to 450W for launch–still big but the same as the RTX 3090 Ti. So it’s surprisingly low, given the card is significantly more potent than its predecessor. He also said the company’s strategy was to release a card that would be accepted as mainstream and not require additional upgrades. “The RDNA 3-based GPU Radeon RX 7900XTX released this time is $999; that seems to be the upper price assumed by high-end users among general PC gaming fans,” he said.
“We take this strategy to adapt it to the mainstream infrastructure that current PC gaming fans are using,” Bergman added. “At the same time as seeking high performance, It can be moved with an existing ‘common sense’ power supply unit. It can be done with ‘common sense’ cooling in the case; it can be installed even if you don’t need an extremely large case.”