That moment I checked my power bill after running the AI rig for 30 days straight

I set up a local AI image generator on a used RTX 3090 back in February and just got my electric bill for the first full month of running it basically nonstop. The increase was $87 compared to the same period last year, which I honestly did not expect for just one extra card in my desktop. I knew it would draw power but I did not think through the cost of running inference jobs for hours on end. Has anyone else here taken the time to calculate what their AI hobby actually costs in electricity?

2 comments

2 Comments

parker22415d ago

Got a buddy who ran a similar setup for stable diffusion stuff last fall. He bought a used 3080 Ti off craigslist, slapped it in his old gaming rig, and left it running generating images overnight for like two weeks straight. His power bill jumped $112 from the month before, and he didn't even realize it until his wife sent him a screenshot of the bill with a bunch of question marks. He said the worst part was that half the images it made were just creepy distorted faces or weird animals with too many legs, so it wasn't even worth the extra cash. He ended up putting the card on a smart plug with a schedule so it only runs during cheaper off-peak hours now. He still uses it but he keeps saying he wishes he'd just bought a bunch of prints from an artist instead.

skylerm5515d ago

i mean $87 doesnt sound that bad honestly when you think about what that card can do. a single night out or a couple of streaming subscriptions costs way more and gives you nothing in return.