[brokencode]

Gigawatts seems like more a statement of the power supply and dissipation of the actual facility.

I’m assuming you can cram more chips in there if you have more efficient chips to make use of spare capacity?

Trying to measure the actual compute is a moving target since you’d be upgrading things over time, whereas the power aspects are probably more fixed by fire code, building size, and utilities.

[delichon]

Measuring data centers in watts is like measuring cars in horsepower. Power isn't a direct measure of performance, but of the primary constraint on performance. When in doubt choose the thermodynamic perspective.

[pepperoni_pizza]

Gigawatts are units of power, gigawatthours are units of energy.

The equivalent of cars would be pricing by how much gas you burned, not horsepower.

[delichon]

1 horsepower = 745.7 watts

[pepperoni_pizza]

Yes, and that is both units of power, not energy.

[franktankbank]

This conversation is confusing because OP didn't use the same units as the person in the quote.

[stingraycharles]

I mean a single nuclear reactor delivers around 1GW, so if a single datacenter consumes multiple of those, it gives a reasonably accurate idea of the scale.