TDP
Thermal Design Power, the amount of heat in watts a CPU or GPU is expected to produce under sustained load, used to size cooling and estimate power draw.
TDP, or Thermal Design Power, is a figure published by CPU and GPU manufacturers expressing the amount of heat a chip is designed to dissipate under a sustained workload, measured in watts. It is used to size a cooler and gives a rough guide to power draw, though real-world consumption can exceed the rated TDP during boost behaviour. For home miners, TDP is a useful first filter: a lower-TDP CPU or GPU produces less heat and costs less to run for the same task, which matters when a rig mines continuously. Two cards with similar performance but different TDPs will differ noticeably on electricity and cooling needs over a year of operation.