Disabling Sli = Power Saved?

[Tropicocity]

Hey all,

Recently got a sli g92 GTS setup going, but with me living with my parents and having the pc on 24/7 anyway, the thought of a Second power-eating gpu is a bit worrying, makes me feel guilty as they pay the bills.

To ease my conscience i've turned Speedstep back on, but now I'm wondering about Sli.

The option to disable sli technology is there in the control panel, and sure enough, choosing it causes the screen to go black for a second or so before displaying the on-screen images through the single gpu, i guess.

My question to you techies out there is, does disabling sli via software alone allow me to use less power? The card is still in the slot and connected to the power supply, but would choosing to use only a single gpu (via Sli settings of course) mean that i'm saving power?

Also, whilst i realise that the images are only processed via one gpu when not in sli mode, does it actually Turn Off the second gpu, or is it still powered on with the fan going etc?

The point i'm getting at is this: Will disabling sli via nvidia's control panel option to not use the technology, put me back to the same power draw as using a single gpu?

I'd like to have it this way for desktop usage and low-intensity games, but if it's still sucking up power then I might just shut down and yank it out for now.

Cheers

 

[taltamir]

1. Don't have the PC on 24/7, seriously, it takes a TON of electricy, and adds a lot of money to the electricity bill.
2. AFAIK disabling SLI does not turn off the second card... it just makes only one card render... meaning the other card idles. So it will decrease power consumption during play, it will not decerase power consumption during idle (aka, when the computer is on but no game is playing).
3. You could look into getting hybrid power.

I could help do some calculations if you tell me:
1. How many hours a day you game (every day, on average... so if you play 14 hours one day a week and nothing on the other 6 it is 2 hours per day).
2. How much your parents pay per KWH.

 

[Tropicocity]

Well i usually only have my pc on overnight if I'm torrenting something, other times i switch it off to stop my room overheating. I like having it on all the time when im awake, but i do enable speedstep and currently have my 2nd gpu permanently off (i'll only turn it on/renable sli if i fire up crysis/lost planet dx10.)

Not sure about how much they pay really, im just starting to feel guilty hogging so much power lol.

 

[Keysplayr]

Offer your parents some money for the extra electric you might be using. Or get a laptop. It's cool you feel guilty about it, that means you care about things like this. :thumbsup:

So I would consider just running a laptop for torrent action. If you can't get a hold of one, and you're that concerned about electricity and heat, then consider upgrading your motherboard and graphics cards to support hybrid power. Currently only available on a few AMD socket AM2 platforms.

For example, look at the Phenom rig in my sig. Hybrid power capable mobo and graphics cards allows a user to completely turn off an SLI setup and only then use onboard graphics when not gaming.

What kind of rig do you have now?