Downgrading GPU for power consumption or energy savings

[gaidensensei]

I went ahead and tested my current system setup to observe the wattage consumption, minus 2 monitors.
Q6600 @2.4 stock, Abit IP35-E, 4gb DDR2 patriot stock 400mhz timings 5-5-5-12, and XFX G92 512mb ddr3 256-bit 65nm 650mhz core/972mhz memory, 1 optical drive, and 1 sata hard drive. Peripherals (KB, mouse) are separately powered.

Here is what I observed from the Kill-a-watt:

~130-140 Watts booting into Win7-64
~110-120 Watts Idle in Win7 with next to minimal background programs running
~130-159 Watts Firefox 3.6b5 running Newground's flash benchmarking with the 9 tabs loaded, probably my average usage surfing the net. It didn't increase to 159 until the end of the benchmark, at "Ultra mode" (whatever that was) pic below:

so what I derive from browsing around on the web for "G92 idle power consumption" is that the G92 takes up about ~100-130watt on idle (a huge error margin I'd add to that, since that is my current idle wattage).

If following this correctly, say I were to move down to a sapphire 4670, I effectively cut it down idle wattage to something significantly smaller, I expect something in double digits < 80 watt.

 

[Schmide]

so what I derive from browsing around on the web for "G92 idle power consumption" is that the G92 takes up about ~100-130watt on idle (a huge error margin I'd add to that, since that is my current idle wattage).

If following this correctly, say I were to move down to a sapphire 4670, I effectively cut it down idle wattage to something significantly smaller, I expect something in double digits < 80 watt.

From the previous page 9800gt idle/video/3d is 23w/60w/87w. The reality is getting the 4670 is going to save you 15w/35w/54w respectively.

Running 24h a day at 15c a kwh you'll save approx $20/$46/$66 over the course of a year respectively.

Edit: add 25&#37; to all costs due to inefficiency so $25/$58/$83

 

[gaidensensei]

Nice, great to have some feedback. I did some calculations yesterday before reading this, and came up with numbers similar to what you posted. I'm going to snag a 4670 and report back on it.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Nice, great to have some feedback. I did some calculations yesterday before reading this, and came up with numbers similar to what you posted. I'm going to snag a 4670 and report back on it.

Excellent choice! If those cards would exhaust out the back of the case, I would of bought one over the 5770 I just purchased, anyways, good luck!

 

[dualsmp]

Looking at this review it looks like your idle power consumption might drop realistically 35w (The HIS HD 4670 IceQ uses a bit less). If you undervolt/underclock your 4670 with a bios flash you could save a bit more than 40w. Still a good drop in watts though anyway.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_4670_IceQ_Turbo/24.html

 

[gaidensensei]

Just a minor bump/update on this for anyone searching or interested in the results. I picked up a Diamond 4670, 1gb @ DDR3, 750/800 clocks.

System now runs idle at 80~83watts. That was a considerable jump from the 110-120w from the G92.

Yeah, I do notice a hit at running something like games at G92 resolutions, but other than that 20-30&#37; deficiency, bump down a notch it'll be back to normal.

 

[dualsmp]

Excellent! Now downclock the 2D as low as it will go. 🙂 You should be able to get down into the high 70 watt range with some tweaking.

Ohh BTW what did you pay for the Diamond 4670?