GTS 250 and Radeon 5770 Power Consumption

[yottabit]

Hey guys,

I picked up a GTS250 for $45 and wanted to see first hand if it was suitable for a friends computer with 300 W power supply. I did some tests with a Kill-a-watt and my computer as a test system. Just thought other people looking to upgrade on a budget could use this info and I couldn't find it anywhere else

Boot is power draw measured before Windows
Idle is power draw measured at desktop after sufficient time of no activity
Furmark tested at 1920x1080 w/ 4xFSAA extreme burn for a minute
"WoW" idle is WoW 4.2 open in a plain area at 1600x900 with gfx at Ultra, 4x AA
"WoW" rapid is WoW 4.2 flying around spazzing the mouse at 1600x900 with gfx at Ultra, 4x AA


Testbed
Core i5 750 @ Stock, C1E EIST enabled
DFI miniITX mobo
2x2GB DDR3
1 TB WD HDD
FSPGroup 460W 80+ PSU

5770 Results
140-160w boot
61w idle
220w furmark

125w WoW idle
160w WoW rapid

GTS250 Results
110w boot
65w idle
250w furmark

135w WoW idle
170w WoW rapid

I thought I was buying a 55nm GTS250 but GPU-Z reports it as 65nm. This was the EVGA 512MB HDMI edition, which also has lower clocks. Drew too much power to put it in a rig with a cheap 300W PSU.

This particular card also had trouble overheating, so I'm returning it
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130539

Thought it was surprising they were so close in idle wattage though, and the 5770 actually used a lot more while booting up

 

[Arkadrel]

I take it your not pleased that it uses more power than the 5770?

The 5770 @ 1920x resolutions is about ~25% faster than that nV GTS 250, as well.

Another blow against it just going by the comments in the newegg feedbacks, is that appearently it lacks fan controls, and runs at 100% fan speeds always.

However... the GTS 250 at 45$ offers decent performance/price, and it should be safe enough (for your friends) to use with a 300watt power supply right?

 

[Red Hawk]

I use a Radeon HD 5770 and a Core 2 Quad Q6600 together on a 375 watt power supply. The 5770 seems quite efficient going by that. Just my 2 cents.

 

[yottabit]

I take it your not pleased that it uses more power than the 5770?

The 5770 @ 1920x resolutions is about ~25% faster than that nV GTS 250, as well.

Another blow against it just going by the comments in the newegg feedbacks, is that appearently it lacks fan controls, and runs at 100% fan speeds always.

However... the GTS 250 at 45$ offers decent performance/price, and it should be safe enough (for your friends) to use with a 300watt power supply right?

The GTS250 does definitely offer decent performance for that price (was able to run WoW and SC2 maxed out just fine, albeit no DX11 support)

This particular model the fan is awful, the heatsink is all aluminum (no copper), and it overheats like crazy. Playing SC2 put it at 90 deg C, Furmark 99 deg C+ before I shut it down. In contrast my 5770 in the same case is ~70 deg C SC2 and 90 deg C Furmark. 55-60 deg C under WoW

Whether or not it is okay for the PSU is a tough one. Depends how many amps/watts it is rated for at 12v. It would probably be fine if you never fully loaded it (200W from wall approx equals 160W load on DC 12v) but under Furmark (250W from wall approx. equals 200W load on DC 12v) that would probably be asking too much of a 300W generic.

I'll have to check his PSU. I honestly forgot to subtract the 80% efficiency from the wall, so that makes it a lot more plausible to use in his system. Plus, I'm sure he would never use Furmark, and I don't think it would overheat under WoW (the only game he plays). He also only has a 65W CPU so that should help.