Power draw is the least of my considerations, mainly because dont game as much as before and dont have any programs that stress the GPU for lengthy periods. So 90% of the time or more its idling. And the cards of today are power misers at idle.
So 1. performance, 2. noise, 3.heat 4. drivers/features. Power is not on the list.
So 1. performance, 2. noise, 3.heat 4. drivers/features. Power is not on the list.
njdevilsfan87
Platinum Member
- Apr 19, 2007
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Not at all since I water cool. But when I air cooled, power didn't matter as much as noise levels did. If the card was loud I wasn't going to deal with it no matter how well it may have performed. When I had a GTX 480 I couldn't take it for too long before I ghetto strapped a CPU AIO cooler onto it, fixing the noise issue completely. Once I did that it was amazing.
HisDivineOrder
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- Jun 24, 2012
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As it affects noise, yes.
My personal ranking system is:
Performance, noise, price, performance per watt, temperature.
If any metric is within 10% of the competition, that is considered equal and other metrics are considered to see if any blow the others away.
I'll pay more if it means I don't have to have a loud system. I did my time with Delta Blacks, with FX5800's, tiny whiny chipset fans, etc.
I just don't have the patience now.
My personal ranking system is:
Performance, noise, price, performance per watt, temperature.
If any metric is within 10% of the competition, that is considered equal and other metrics are considered to see if any blow the others away.
I'll pay more if it means I don't have to have a loud system. I did my time with Delta Blacks, with FX5800's, tiny whiny chipset fans, etc.
I just don't have the patience now.
Don't care at all. Noise doesn't matter either... I play with headphones on. Cards are near silent on idle anyway.
Higher power usage =more noise which can bother me if it bothers my wife which has only happened twice before once being with a reference 6990 and a reference 7970.The 6990 was bad enough i returned it the following day and the 7970 well was a hot cake that sounded like a 727 on take off with my max load temperature of 78 cel which i got rid of as well.
Of course the new reference designed 290 and 290x would be prime example of cards i could never buy without the best of headphones and the most tolerable of wifes lol.
Of course the new reference designed 290 and 290x would be prime example of cards i could never buy without the best of headphones and the most tolerable of wifes lol.
It really just depends on the delta between two video cards with the same performance. If we're talking 10-20 watts, nope not really any consideration. If we're talking a 50watt or more delta then yes, it starts to become a consideration. Even when I had to game for hours on end the difference in the cost of my electric bill simply wasn't a factor, especially since we have cheap electricity here in Utah.
I've got a HAF 932 and my computer is in the basement/man cave. An additional few watts isn't going to be noticed. All my components still stay cool, my GPU, CPU both stay nice and cool.
I game with headphones on and when I'm not gaming I can never hear my 7970 Toxic @ 1150mhz. Shoot, even while gaming if I pull off my headphones I can't really hear the GPU with an aggressive fan profile. It's nowhere near as loud as my SLI 570 setup was and even then, I never heard them while gaming and when not gaming they were silent.
I've got a HAF 932 and my computer is in the basement/man cave. An additional few watts isn't going to be noticed. All my components still stay cool, my GPU, CPU both stay nice and cool.
I game with headphones on and when I'm not gaming I can never hear my 7970 Toxic @ 1150mhz. Shoot, even while gaming if I pull off my headphones I can't really hear the GPU with an aggressive fan profile. It's nowhere near as loud as my SLI 570 setup was and even then, I never heard them while gaming and when not gaming they were silent.
sf101
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- Nov 6, 2013
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depends . if the card uses alot of power and thus produces heat im going to want a aftermarket cooler on the thing something that can efficiently dissipate 300-350 watts so it doesn't have to work the fans at 100%.
So to the power usage i say no i don't really care.
But im done with high fan noise I've put up with that junk for far far to long Far to many years with CPU's being oc'd with fan's maxed right out in order to prevent bsod, and having delta's and junk going at 4000 rpm or more all day long and ramping up during gaming or usage.
I grew to hate it which is why i went to water cooling instead in the end just couldn't stand it anymore haha id rather 10 fans at 1000 rpm than 2 fans at 5000-10,000.
So to the power usage i say no i don't really care.
But im done with high fan noise I've put up with that junk for far far to long Far to many years with CPU's being oc'd with fan's maxed right out in order to prevent bsod, and having delta's and junk going at 4000 rpm or more all day long and ramping up during gaming or usage.
I grew to hate it which is why i went to water cooling instead in the end just couldn't stand it anymore haha id rather 10 fans at 1000 rpm than 2 fans at 5000-10,000.
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I don't use headphones, so a major factor for me is the combination of heat, power, noise. Even if a card has a quiet fan, if it is dumping tons of heat into my case then that will make the other fans (case, CPU) speed up.
I also care a little about performance per watt, so I'm not "wasting" power to achieve a given image quality + FPS.
I also care a little about performance per watt, so I'm not "wasting" power to achieve a given image quality + FPS.
Daedalus685
Golden Member
- Nov 12, 2009
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It certainly is not a major consideration.
Performance, price, quality, cooler noise, and swag are all more important to me. But all things being equal (or the power requirement being so far out of whack as to be absurd or limit my PSU) I care.
From an engineering/physics perspective I do highly respect the feat of making a performance/watt king though, even if for my own personal buying decisions it doesn't matter that much simply because at my usage levels the extra power doesn't cost much in terms of environment or money.
Performance, price, quality, cooler noise, and swag are all more important to me. But all things being equal (or the power requirement being so far out of whack as to be absurd or limit my PSU) I care.
From an engineering/physics perspective I do highly respect the feat of making a performance/watt king though, even if for my own personal buying decisions it doesn't matter that much simply because at my usage levels the extra power doesn't cost much in terms of environment or money.
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Somewhat. I've owned a lot of cards of varying degrees of power and performance, including SLI and Crossfire.
Noise is much more important to me than power draw but that is easily solved with an after market heatsink. If all else is equal then obviously the card with lower power draw will be the better choice.
These days for me it's...
1) Noise
2) Perf/$
3) Everything else. Power draw and game bundles would be here.
So not unimportant, and not too important sums it up for me.
Noise is much more important to me than power draw but that is easily solved with an after market heatsink. If all else is equal then obviously the card with lower power draw will be the better choice.
These days for me it's...
1) Noise
2) Perf/$
3) Everything else. Power draw and game bundles would be here.
So not unimportant, and not too important sums it up for me.
5150Joker
Diamond Member
Yes it is because I originally spec'd my computer with a 850W supply to go with 2 x 680 GPUs. Later on I bought a couple Titan's that when OC'd, were pushing the PSU to pull far more than 850W and the fan to rev like crazy. So I had to upgrade to a AX1200i to account for it. So power draw is always an important factor but more than that, GPU temperature as well because I wouldn't want a hot GPU core roasting the rest of the parts on a PCB.
Price, performance and noise are more important.
It does play some role though cause more power usage mean more heat and card using non-proportionally big amount of power for low-intensive tasks (webbrowsing, movies, etc) is irking a bit. So I would lie saying it does not play any role, this role is not major one.
There is one exception - if GPU would require changing my current PSU to a more powerful one, while similar GPU from competitor would not <-- yeah I can see that playing significant role as this simply would significantly increase overall Price of uppgrade and that is something that matters alot.
It does play some role though cause more power usage mean more heat and card using non-proportionally big amount of power for low-intensive tasks (webbrowsing, movies, etc) is irking a bit. So I would lie saying it does not play any role, this role is not major one.
There is one exception - if GPU would require changing my current PSU to a more powerful one, while similar GPU from competitor would not <-- yeah I can see that playing significant role as this simply would significantly increase overall Price of uppgrade and that is something that matters alot.
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RussianSensation
Elite Member
- Sep 5, 2003
- 19,458
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I really don't care if my system uses 600 or 800 watts since I have a 1000W PSU. Temperature & noise? Good after-market coolers more or less negate obstructive noise & high temperature issues. 150-200W extra power consumption for the total system doesn't matter to me, which is why I overclock and overvolt. I have even run distributed computing projects over the years, loading both my CPU and GPU/s 24/7.
PC gaming/PC parts building is a hobby and if it means spending $40-50 more in electricity a year, it's a small fraction of the cost of PC gaming ownership given how quickly SSDs, videocards depreciate. This is why instead I try to time my GPU upgrades after prices drop significantly due to competition. For example, not getting 780 for $650 and then seeing R9 290 for $400 means if I were to buy the 290s now, I'd save $500 USD right away. In the context of depreciation of PC parts and timing of upgrades after price drops, annual power consumption costs is a drop in the bucket.
Price/performance and features matter far more to me.
Not really. If you have 2 different GPUs that use 250-275W of power and perform within 95% of each other, and priced similarly, a PC gamer may purchase one of them despite the GPU using 250-275W, despite such high power usage.
The comparison to 480 is completely different. The 480 cost $140 more than 5870 and in the first 1.5 years was not faster by more than 18-20% on average, yet used up nearly twice the power. The reason people made fun of 480's power consumption was because it was relative to the 5870 that came out 6 months earlier. On its own, a power usage of 250-275W for a flagship GPU may not necessarily be a big deal if the competing card also uses a similar amount. Context often matters when it comes to power usage. This is what really hurt the 480. If 5870 used 250W, then it wouldn't have been as much of a big deal.
PC gaming/PC parts building is a hobby and if it means spending $40-50 more in electricity a year, it's a small fraction of the cost of PC gaming ownership given how quickly SSDs, videocards depreciate. This is why instead I try to time my GPU upgrades after prices drop significantly due to competition. For example, not getting 780 for $650 and then seeing R9 290 for $400 means if I were to buy the 290s now, I'd save $500 USD right away. In the context of depreciation of PC parts and timing of upgrades after price drops, annual power consumption costs is a drop in the bucket.
Price/performance and features matter far more to me.
Not really. If you have 2 different GPUs that use 250-275W of power and perform within 95% of each other, and priced similarly, a PC gamer may purchase one of them despite the GPU using 250-275W, despite such high power usage.
The comparison to 480 is completely different. The 480 cost $140 more than 5870 and in the first 1.5 years was not faster by more than 18-20% on average, yet used up nearly twice the power. The reason people made fun of 480's power consumption was because it was relative to the 5870 that came out 6 months earlier. On its own, a power usage of 250-275W for a flagship GPU may not necessarily be a big deal if the competing card also uses a similar amount. Context often matters when it comes to power usage. This is what really hurt the 480. If 5870 used 250W, then it wouldn't have been as much of a big deal.
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Major? Hm, not really. But it's not unimportant either. I don't really care for the energy costs so much as for noise from my power supply (Corsair AX850). It's pretty quiet alright, but above a certain wattage, it gets loud quickly and I'd rather not cross that threshold.
Yes and no. No and yes. For me, it matters only in cases where it affects noise output significantly. Noise and acoustics matter to me, I just can't go back to noisy GPUs. Those days are done for me, although I will say I generally prefer aftermarket GPUs for acoustic perfection (and higher OC headroom).
So I guess, it essentially boils down to: will power consumption indirectly affect noise output? If so, that bothers me. If not, it doesn't bother me. This is why i'm fairly torn on both the 290 and 290X - I do not mind the power consumption and I love the performance of both of those cards; in fact the power consumption is only minimally higher than the Titan during actual games (not furmark) by 9-10 Watts. That is pretty trivial. What isn't trivial is that the AMD reference blower is basically inferior to the Titan reference blower and results in a lot more noise. That is not acceptable IMHO - AMD could have done way way better in this respect, and they just decided to go cheap. I know some people don't care, but i'm not one of those folks who don't care about noise.
So I guess, it essentially boils down to: will power consumption indirectly affect noise output? If so, that bothers me. If not, it doesn't bother me. This is why i'm fairly torn on both the 290 and 290X - I do not mind the power consumption and I love the performance of both of those cards; in fact the power consumption is only minimally higher than the Titan during actual games (not furmark) by 9-10 Watts. That is pretty trivial. What isn't trivial is that the AMD reference blower is basically inferior to the Titan reference blower and results in a lot more noise. That is not acceptable IMHO - AMD could have done way way better in this respect, and they just decided to go cheap. I know some people don't care, but i'm not one of those folks who don't care about noise.
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I don't think it's so much about not caring as looking at the price difference and seeing what you can do with the money you save. A basic 290 will beat or equal Titan, just slap on a better $100 buck cooler and you're good to go.
What's that, you didn't want to void your warranty? Even if you kill the card through some insane bad luck or stupidity, you can still buy another one and you'll still be up on the price of a Titan!
People need to start using some common sense here. Sure the Titan cooler is much better but it's not $600 better so any favourable comparisons for Titan vs the 290 are very misplaced.
Teizo
Golden Member
- Oct 28, 2010
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Keysplayr
Elite Member
- Jan 16, 2003
- 21,209
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Then simply switch your focus over to a GTX470 then. No need for the wall.
Regardless of what you just said, it still would be a good indicator who cares about power consumption.
Teizo
Golden Member
- Oct 28, 2010
- 1,271
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Take this scenario:
In a room, there are two monitors. On the monitors the same game is playing. No fraps, or other framerate monitoring software is running. A person is asked to tell if he/she can tell a difference. Both GPU's are above 60fps with the game on max settings. One is at 70fps, the other is at 75fps. This, however, is kept from the viewer and they are asked on which monitor do they think the game is running better.. The viewer can't tell a difference between the two.
Then the viewer is carried into a room where both desktops driving the monitors are. The one on the left averaging 75fps is very noisy due to high heat and power demands, the one on the right averaging 70fps is very quiet due to running cooler and having a lower power draw. Again, the viewer does not know which one is driving which monitor. Only asked which do you prefer given price between the two is no more than $50 either way.
Which one do you think he/she chose? Which one would you choose?
In a room, there are two monitors. On the monitors the same game is playing. No fraps, or other framerate monitoring software is running. A person is asked to tell if he/she can tell a difference. Both GPU's are above 60fps with the game on max settings. One is at 70fps, the other is at 75fps. This, however, is kept from the viewer and they are asked on which monitor do they think the game is running better.. The viewer can't tell a difference between the two.
Then the viewer is carried into a room where both desktops driving the monitors are. The one on the left averaging 75fps is very noisy due to high heat and power demands, the one on the right averaging 70fps is very quiet due to running cooler and having a lower power draw. Again, the viewer does not know which one is driving which monitor. Only asked which do you prefer given price between the two is no more than $50 either way.
Which one do you think he/she chose? Which one would you choose?
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