Is the power usage of a GPU a major factor in your purchase decision?

[GaiaHunter]

Absolutely. To me it shows the absolute value of the card in terms of money spent.

If a card performs amazingly well for results, and has ridiculous power consumption, it better plot itself in line with every other card out there, otherwise I'll reconsider.

See sig. I beat this topic to death already. In short, I argued: why even care about the initial cost of a video card if you don't care about the money spent on the power that drives it? They should go hand-in-hand.

Because most of the people in this forum will overclock the cards including overvolting.

A card that is slightly more efficient at the stock settings doesn't exactly translate in much more efficient at non stock settings when the card leaves the sweet spot of operation.

 

[Haserath]

And what is the differential factor in the total system power difference?

It's the video card man! :whiste:

Tom's tests directly from the cards now.

Metro LL is at least fairly close. The Ti is practically the same performance.

 

[Carfax83]

Metro LL is at least fairly close. The Ti is practically the same performance.

That's because Metro Last Light is just like Crysis 2, in that it doesn't stress current generation cards.

Crysis 3 is one of the few games that can actually make these GPUs sweat, so it makes sense that reviewers would use it for load power consumption. Anandtech did, and that's one reason why Anandtech is considered to be the premier hardware review site; because they're thorough.

 

[Deders]

That's because Metro Last Light is just like Crysis 2, in that it doesn't stress current generation cards.

Crysis 3 is one of the few games that can actually make these GPUs sweat, so it makes sense that reviewers would use it for load power consumption. Anandtech did, and that's one reason why Anandtech is considered to be the premier hardware review site; because they're thorough.

Metro last light will stress the card if you enable SSAA, PhysX can add a little more stress too but not like Arkham City.

Crysis 3 has the advantage of in built SMAA which instead of multiplying the resolution like SSAA, uses the extra shader processors to clean up the edges without blurring them like FXAA.

But yes, Crysis 3 will draw more power from your computer overall as it is the first game I've seen to use all 4 of my CPU cores at 100%, but only during the Welcome to the Jungle level.

 

[Blue_Max]

I run my rigs 24/7 folding@home when not gaming - power consumption will affect my rent! Yes, it's a concern!

 

[Silverforce11]

That's because Metro Last Light is just like Crysis 2, in that it doesn't stress current generation cards.

Yes, it must be because Metro LAST LIGHT is so old and doesn't stress GPUs... I mean its why most GPUs struggle to pump out decent FPS in it, amirite?

ps. It's not Metro 2033.

 

[thedosbox]

headphones

also, where is your pc in relation to your head?

Sure, if you live alone. It's not necessarily a solution otherwise.

 

[Carfax83]

Yes, it must be because Metro LAST LIGHT is so old and doesn't stress GPUs... I mean its why most GPUs struggle to pump out decent FPS in it, amirite?

ps. It's not Metro 2033.

Dude, I have Metro Last Light so I know for a fact that it doesn't stress the GPU, unless SSAA is enabled like Deders said.

Typical GPU usage is in the 60s on my rig, where as with Crysis 3, it's constantly pegged at 99%.

BallaTheFeared made a thread about GPU usage in Metro Last Light and the consensus was, that the game just isn't stressing the GPU.. Also the crossfire profile wasn't really that optimized at that particular time.

Metro Last Light is hyper optimized for the consoles, so there's a lot of pre-computed effects..

 

[OCGuy]

I've seen 2x 290x and a CPU pulling 900w from the wall.....without being OCd to the max. Yes that would concern me. For a single card, no.

 

[Bateluer]

The power draw of a GPU concerns me only so far as referencing the wattage of my power supply.

 

[mindbomb]

if your pc is using a 200+ watt graphics card with air cooling and not a blower type fan, I think you can leave thin strips of beef inside your case and slowly get jerky over the course of a long gaming session.

 

[BoFox]

By comparison, heating up a decent home takes up about 7000W. Air conditioning during the summer can eat 10000W.

When I play games, I do not think about how many % more watts I'm going to use in addition to either heating or cooling the entire house I have (in addition to the water heater, lights, refrigerator, oven, TV, microwave, etc...). To even think about it takes the fun away from gaming.

If a few % mattered so much, then I'd just adjust the house temperature already (with a few degrees saving me over 30x as much electricity as 100W reduction on a video card would net), and get a 80+ Platinum PSU (I did but it was such a good deal that I had to grab for my new build)..

The only time I regretted power consumption was when my X1900XTX went through 3 cheap PSU's. Back then, most older PSUs at that time were just not designed for the XTX exceeding 6-pin PCIe specs (up to 200W) - overclocked even higher (probably 230W).

Even HD 7990 is not considered as a noisy card with its beefy non-exhaust cooler, and as long as ventilation is good, temperatures are fine. Much better so during the winter. A bit more electricity during the summer, but it shouldn't be a concern for those who can afford it.

 

[ShintaiDK]

By comparison, heating up a decent home takes up about 7000W. Air conditioning during the summer can eat 10000W.

Cheaper to insulate/replace windows than keep wasting money on heat/power in a badly constructed home. AC for example is very rare in european homes, even places that reach 40C at summer.

 

[hawtdawg]

Only as it pertains to my PSU's limits.

I guess I also care about some of the consequences of a power hungry GPU (ie temps, cooling etc) but if you're asking if I care about how much power it uses as far as energy costs, then no, I don't take that into consideration.

 

[BoFox]

Cheaper to insulate/replace windows than keep wasting money on heat/power in a badly constructed home. AC for example is very rare in european homes, even places that reach 40C at summer.

Hmm! Yeah, I gotta do that!!! Good point, dude!

 

[ShintaiDK]

Hmm! Yeah, I gotta do that!!! Good point, dude!

A good example just on windows. While singlelayer glass is simply a disaster and not used anywhere anymore here. An example on 2 and 3 layer here and different gas in between.

It shows all 4 world corners. And if you live in mainly a warm place you want the yellow one for example. Single layer glass and 2 layer with air would be out of the scale. You can get Energy One krypton today, as the best solution.

Also nice example here:

 

[el etro]

Listen one thing from me OP(I presume you are a beginner):

- When you are going with budget build+VGA, you are looking for money savings and value(and most of times playing game on the best possible image quality);
- When you are going high end, most of times you are going after comfort(thermals and noise and the better framerates you can achieve(since you will no matter more at what quality you will play the game).

 

[Cookie Monster]

I currently do care ever since ive used a gtx480 then swapped it out to a gtx680. The former pulled 100~120W more from the wall and it heated my room in no time whereas the gtx680 took alot longer time to do so.

The other thing ive noticed is that power hungry video cards get hot real fast and its very to hard to control the temperature or have it cooled down. Using a 3rd party cooler solves the temp problem but has a negative side effect of heating components around the card. I remember my soundcard getting quite hot while cpu temps rose a few degrees.

All in all i prefer a power efficent chip since this means low power i.e. low noise and less heat being dumped inti the room making it for an uncomfortable experince. No need to spend $$$ in cooling, better case and fans or large power supplies (or turn on the psu fan).

 

[Leyawiin]

Cheaper to insulate/replace windows than keep wasting money on heat/power in a badly constructed home. AC for example is very rare in european homes, even places that reach 40C at summer.

The home I live in was built in 1979. Just before I bought it the previous owners installed new dual pane windows and they help tremendously both with heating and cooling and cutting down noise from the outside. It did cost about $5,000 though. We had a particularly hot summer this year. For about a month it ranged from 39C to 44C every day. I wouldn't live in such a climate if I didn't have air conditioning in my home. The only part of California were its AC is rare is on the coast in the central and northern parts of the state. It rarely breaks 25C there during the summer.

 

[tolis626]

The home I live in was built in 1979. Just before I bought it the previous owners installed new dual pane windows and they help tremendously both with heating and cooling and cutting down noise from the outside. It did cost about $5,000 though. We had a particularly hot summer this year. For about a month it ranged from 39C to 44C every day. I wouldn't live in such a climate if I didn't have air conditioning in my home. The only part of California were its AC is rare is on the coast in the central and northern parts of the state. It rarely breaks 25C there during the summer.

I can second this.Summer in Greece is very hot to make do without air conditioning.Maybe not every single day of it,but most days it's a necessity.35-40C is the norm during summer months here,with occasional spikes to the low-mid 40s,especially during midday.My house was built some time in the 80s and dual pane windows are the only thing that made it bearable in the summer,along with AC.In fact,I use two air conditioners,one in my living room/office and one in my bedroom.Call it overkill,but during the hottest days they barely manage to keep the house cool.

Also during the summer,I've had numerous instabilities with electronics I've overclocked/undervolted.Prime examples are all my phones (Especially Samsung ones) and my old PC.The overclocked setups I used worked fine during winter,but come summer I'd have random crashes and reboots until I either clocked the components down or upped the voltages used.The Galaxy S2 in particular was very temperature sensitive.In fact,I had modded it at a point and installed a copper plate that was attached to the CPU with some Arctic Silver thermal paste and had small fins above the phone's battery cover.These helped massively during the summer,when I was able to keep a stable 1.6GHz overclock (1.2GHz stock) and allowed me to reach 1.7GHz during the winter.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Tom's tests directly from the cards now.

Metro LL is at least fairly close. The Ti is practically the same performance.

Yikes, the 780 ti and 290x are both power-hungry monsters compared to my GTX 680 -- +51 watts / + 62 watts.

I'm glad the 680 is still working well for me so I can hopefully wait until the next die shrink.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Yikes, the 780 ti and 290x are both power-hungry monsters compared to my GTX 680 -- +51 watts / + 62 watts.

I'm glad the 680 is still working well for me so I can hopefully wait until the next die shrink.

Yeah I agree. The GK104 is really power efficient!

 

[toyota]

Yeah I agree. The GK104 is really power efficient!

lol you do see the 770 is using just 8 watts less than the 290 dont you???

 

[3DVagabond]

You'll find that clock speed makes a huge difference in power usage. I often look at people going off about power usage and then look and they've O/C'd the snot out of their systems. Same thing with noise.

The only concern I have with power usage is whether or not my PSU can handle it.

 

[Rezident]

I want to say 'yes' but honestly, no, stability, performance and price are the main ones.