Reducing Energy Costs - Graphics and System Related

[Game]

I'll run everything at stock but not bothered about tweaking to save pennies.

Shocking though the state of bills. I've left ours on a variable rate and relying on the price increase cap as all the fixed rate deals are a lot higher and locked in for a while. Only time will tell if is was right or wrong!

Money saving expert have warned me that the cap will rise in april maybe by £300

locked mine in for 4 years but ... if prices do down I will need to swap

 

[Joeyuk]

Nope I signed a new 2 year fixed deal in June with Scottish Power so I’m set till 2023. I’m mining anyway so any small savings will be dwarfed but those costs.

 

[throwaway4372]

I'm just gonna buy less food, need to lose weight anyway. All the junk food prices like coke and chocolate is up 30% this month too. Easy win.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Nope.

Electricity, even at 24p a unit, forms such and small percentage of my outgoings that it's not worth worrying about, at least before other expenses which are easier and more effective to cut.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I'm just gonna buy less food, need to lose weight anyway. All the junk food prices like coke and chocolate is up 30% this month too. Easy win.

I was surprised when I saw what a small bottle of Heinz ketchup costs these days and a jar of Nutella. It's a tenner for those 2 items. Mental.

Like you say swapping them to Asda own make will save more in a week than stopping gaming would over a month.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Wrong thread!

 

[_Cereal_]

I'll run everything at stock but not bothered about tweaking to save pennies.

Shocking though the state of bills. I've left ours on a variable rate and relying on the price increase cap as all the fixed rate deals are a lot higher and locked in for a while. Only time will tell if is was right or wrong!

Personally i wold adv

I was surprised when I saw what a small bottle of Heinz ketchup costs these days and a jar of Nutella. It's a tenner for those 2 items. Mental.

Like you say swapping them to Asda own make will save more in a week than stopping gaming would over a month.

Honestly ALDI and LIDL are your friend when it comes to saving money, ironically enough i end up buying less "****" i dont need whenever I shop there as well saving me even more money in the process.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Personally i wold adv



Honestly ALDI and LIDL are your friend when it comes to saving money, ironically enough i end up buying less "****" i dont need whenever I shop there as well saving me even more money in the process.

I find their stuff goes off very quickly. They are cheap for a reason. I'll do a small shop there but I then rotate my main shop between morrisons, M&S, Asda. However Lidl fresh bakery section is great and so is their nappies and other cheap crap like bin liners, etc.

 

[Dave2150]

Just curious to know if folks are planning to or have done already, dial back graphics card clock speeds, voltages, power limits etc in an effort to reduce total system power draw with the price of energy now increasing significantly and set to rise even further from next April.

Although this is not something I have done yet (I need my GPU overclocked to run Far Cry 6 at 4K60+ max settings) it is something I am planning to do from February 2022 onwards as that’s when I get moved off my fixed deal with Shell Energy.

Working from home and having multiple systems, monitors etc powered on for a minimum of 12 hours a day, I will be looking for anyway possible to reduce the power draw of my various components.

For example, I will reduce my GPU overclock from 2750Mhz, 1.2v and power draw of 325-375W, down to 2400Mhz, 1.000v, down to 225-250W.

I will enable 65W ECO mode for Ryzen 5950X instead of using PBO and seeing power draw up to 200W+ while playing Football Manager.

I will dial back memory frequency, voltage and timings from 3800CL14 @1.55v to 3600CL16 @1.35v.

This will save hundreds of watts from monitoring power draw at the wall, which could help mitigate some of the increases in energy bills that are coming.

I will have two different profiles saved in the BIOS and Radeon software for whether I want maximum performance or good energy savings, whilst still retaining a good amount of performance.

With all that said and done, if a game needs the extra grunt I will switch profiles, but on the whole I plan to leave my system in a more energy friendly state next year, unless things get back to normality - which seems unlikely anytime soon.

Well, you chose well with AMD CPU and GPU. The amount of BSOD you'll get will save you fair bit of power each year, through time wasted rebooting etc (Note to fanatics, this is meant as a joke and is not to be considered an attack against your country).

In seriousness, many should be doing what you're planning. The most important thing is turning this off when not in use, or allowing sleep/monitor's to turn off etc. You'd be amased how many people don't bother to do any of this.

 

[Poneros]

I have been enjoying dialling down settings & res if the difference isn't very obvious just to lower power consumption, even though in my country I have low leccy prices anyway. For example games with exceptional temporal reconstruction lend themselves very well to this (The Division 2 being the best example, with resolution scale at 50% game looks almost the same at 4K as native but GPU SOC power usage gets halved) - of course, vsync on & fps capped at 60 (or 120 on the rare occasion but I have to drop to 1080p for that on my TV). I'm sure games with DLSS would see something similar (I know igor did some tests for that https://www.igorslab.de/en/withnvidia-andlss-2-0-on-the-eco-trip-energy-saving-against-the-trend/). I have a 6800, which is already exceptionally power efficient, so it works out quite nicely.

 

[LtMatt]

I have a 6800

Poneros, we need you to take one for the team and sell that GPU to Humbug.

 

[Poneros]

Poneros, we need you to take one for the team and sell that GPU to Humbug.

The funny thing is I wouldn't even mind a trade for his 2070S (+$), but I'm on the other side of the continent now so shipping to the UK is painful to even think about. Just sent a friend in the UK a book back and that was enough hassle.

 

[LtMatt]

The funny thing is I wouldn't even mind a trade for his 2070S (+$), but I'm on the other side of the continent now so shipping to the UK is painful to even think about. Just sent a friend in the UK a book back and that was enough hassle.

@humbug, you might have to make him an offer he can't refuse.

 

[nvidiamd]

https://www.pcgamer.com/new-pcie-50...d-deliver-an-absurd-600w-from-a-single-cable/

Great news!
@LtMatt
you can disable some lower divisions and play with the Instant result. Or take a long vacation, that will save you a lot of electricity.

 

[rumple9]

When I got my 3070 3 weeks ago I could calculate via my smart meter my new card which drew 260w was going to cost me an extra £100 per year in electricity (and that's before the upcoming price rises!) Compared to my old 1080 which drew 180w.

Anyway I've undervolted it, get more FPS and it now runs at a lower wattage than my old card.

God knows what the next 4000 series will be like which are rumoured to run at c.500w

 

[gpuerrilla]

Well, you chose well with AMD CPU and GPU. The amount of BSOD you'll get will save you fair bit of power each year, through time wasted rebooting etc

PMSL!

 

[rumple9]

Can't wait for Aldi to start selling 3080s in the centre isle

 

[gpuerrilla]

Poneros, we need you to take one for the team and sell that GPU to Humbug.

Haha love it!

 

[gpuerrilla]

Can't wait for Aldi to start selling 3080s in the centre isle

Which ones? The LHR not for high res texture pack or the newer 12Gb models?

 

[kaiserc]

Yo Poneros, for your Rx 6800, make it more efficient.
AMD RX 6800 Overclocking and Undervolting - from over 240 watts to under 180 watts, it’s all there | igor'sLAB (igorslab.de)