Battle of the GPUs: Is power efficiency the new must-have?

[Freddie1980]

How fast is it and does it overclock. That's what I care about (except for price of course).

 

[sprite1275]

I wouldn't say its the new "must have" but it swung it for me to opt for a 970 over a 290. Lower heat,power,noise who doesn't want that?

 

[flopper]

No, price for performance and amd wins each time.

 

[wazza300]

power/heat comes into play even more so with xfire/sli too

 

[martin363]

It matters to me, I'm waiting for a 960, to pop into my small mini itx rig. I want something that runs cool and quite for std hd gaming. 970 is overkill, but I value headroom to keep the noise down, and hence efficiency.have a 450 psu in it, assuming the 960 should draw 120 to 150w max, should be perfect.

 

[Kaapstad]

Has the guy who wrote the quote in the OP got the faintest idea what he is talking about.

For example a GTX 480 does not use much more power than a 980 and in a blind test the user would be hard pressed to tell which card was in use in the system when it came to room temperature. The difference in power consumption between the two cards is less that the heat output of an old style light bulb.

I think most gamers use their PC with the lights on...........

 

[jh30uk]

I use mines in the dark while naked.

 

[Kaapstad]

I use mines in the dark while naked.

For games in your steam library......

 

[tayto_0]

Just give me a hungry full-fat fire breathing beast and let me worry about taming it!....please!

 

[TonyTurbo78]

couldnt care less to be honest about a card consuming less. Just give me that big ass full phat card that needs a 1000W PSU

 

[Gregster]

Just give me a hungry full-fat fire breathing beast and let me worry about taming it!....please!

I think most of us are the same who water cool (or more) and couldn't give a **** how much power it uses in truth. The problem for most people is the heat that is generated and when looking at a small form factor case, there will be some serious throttling going on if the cards cooler isn't up to the job.

 

[tayto_0]

I know Greg but i'm selfish so i'm only thinking about myself

 

[Gregster]

I know Greg but i'm selfish so i'm only thinking about myself

Had my first play with LN2 over the weekend...Incredible experience and kinda got the bug for it now. No worries about heat there, with sitting at -150c whilst benching a 5960X

 

[tayto_0]

Nice! some day i'll move in that direction, you know when i'm single and living alone... a man can dream can't he?

 

[shankly1985]

Couldn't careless, so long as the device I have bought gives me the performance I require.

Why care?

 

[Gregster]

Nice! some day i'll move in that direction, you know when i'm single and living alone... a man can dream can't he?

I hear that and I was looking at pots and will be tapping up HiVizMan (legend) for some LN2 days. I have the bench table and will be looking at getting some cheap parts soon to ruin.

 

[tayto_0]

sounds like you'll be moving to LN2 quite soon then! good luck but can't help be a wee bit jealous

 

[KillBoY_UK]

That makes it about 50% better than my GTX660,two and a half years after it launched.

50% better but on the same process node. That's sort of increase on the same node and power envelope is very very very rare.Its hardly nvidia/AMD have been slow on the big improvements as the easiest way was new architectures on a new process node. The lack of a new process node is down to TSMC and Apple (for eating up what little 20nm capacity there is)

In short we are just going to have to wait sadly

 

[Gregster]

sounds like you'll be moving to LN2 quite soon then! good luck but can't help be a wee bit jealous

Not if the Mrs has anything to do with it I will get there but gonna need to be a bit coy with parts and probably looking at 2500Ks/3770Ks perhaps with possibly a 680/7970 to start with.

 

[nightrider1470]

Low power less heat, more overclock =