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

[tayto_0]

I bet you're wrong.

 

[triss]

While i dont overly concern myself over what card uses say 30 watts more then another as Sin has said i do worry about noise and to a certain degree heat.
As for is the 900 series way more efficient than the outgoing series or AMD's equivalent, i have to say look at actual users now running sli on power supplies most wouldn't consider for Xfire or 780ti sli. Not having to buy a new power supply is is a big deciding factor for a lot of users

 

[K1LaW8tt5]

I think next round of cards efficiency will be more relevant. The performance increase just isnt enough at the minute so if the next round of cards delivers a high performance increase along with reduced power then it will be more appealing.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

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

Yes I am quite aware of that but I remember bigger jumps on the same node over the last 11 years though and ultimately under £200 buyers are far more constrained by performance and artificial locks on performance.

With all the hype on performance side grades,minor jumps in performance,4K and now selling power consumption for expensive cards it means lower end cards get crap performance bumps, it also means mainstream gamers are screwed over the most or devs will just not bother pushing titles which need decent requirements as quickly. The performance is not there for most gamers.

The sub £100 market has seen even worse stagnation and remember in most countries graphics cards are much more expensive overall so they are relatively more expensive.The UK is cheap in comparison.

Edit!!

Look at all the people waiting for big Maxwell.

It seems Nvidia has decided to rejig the GK110 instead.

 

[Rangerjr1]

Depends.. I love having silly overclocked 970's and barely breaking 550w from the wall at worse case.

I could not have 2 silly clocked 290/290x's on PSU which would offer the same performance. To which I would have to buy a new power supply.

There's a fine line to which power efficiency is acceptable and when it's not.

Im sure that 20-30 dollars you have saved by the end of the year really makes you feel special doesnt it lol

 

[andybird123]

Im sure that 20-30 dollars you have saved by the end of the year really makes you feel special doesnt it lol

Ignoring the £90 he's saved on a new psu as well...

 

[Rangerjr1]

Ignoring the £90 he's saved on a new psu as well...

You're saying he sold his old one that was running 2 290s at 1250 only to buy a lower wattage PSU to profit from it and THEN buy 2 new 970s which cost 300 each + the water blocks? How many years do you think he would have to run this setup to make up for that 600 pounds minus the 90 or whatever you claim he saved from buying a lower wattage PSU?

Yes he's a genius and so are you.

 

[Stanners]

Im sure that 20-30 dollars you have saved by the end of the year really makes you feel special doesnt it lol

I would have no interest in saving dollars, pounds maybe. But as has been said over and over it is the heat/noise element that interest's people more.

 

[Rangerjr1]

I would have no interest in saving dollars, pounds maybe. But as has been said over and over it is the heat/noise element that interest's people more.

That was not an issue for Almighy, he was running his on water at a very good clock of 1250.

 

[sprite1275]

Id say no if i were still at home where mommy pays the bills These days if there are 2 cards the same sort of power and one uses less power then its a no brainer.

When i was torn between the 290/x 970, the 970 won in the end as i knew every time id be gaming or watching films id be sitting there thinking "mmm i could be doing this cheaper" but thats because im a tight ass

 

[Marine-RX179]

I don't know about you guys, but rather than receiving power-consumption by 30%, I'd rather it have the same power-consumption but with extra 30% increase in performance.

A graphic card with custom cooler and a good air-flow case is quiet enough already and cannot really be heard unless people game on mute, so I don't get why people keep making a big fuss about how much it is quieter due to the improvement in efficiency...it is like all the custom cooler suddenly being noisey POS after the launch of 970/980

 

[Rangerjr1]

I don't know about you guys, but rather than decrease power-consumption by 30%, I'd rather it have the same power-consumption but with extra 30% increase in performance.

Me too

 

[andybird123]

You're saying he sold his old one that was running 2 290s at 1250 only to buy a lower wattage PSU to profit from it and THEN buy 2 new 970s which cost 300 each + the water blocks? How many years do you think he would have to run this setup to make up for that 600 pounds minus the 90 or whatever you claim he saved from buying a lower wattage PSU?

Yes he's a genius and so are you.

I can't find any post where he says he had a pair of 290's
in fact the post you quoted says he COULD NOT have a pair of 290's because he would have needed a new PSU, hence my comment

I'm going to go by what is said in a thread and not trawl every other thread or post looking for what setup someone might have had - in this one he says he would have needed a new PSU to go the 290 xfire route :/

I'm not really sure what all the attitude is about, you might want to reel it in a bit.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Me too

Also if people care about efficiency that much, then they better not be overclocking at all, as increasing the voltage would make the graphic card become HUGELY inefficient...much more so than most graphic cards at stock settings, as the extra amount of power-consumption vs the amount of gain they get return is VERY poor in terms of the amount of extra power used vs gain.

 

[Rangerjr1]

I can't find any post where he says he had a pair of 290's
in fact the post you quoted says he COULD NOT have a pair of 290's because he would have needed a new PSU, hence my comment

I'm going to go by what is said in a thread and not trawl every other thread or post looking for what setup someone might have had - in this one he says he would have needed a new PSU to go the 290 xfire route :/

I'm not really sure what all the attitude is about, you might want to reel it in a bit.

Trust me, he had a couple of 290s. He must've sold the PSU and gotten a lower wattage one along with the 970s. In the end all he does is save a bit of cash by the end of the year. To make up for the costs in buying 970s would take years, unless ofcourse he sold his 290s, that i dont know.

 

[Neil79]

Power efficiency doesn't bother me but temps do... I'd rather go for a card that does say 40C overclocked than one with less power requirements that does 79C overclocked. Better for the rest of the system as well

 

[Rangerjr1]

Also if people care about efficiency that much, then they better not be overclocking at all, as increasing the voltage would make the graphic card become HUGELY inefficient...much more so than most graphic cards at stock settings, and the extra amount of power-consumption vs the amount of gain they get return is VERY poor in terms of the amount of extra power used vs gain.

Could not agree more!

 

[andybird123]

Look at all the people waiting for big Maxwell.

It seems Nvidia has decided to rejig the GK110 instead.

This goes back to that conversation we were having about how can they squeeze DP performance on to Maxwell at 28nm... I don't think they are trying to - I am beginning to think that big maxwell will just be exactly that, a scaled up 980, the K80 is a stand in DP card until they get the cores out for the new Volta supercomputer and then they drip on down through professional to desktop same as they did with Titan.

 

[andrewohare]

i don't care how much power ....the national grid has a dedicated hardline into our house after the kids leave all the lights, tvs and pcs on haha

But seriously I'm not bothered as long as the machine is powerful

 

[almighty15]

You're saying he sold his old one that was running 2 290s at 1250 only to buy a lower wattage PSU to profit from it and THEN buy 2 new 970s which cost 300 each + the water blocks? How many years do you think he would have to run this setup to make up for that 600 pounds minus the 90 or whatever you claim he saved from buying a lower wattage PSU?

Yes he's a genius and so are you.

I wasn't running 2 cards though, and I never have run a pair of 290's... Now who's the genius

You attitude over the last few pages and been abysmal and all you've done is succeeded in making yourself you like a petty jackass.

In future do not make comments on things to which you know NOTHING about, this will save you from any future embarrassments and instances where you make yourself look like a complete tit.