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Comparing power consumption

WoZZeR

WoZZeR

WoZZeR

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Joined
19 Jan 2007
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Northampton
I have been pondering a new GFX card for a while.

I have 2 1950XTX's running in crossfire at the moment and fancy a single 4850 or 4870.

Hmmm, my Shuttle has got a 400W PS.

I'm guessing a 4850 is about the max that will go, any thoughts?
 
2 x 1950xtx will use the same power as 2 x hd4850's and a single 4870 will be less about 240watts total system power

But if You go with the crossfire 4850's You will have a lot of heat to deal with !
Disregard most reviews site power figures except techpowerup also the later 4870's run lower voltages off load and use less power.
You can reduce that further to get them more in line with the 4850's if You want to Play ;) My 4gig raid system with a single 1gb 4870 uses 130watts desktop and 220watts 3d load
 
Cheers for the reply's, most appreciated.

Fine consumption figures JAKUS, plenty of food for thought.

Indeed, I was thinking of replacing both cards with just the one.

So a single 4870 should be OK, but a x2 would be iffy.
 
The Asgard said:
Is that your full system load at the socket?
If so 220 watts is way off unless you are using an atom cpu.
Click to expand...

No My Atom systems use 1/10 of that :p

2x 4850's in desktop were 175watts non Xfire 245 watts 3D xfire 295watts 3D

Seems the 4870 is not the leaky power monster some would have us believe...when setup correctly ;)
 
pastymuncher said:
Have a read here. post #4.
Click to expand...

Cheers for that, very handy chart, didn't come up on my search.:)

Looking at it, ATI have clearly made inroads into power consumption. I didn't think a 4870 would be suitable but stand very much corrected.:)

Sapphire have announced a 4850 x2 just to add to my selection woes.
 
JAKUS said:
Seems the 4870 is not the leaky power monster some would have us believe...when setup correctly ;)
Click to expand...

I think you will find it is unless you have lowered the clocks.

My system with a 4870 idled around 180 watts and pushed 300 watts+ depending on the game. I don't think you are reading it correctly. How are you monitoring it?
 
The Asgard said:
I think you will find it is unless you have lowered the clocks.

My system with a 4870 idled around 180 watts and pushed 300 watts+ depending on the game. I don't think you are reading it correctly. How are you monitoring it?
Click to expand...

Ok, You did not start well by essentially assuming I don't know how to use test equipment :D:D...Just take it from Me as an ex Test/calibration Engineer I do !

I have a couple of cheap £25 plug top meters, I don't know whether they use any sort of power factor compensation on the watts scale and for what I use them for it's easier than computing Volt /Amps but the bottom line is i can't see them being more that 5% out

It's Clear You have not got into underclocking/volting as You would know dropping the clocks does not reduce the power consumption hardly at all

I used to run 2 4850's with Coolers I Made and was quite happy with the performance but problems with the fan units and the heat inside the case (even though the cards expelled the hot air ) eventually made me go for a single card and the 4870 is about the best in class, But like a few others around here It's power consumption put Me off but after looking into it and looking a bioses etc I saw what the problem was, As the same core as the 4850 and just running it a little faster ATI had massively increased the core voltage, so it wasnt the DDR5 eating power.
Long story short I got a 1gig 4870 but was pleased to find the later bios has reduced voltages and hence lower power draw in light loads and I have reduced this further in all power phases to further reduce power requirements down to not a whole lot more than a 4850 ;)
As to Yours vs mine, I would say in an overclocked/overvolted system Yes You would run around 300watts but people forget when comparing overall power figures just how much power the CPU is using especially when they have turned off speedstep and stuck 1.35v+ up it's rear !

It's a very interesting subject but sadly not talked about as much as it could be, I suppose mainly because a lot of the guys around here don't have to pay their own electric bill :)
 
JAKUS said:
I have a couple of cheap £25 plug top meters, I don't know whether they use any sort of power factor compensation on the watts scale and for what I use them for it's easier than computing Volt /Amps but the bottom line is i can't see them being more that 5% out
Click to expand...
Cheap power meters don't know anything about thing called power factor:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jahonen/Electronics/PowerQuality/


Not as leaky under load as Nvidia but idling is unknown word.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/force3d-hd-4870_5.html#sect0

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-x1950xtx_7.html#sect0
 
Fantastic link, the power consumption charts on that site are very interesting.

According to this:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-x1950xtx_7.html#sect0

Each 1950XTX is drawing nearly 125W under full load, so 250W in Crossfire at full speed. They are pre-overclocked GDDR4 specimens too.

No worries fitting a 4870 or indeed a 4870 x2 if it fits.

Thank you very much indeed chaps, will count pennies and report back soon.

Would love to know how to tweak the bios on them too.
 
Last edited:
EsaT said:
Cheap power meters don't know anything about thing called power factor:
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jahonen/Electronics/PowerQuality/


Not as leaky under load as Nvidia but idling is unknown word.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/force3d-hd-4870_5.html#sect0

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-x1950xtx_7.html#sect0
Click to expand...

Sure, That would make sense for the money they cost !
We pay KW/h for domestic and V/A for industrial in the UK same for Finland ?
Great links from Xbitlabs, think they need a bookmark ;)
 
WoZZeR said:
Fantastic link, the power consumption charts on that site are very interesting.

According to this:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-x1950xtx_7.html#sect0

Each 1950XTX is drawing nearly 125W under full load, so 250W in Crossfire at full speed. They are pre-overclocked GDDR4 specimens too.



Would love to know how to tweak the bios on them too.
Click to expand...

It does not quite work like that when You run crossfire maybe 50-60 % more power than 1 card ...that shiny new X2 Your thinking about would fry Your PSU for sure !
and be very careful tweaking bioses, a few people have destroyed their Cards (but if you go for a reference 1gig 4870 I can let You have a good one) ;)
 
Very interesting article (German)

Real power of current graphics

HD4870X2.png


Untitled-8.jpg
 
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