Energy efficient card choices.

[MrRamone]

I currently have a GTX970, which is drawing around 130-150w when gaming.

I am looking for an upgrade in the £200-300 range which will give somewhat a boost in performance but more importantly lower wattage. Whilst 130-150w isn't a huge amount I would still like it lower. Main reason is for power efficiency. Of couse the purchase price of the card will offset for a while any elec bills savings made but I would still like the wattage low as possible whilst meeting the below requirement.

I don't play AAA games on max settings, usually playing Rust or similar on mid settings at 1080p. With the GTX970 this gives around 70-80fps average which can drop to 45 in certain areas of the map later into the wipe. If the new card did a similar average fps with less lows that would be fine, of course higher average the better.

Currently still on an i7 4790k but will change soon to am4 or 5, (not sure which yet), so a new card bottlenecking temporarily is fine for now.

I don't mind buying used cards and intend, if needed, to undervolt and underclock to achieve a lower wattage. Around 70-90w whould be an ideal goal to reach.

I have so far been looking at a RX6600 which used is around £180-200 and new on Overclockers is £250, draws ~120w when gaming stock and have seen it sub 100w when undervolted.

Another card is the RTX A2000 which without any undervolting draws only 68w when gaming and is around £230 used but is more inline performace wise with a 3050.

Any other opinions or cards to look at?

 

[brostradamus]

You can limit power draw using msi afterburner or by limiting frame rates.. the RTX a2000 is really a bit overpriced because it's a professional workstation card but it can fit into tiny builds

 

[Wing-Man]

Pick up any card that doesn't have a 6 or 8 pin power plug. There limited to 75w over the pcie socket

 

[Hawk Tuah]

I've been pretty happy with my 3050 - relatively low power draw and acceptable performance in games (at 1440p and no RT). I was lucky to get one in one of the Forum lauch deals (£239). However outside of that it's massively overpriced for it's performance. Should be more on price parity with a 6500XT.

The 6600 seems like a no-brainer at this price point.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

A2000 is the one but not worth more than 170 quid.
You can get something like a rtx 3060 and then lower the power limit to something you prefer

 

[throwaway4372]

I wouldn't advise buying anything below a 3060.