Energy Efficient?

[The Halk]

Currently I run an BFG 8800 GTX OC2, under water.

I don't have heat issues on the card itself, nor does it add too much heat for my loop to cope with. However if I close the window and the door of the PC room and come back 10 hours later the room is very noticably warm. As a result I've turned down the overclock on the PC, and I'm thinking of undervolting things to reduce power consumption.

However from when I first tried the card without a waterblock I remember it being very hot indeed. I suspect it still puts out a great deal of heat regardless.

I rarely play games which stress the card, although rarely does not mean never, so I still want to have something roughly as powerful. However I realise that most of the time it's just a space heater.

Is anyone aware of how much this card uses when idle, and if that can be reduced in any way.

Finally is there some kind of card with comparable performance that uses significantly less energy?

I suspect the answer will be "not yet" and perhaps next year there will be something along, but it doesn't hurt to ask

 

[Sasahara]

I've got a 8800 GTX @ 600 Mhz
P35 Mobo, E8400 @ Stock, 3 HDDs, 4 sticks of DDR2 & 5 120mm fans.

On ldle using using 185w from the wall, assuming at least 80% efficency the my PCs using around 148w.

I don't have the motherboard enabled energy saving option on, that underclocks the cpu to 2Ghz when idle. Though I doubt it would make that much difference.

I don't think you'll find a card with any significant reduction in power usage with the same performance.

 

[Trunks9486]

The GTS 250 1GB version is supposingly good at idle consumption. Should give you approximately same performance.

 

[goujon945]

4850 1GB will be comparible in performance and use less juice. You have to remember tho that every pc component including your monitor spits out heat

 

[gpuerrilla]

What about the 4770?

 

[goujon945]

What about the 4770?

Definitley uses a lot less power but not as fast afaik. The 4850 will be a performance boost from a 8800gtx and use less power too. Not sure on the Nvidia side tho

 

[no_1_dave]

GTS 250
Slightly more powerful but less power & heat

 

[Sasahara]

It could be wrong, but according to Techpowerup the GTS 250 1BG isn't good on idle where power consumption is concerned.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Galaxy/GeForce_GTS_250_1_GB/27.html

Looking at that the GTX 260 looks good, shame there isn't a 8800 GTX to compare. (Also having the 8800 GTX overclocked won't affect it's idle power use, so no point in changing the OC)

-- Addition

Seem the 8800 GTX uses around 28w more on idle compared to the GTX 260, that would put it roughly on 217w on the above chart.

Does make the GTX260 look good from performace and idle pov. (And the GTX 285 if your feeling rich) ;p