Future GPU's and power consumption

robaylesbury · 3 Oct 2006 at 09:57

Is it just me, or are the latest power consumption figures for the next swathe of GPU's more than a little alarming?

I thought my X1900XT was a hungry beast (145 watts) but with 200watt brutes on the horizon isn't it about time the ATI's and Nvidia's of this world began to look at their social responsibilities?

I'm not an environmental fanatic. I love gaming and am a self confessed graphics whore, but surely we all need to take into account the cumulative impact that our high end GPU's have on power consumption and the environment. Now we can kit our homes out with low energy light bulbs (I have) and drive less (I cycle), and do everything else we can, but isn't the message coming out of ATI and Nvidia flying in the face of the concerns of many normal everyday people who would like to do just a bit to make life for our children (Got 2 of the rascals) and grand children (Non yet!!) a bit less of a struggle?

Sorry if this is a bit morose. I'm just intrigued to see how many of you on these forums have an opinion on such issues.

Cyber-Mav · 3 Oct 2006 at 12:16

its not up to nvidia and ati, its up to you guys. if nobody bought the new generation of cards then nvidia and ati would learn a lesson the hard way.

all i can see happening is that there are going to be a huge number of sales of qtec 650w power supplies and a huge amount of returns going on.

the average punter is gonna hmm, ati/nvidia box recommends minimum 600w psu for this gfx card. thats not bad that qtec on the shelf is 650w and only 25 quid. job done.

im just gonna sit back and watch the sparks fly. this is going be a hilarious beginning of the end.

LoadsaMoney · 3 Oct 2006 at 13:43

Same here, got no interest in DX10 at the mo, only Crysis, Flight Sim X using it, and Crysis looks the same as DX9, and runs on XP/DX9 card as well, as does Flight Sim X, thats about it, in about a year when its being used more and doesnt actually look like DX9 then i may consider it, as by then loads of new cards will have been and gone well after the G80/R600, and the ones out then will probs use less power.

robaylesbury · 3 Oct 2006 at 14:54

My complaint is that the idea of power efficiency and environmental impact doesn't appear to be on the design specification for these GPU's.

Come on ATI, come on Nvidia. Let's see this at the top of the list.

kalniel · 3 Oct 2006 at 15:00

robaylesbury said:
Is it just me, or are the latest power consumption figures for the next swathe of GPU's more than a little alarming?

Absolutely. Kind of feels hollow to go from a 60 to an 11W lightbulb, when in the same time I go from a 100W draw computer to a 300W one..

I think this will be the peak - the last generation of CPU's also peaked before they really started suffering as a result - all it takes is one competitor to make a marketing case for it and things will start to change.

Once cards can start focusing on DirectX 10 acceleration only, hopefully they will get a bit leaner.

krooton · 3 Oct 2006 at 15:01

Truesay, cpu manufacturers work at trying to reduce power consumption, and allow nifty thing's like C&Q (even if it does mess around with oc's).

Boogle · 4 Oct 2006 at 20:25

GPUs are computer-designed, CPUs are human-designed. CPUs take many, many years to develop, GPUs don't

Things like Cool 'n' Quiet have been in GPUs for a long time (since the GeForce FX series) and have matured more recently into things like clock-gating. In essence the power saving tech in a Pentium M is implemented more or less in modern GPUs.

Not to say GPUs can't become more efficient, just don't expect any miracles any time soon.

Rumour has it next gen will be very high power, but they'll be back to 'normal' in the refresh. It could possibly be due to over-estimating manufacturing processes ~2 years ago when the designs were first being written up.

HangTime · 4 Oct 2006 at 20:45

Remember that a x1900xt is unlikely to be taking 145W all the time, it's not like a lightbulb which constantly runs at it's rating. When in 2d mode it will likely be a fair bit less.

Personally I'm not that worried about the power consumption as long as my PSU is up to the task.

Boogle · 4 Oct 2006 at 20:48

HangTime said:
Remember that a x1900xt is unlikely to be taking 145W all the time, it's not like a lightbulb which constantly runs at it's rating. When in 2d mode it will likely be a fair bit less.

Its still more than a 7900GT in 3D mode (ie. a 7900GT can run in full stress 3D, and still use less power than an X1900XT in idle 2D). When my data is recovered I'll link you to the tests.

Gashman · 5 Oct 2006 at 01:26

enviromental impact of graphics cards...its got sweet FA to do with nvidia and ATI, its the government thats the problem, not there high-power graphics cards, the government want to make money, they make lots through tax of petrol, oil, etc, newer power sources are becoming much more efficient. nuclear fission, something hated because greenpeace got there snotty bloody noses into it, its the single most efficient way of generating energy at this presant time, there is a tiny amount of waste and non-of the radioactive material escapes the core of the reactor, except the fuel rods when there changed, so you want someone to blame, blame governments for being egotistical hypocritical idiots who care more about there precious tax than the enviroment :rolleyes:

rippling · 5 Oct 2006 at 07:04

yeah goverments answer to everything in "green" terms is to tax things higher , everyone seens to forget , the tax on gas electric etc , the uk has the highest taxes in the world ,once you add them all together!
Hate this bloody country sometimes!

robaylesbury · 5 Oct 2006 at 08:48

Whilst Governments do have much to answer for, we all need to take a socially responsible attitude. If we constantly project the worlds woes onto others without taking a degree of responsibility for what we can do, however small, then I feel that it a dangerous position to take.

For my part, my interest is in encouraging companies such as Nvidia and ATI to produce compelling, inventive products that don't, in the most literal sense, cost the Earth.

The days of saying it's up to other's to make a difference are over. We all have a part to play now.

Boogle · 5 Oct 2006 at 14:31

Talk about politics needs to go into Speakers corner - don't want a full-blown OT discussion

Lower power in computers benefits us all - even if its something as selfish as just lowering the leccy bill.

severance · 5 Oct 2006 at 14:37

Who cares really, only people who benchmark like madmen will care about these cards. Aint now games around to use the juice anyway unless you consider 3000x2000x32 with 24xAA and 32x AF necessary to rock yur world.

Cyber-Mav · 5 Oct 2006 at 14:47

another thread mentions that the g80 will work fine with 500w psus. goes to show that the power consumption figures for next gen cards was exhaggerated.
unless the ati r600 really has a high power consumption.

robaylesbury · 5 Oct 2006 at 15:16

If the power consumption is sensible then everyone's happy. I just want a good product that doesn't cost a fortune to run.

Cyber-Mav · 5 Oct 2006 at 15:39

severance said:
Who cares really, only people who benchmark like madmen will care about these cards. Aint now games around to use the juice anyway unless you consider 3000x2000x32 with 24xAA and 32x AF necessary to rock yur world.

that 30inc dell tft will become a lot better when paired up with one of these cards.

Gashman · 5 Oct 2006 at 15:46

R600 im sure won't consume as much power as people are claiming, i mean 'xenos' doesn't use that much power, so why should R600, its similar processor

Cyber-Mav · 5 Oct 2006 at 16:02

isn't xenos just a x1900xt but with 10mb embedded dram?

Gashman · 5 Oct 2006 at 16:21

not at all, it has 48 unified shader pipelines and same memory interface as the X1800 and above series i believe