• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

HIS 6950 vs XFX DD R9 290 power consumption

Phil2008

Phil2008

Phil2008

Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2004
Posts
8,743
Up to a few days ago I had a HD 6950, but now I have the R9 290, I thought I would measure the power difference between the 2 cards, using my system thats in my sig. Im using one of these plug in power monitor things to get the readings

Ok, PC is plugged to a UPS and the UPS is plugged in to the power monitor and that is using 30 watts, so I will leave that out that from the readings.

Ok here goes, first the 6950.....
166watts in windows with screen on
300 watts running furmark
270watts running furmark + burntest

The same tests with the R9 290 on the same system....
143watts in windows with screen on
428 watts running furmark
492watts running furmark + burntest

I am quite impressed with the windows test,, I would have thought it would have been higher then my 6950. On full load my psu has 128watts to spare and I was thinking my psu would be more or less maxed out, so "happy days" :cool:
 
Phil2008 said:
I have just run the tombraider benchmark on max settings for about 2mins with the R9 290 and its between 430 - 441watts.
Click to expand...

It'll be interesting to see how it compares to the 6950 with respect to power draw.

Enjoy your new card. It should give a very nice boost in fps compared to your previous gpu. :)
 
Thought id try the thief benchmark aswel and that gives out a higher reading inbetween 450-470watts, so Im guessing that uses the cpu more then tombraider.
 
arc@css said:
It'll be interesting to see how it compares to the 6950 with respect to power draw.

Enjoy your new card. It should give a very nice boost in fps compared to your previous gpu. :)
Click to expand...

I would install the 6950 again but it was quite a hassle to change the cards,, sorry.
 
Phil2008 said:
I have just run the tombraider benchmark on max settings for about 2mins with the R9 290 and its between 430 - 441watts.
Click to expand...

Phil2008 said:
Thought id try the thief benchmark aswel and that gives out a higher reading inbetween 450-470watts, so Im guessing that uses the cpu more then tombraider.
Click to expand...

Opps I forgot to deduct the 30watts from my UPS. So Tombraider is actually 400 - 411watts and Theif is inbetween 420 - 440watts.
 
Funnily enough, the other day I was in a store and spotted one of those power consumption gauges. What sort of price should I be looking at to get a reliable one, or is cheap and cheerful enough (£10)?
 
arc@css said:
Funnily enough, the other day I was in a store and spotted one of those power consumption gauges. What sort of price should I be looking at to get a reliable one, or is cheap and cheerful enough (£10)?
Click to expand...

Yeah mine was a tenner and I have had it for yrs. they really come in handy now and again.

This is mine........
Power_Monitor_5003.jpg
 
Maplins do one for £19.99. If you type 'MAINS PLUG POWER ENERGY ELECTRICITY LCD MONITOR METER' into fleabay, the maplins official fleabay outlet have them for sale at £7.09, brand new. I'm tempted myself.
 
Interesting readings, at full load do people think a single 290 would draw more or less than 2 6950s in xfire? Reason I ask is that I currently have the 6950 xfire setup and am wondering if I'll need to upgrade my psu if I swap them for a 290.
 
nails666 said:
Interesting readings, at full load do people think a single 290 would draw more or less than 2 6950s in xfire? Reason I ask is that I currently have the 6950 xfire setup and am wondering if I'll need to upgrade my psu if I swap them for a 290.
Click to expand...

Well the highest wattage I saw was 300watts with my 6950, so another 6950 will be well under 300watts, because the 300watts includes the rest of my pc aswel. So your 700watt psu will have 150+watts remaining.
 
Don't forget people that PSUs are rated for the amount they provide to the PC, not the amount they draw from the wall. This means a 650W PSU running flat out and at 80% efficiency, will actually pull 812.5W from the wall. Obviously, the efficiency will vary based on your PSU, but you get the idea. My old XFX 750W pulled 940W from the wall once during a benchmark. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom