Hey there! So, recently I had purchased an Asus Prime 5070 Ti, which had abnormally high idle power. I could not fix that regardless of what I did. I was just about to just accept it and live with it, until the GPU decided to try and burn my house down. Though I've since gotten a refund on that, and still waiting for a PSU warranty replacement, I thought I'd share a thread, so that we can compare the idle power draws and note any cards which behave abnormally.
To take part, all you have to do is post how much power your GPU is drawing while not doing any serious task, like gaming. Bonus points if you also include your monitor(s) resolution and refresh rate. This information can be obtained through the GPU software (nVidia app/AMD Adrenalin, through GPU-Z sensors "Board power draw", or through an app like HWInfo). Make sure to include the GPU brand and model.
Please keep in mind that having a higher idle is only of concern if it is consistently significantly higher than other examples of the same model. Some brands cards just take more than others and, while a little inefficient, this is completely normal and not a cause for any worries.
For reference, the faulty Asus Prime 5070 Ti was drawing between 35 and 40W at idle on a single 1440p 180hz monitor. Even dropping down to 1080p 60hz only shaved ~3W off that. In comparison, several friends that I know that had that exact same GPU, but which had no issues with it, reported idle power draws between 13 and 20W on that card with a single 1440p monitor, and about 20-24W with two 1440p monitors.
I've also asked around a bit and found several pieces of information:
- Gigabyte and Palit cards tend to have a higher idle this generation. Usually around 20-25 for a 5070 and 30 for a 5070 Ti.
- MSI cards either have great or very poor power draw. Some models are easily under 20 (5070/70 Ti/80 tier), while others burst above 40 at times.
- PNY cards generally have pretty good idle power at a 5070 (>20) and 70Ti (>25) level, but at a 5080 level they will go to about 35-40W - considerably higher than average.
- 5070s are usually quite efficient at idle
- 5080s (>18W) can even have a lower idle than 5070Tis (17-28W) for some reason
- 5090s are power hogs, and usually draw 30-50W at idle
- The AMD Radeon 9000 series cards are usually efficient, with >15W idles. Radeon 7000 are less efficient, and suffer from an issue where having multiple monitors with mismatches resolutions/refresh rates can cause terrible idle power (over 50, over 80, sometimes even reaching 100W).
A few GPU examples (each GPU is one example):
PNY 5070 - 7W
PNY 5070 - 12W
Asus Prime 5070 Ti - 20W single monitor, 23W multi-monitor (all 1440p)
Some information from various forums, discords etc:
I'd be happy to hear some more examples
To take part, all you have to do is post how much power your GPU is drawing while not doing any serious task, like gaming. Bonus points if you also include your monitor(s) resolution and refresh rate. This information can be obtained through the GPU software (nVidia app/AMD Adrenalin, through GPU-Z sensors "Board power draw", or through an app like HWInfo). Make sure to include the GPU brand and model.
Please keep in mind that having a higher idle is only of concern if it is consistently significantly higher than other examples of the same model. Some brands cards just take more than others and, while a little inefficient, this is completely normal and not a cause for any worries.
For reference, the faulty Asus Prime 5070 Ti was drawing between 35 and 40W at idle on a single 1440p 180hz monitor. Even dropping down to 1080p 60hz only shaved ~3W off that. In comparison, several friends that I know that had that exact same GPU, but which had no issues with it, reported idle power draws between 13 and 20W on that card with a single 1440p monitor, and about 20-24W with two 1440p monitors.
I've also asked around a bit and found several pieces of information:
- Gigabyte and Palit cards tend to have a higher idle this generation. Usually around 20-25 for a 5070 and 30 for a 5070 Ti.
- MSI cards either have great or very poor power draw. Some models are easily under 20 (5070/70 Ti/80 tier), while others burst above 40 at times.
- PNY cards generally have pretty good idle power at a 5070 (>20) and 70Ti (>25) level, but at a 5080 level they will go to about 35-40W - considerably higher than average.
- 5070s are usually quite efficient at idle
- 5080s (>18W) can even have a lower idle than 5070Tis (17-28W) for some reason
- 5090s are power hogs, and usually draw 30-50W at idle
- The AMD Radeon 9000 series cards are usually efficient, with >15W idles. Radeon 7000 are less efficient, and suffer from an issue where having multiple monitors with mismatches resolutions/refresh rates can cause terrible idle power (over 50, over 80, sometimes even reaching 100W).
A few GPU examples (each GPU is one example):
PNY 5070 - 7W
PNY 5070 - 12W
Asus Prime 5070 Ti - 20W single monitor, 23W multi-monitor (all 1440p)
Some information from various forums, discords etc:
- 5090
- PNY - 50W (multi-monitor; Linux)
- 5080
- PNY - 39W (multi-monitor)
- PNY - 35W (multi-monitor)
- MSI Ventus 3X OC Plus - 30W
- MSI Shadow 3X - 31W (multi-monitor; first monitor 4k 120hz, second monitor 1440p 165hz)
- 5070Ti
- MSI Shadow 3X - 15W (single-monitor); 35W (multi-monitor; 3x 4k monitors)
- MSI Gaming Trio - 45W
- MSI Ventus 5070Ti - 18/19W
I'd be happy to hear some more examples
