Only graphics cards not moving forward?

[TheCenturion]

My pc is about 7 years old now, pentium 4 2ghz, i865 chipset, nv quadro apg gfx card. And all that is powered by a macron 300w psu. Nowadays, if one built a midrange spec pc, you'd be looking at 500w minimum, i'm sure this is due to graphics cards using up more power. other components are becoming slightly energy efficient if you built a pc now with onboard graphics, 300w should be just fine. but graphics cards just chew up power like there's no tomorrow, some people with multi gpu setups have 1000w+ psu's! I'm surprised with the rising cost of fuels and the environmental impact (although I suspect on this forum not many people care that tri sli 280's is warming up the earth, lol )

 

[Strife212]

1000w PSU for the win!

Although it is hard to raise performance and lower power requirements at the same time. A single GTX 280 actually isn't that hard to power, a 500w will suffice for the entire system. Of course if you start piling in more it's going to need more power

 

[sarge78]

Actually, a friends shuttle with a E8400 and 8800gt drew less than 200w under load. Its only the extreme systems that chug energey, for most of us its all about performace per watt. In which case a 7 year old system would workout to be far less economical than a new one.
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Suzuki alto

 

[TheCenturion]

good point but, it was almost the bee's knees at the time lol