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Real World Pwer usage

jackboy

jackboy

jackboy

Associate
Joined
9 Dec 2009
Posts
249
Hi

So my son wants a new graphics card as he gave me his when mine bust.

He wants an AMD R9-280, but I noticed these are 250w versus the R9-285 which is 190w.

I want to lower run costs.

Question is..........will the 285 in the real world use less watts???
 
From reviews i read it is true. The 285 is based on a different technology (Tonga) than the 280 (tahiti) and they made this to be power efficient.

There are plenty of reviews on this about this card.

I would go for an nvidia 770 though now that the 970 came out the 770 are in good price and they burn up to 230w if i am not mistaken
 
The 285 uses less power but it isn't as powerful overall.

If you really want to save money then buy a GTX 970. They eat way less power and the extra money will be saved over ownership any way.
 
Jackboy i would assume your budget is tops 200 or can you go more? If you can reach a 970 then for sure go for a 970 it is the best performance per pound at the moment you can get and the new tech makes it very power efficient.
 
Going from a 280 to a 970 will save you about 105 watts.

If you game for 10 hours a day, that's about 1kwh. If it's idle/at windows desktop, you won't save much/any as the card won't be ramped up.

So, 10 hours gaming a day, is about 15 pence a day.

If he games 10 hours a day for a year, with no days off, it's £54 you'll be saving. I think that's probably a stretch as you'd want him to have a job/do some homework I'd think ;)

I'm not sure the power use is the most relevant argument.

I'd consider a 770 given today's price cuts.
 
Well budget was £150, he only gave me a 270 OC.....but agreed to stretch to afford a 280.

Seems to me that 50w lower is approx 2kwh per week, so 30p per week.......so £10-£15 per year saving.

Cheapest 970 is like £90 more than a 285 and 40w lower, so going to take 6 years to get back, yes I know I am ignoring performance.

Truth is a his CPU will bottleneck all these GPU's.

I will look at some 285 reviews but it would seem the extra upfront is recovered within a year.
 
Or give him back the 270 and grab your self a 770. What cpu does he have? I am rocking a 680 on a q9550 (4ghz though) and it works fine, so i am really sure he must have something better than mine.
 
So I do not game these days just no time, so no need for a 770, my younger son uses my PC but nothing better than a 270 needed.

My oldest son has my old CPU, worse than yours, Athlon X4 over-clocked to 3.5(ish) he does manage to play BF on reasonable FPS though.

He is hoping to pick up a Phenom X6 at some time, the board does not support anything better, to carry him over until he can get new MB, CPU and RAM
 
Ah ok makes sense then. But that's the thing, i was thinking that the 470 would bottleneck my e7400 and it didn't then i was very sure that the 680 would bottleneck the q9550 and so far it works fine. Probably because i game all maxed out 1080p and not lower resolution i don't know what your son's resolution is though. But i understand now, either get the 760 which now they are cheap, or if you can wait till friday to see what AMD has to announce and you might see price drops in their current lineup. I would wait for it
 
Thanks, I will speak to him tonight, it seems we have lots of options around the £150 mark.

He games at 1920 x 1080....... would assume 1080p.
 
rtho782 said:
Going from a 280 to a 970 will save you about 105 watts.

If you game for 10 hours a day, that's about 1kwh. If it's idle/at windows desktop, you won't save much/any as the card won't be ramped up.

So, 10 hours gaming a day, is about 15 pence a day.

If he games 10 hours a day for a year, with no days off, it's £54 you'll be saving. I think that's probably a stretch as you'd want him to have a job/do some homework I'd think ;)

I'm not sure the power use is the most relevant argument.

I'd consider a 770 given today's price cuts.
Click to expand...

You need to check your power supplier. With the new type of standing charge contracts, 9.3p is about the average price for the UK.
(I pay 8.9p per kWh with First)

pre-2013 type contracts, you are pretty much on the high end, so nothing to comment for then... :)

@jackboy Power consumption should never bother you, only if you try to buy a new PSU or multi card solution.
The real values varying depending how heavily the card is used, if overclocked etc.
Want a great card for the money that will delivery for quite some time good performance without the need of an upgrade? Get a GTX970.
If you look for some middle ground on the cheap, get a AMD 280X @ £189.
 
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Nothing worth bothering about to be honest. You would be better whacking some energy bulbs in or getting your house better insulated if you are worried about that kind of difference in wattage.

Better yet, and just to be clear I am not being sarcastic, check all your house for draughts sealing them will dwarf the savings of the GPU energy cost.
 
KelDG, you are probably completely right.........I have 6 50w halogens in the kitchen, although I am just about to change to LED's, run a FX8320 which is not exactly energy efficient and my son constantly leaves his window open in his bedroom.

Maybe it just makes me feel better thinking I tried.
 
when i lived at home i never had my radiator on, the heat from the PC was more than enough to heat my room. same goes for my own house now and the smallish living room I have.

i probably wouldnt worry too much, although every penny helps.
 
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