One of the major selling points of the 5870 is the low power consumption while idle, if you guys are anything like me your computers are probably left on almost all the time. I thought i would take a look at how much that could cost / save you by which graphics card you currently use.
My assumptions:
Your pc is left on and idle for 365 days
1 KWH costs £0.150303 (what it costs in northern ireland)
I'll do out the first example with calcs so people can coment on what i have done and if done correctly....
According to ATI it would cost the following per card:
5870 uses 27W while idle - £35.55 per year.
So 27W x 24hours = 678 watts used per day divided by 1000 to get KWH's = 0.648 kwh
Costs 0.150303 per KWH = £0.097 per day x 365 = £35.55 per year to run.
4870 uses 90W - £118.50 per year
4890 uses 60W - £78.99
I have looked at most of the reviews and averaged out what they found each card uses when idle in their systems.
ATI -
4890 would cost an additional £45.60 per year over a 5870 (Uses on average an extra 45W)
4870x2 would cost an additional £67.80 per year over a 5870 (Uses on average an extra 68W)
nvidia
275 would cost an additional £19 per year over a 5870 (Uses on average an extra 14W)
285 would cost an additional £31 per year over a 5870 (Uses on average an extra 24W)
295 would cost an additional £68 per year over a 5870 (Uses on average an extra 52W)
I hope my calcs are correct and i hope this is useful to some people.
My assumptions:
Your pc is left on and idle for 365 days
1 KWH costs £0.150303 (what it costs in northern ireland)
I'll do out the first example with calcs so people can coment on what i have done and if done correctly....
According to ATI it would cost the following per card:
5870 uses 27W while idle - £35.55 per year.
So 27W x 24hours = 678 watts used per day divided by 1000 to get KWH's = 0.648 kwh
Costs 0.150303 per KWH = £0.097 per day x 365 = £35.55 per year to run.
4870 uses 90W - £118.50 per year
4890 uses 60W - £78.99
I have looked at most of the reviews and averaged out what they found each card uses when idle in their systems.
ATI -
4890 would cost an additional £45.60 per year over a 5870 (Uses on average an extra 45W)
4870x2 would cost an additional £67.80 per year over a 5870 (Uses on average an extra 68W)
nvidia
275 would cost an additional £19 per year over a 5870 (Uses on average an extra 14W)
285 would cost an additional £31 per year over a 5870 (Uses on average an extra 24W)
295 would cost an additional £68 per year over a 5870 (Uses on average an extra 52W)
I hope my calcs are correct and i hope this is useful to some people.
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