what nVidia card for roughly £100+ 2nd hand?

[B@Th*nG]

A good 650 watt psu would be rated at continous output, so I personally wouldnt be worried about slight spikes of demand on a quality psu at periodic 90% load unless the unit was getting on in years.



On the topic of 480 or 7850, personally I think its silly not to include the power requirements in your considerations if your in the position of having to place a relatively tight budget. If your gaming a lot it adds up fast (im assuming your footing the bill also, and if your not , it is a bit cheeky to say the least).

Its an antec signature 650w, so is continuous

B@

 

[no_1_dave]

On the topic of 480 or 7850, personally I think its silly not to include the power requirements in your considerations if your in the position of having to place a relatively tight budget. If your gaming a lot it adds up fast (im assuming your footing the bill also, and if your not , it is a bit cheeky to say the least).

Not really.
For example, if a card uses 100W more then another that is the same as having 1 or 2 lights on in the house (before energy saving ones) while you're playing. Another way to look at it is gaming for 2 hours will only use enough extra electricity to boil the kettle 1 time over using the card with lower consumption. Hardly going to make a dent in the electricity bill. I never consider power when purchasing a graphics card.

 

[B@Th*nG]

The 480 uses more than 100w just idling. In sli under full load it uses over 600 w alone

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2977/...x-470-6-months-late-was-it-worth-the-wait-/19


B@

 

[psychodil]

Not really.
For example, if a card uses 100W more then another that is the same as having 1 or 2 lights on in the house (before energy saving ones) while you're playing. Another way to look at it is gaming for 2 hours will only use enough extra electricity to boil the kettle 1 time over using the card with lower consumption. Hardly going to make a dent in the electricity bill. I never consider power when purchasing a graphics card.

Couldnt agree more. Lower power consumption is the icing on the cake but never a consideration for me either. People seem to bleat on about plus or minus 20W on a gaming card making a difference to your room temperatures and electric bill, lol. You'de save more electric by spending 5 seconds less in the shower.

Its pretty small fry when your kettle is 3kW, your electric shower is 10kW and your oven is 3kW.

 

[no_1_dave]

The 480 uses more than 100w just idling. In sli under full load it uses over 600 w alone

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2977/...x-470-6-months-late-was-it-worth-the-wait-/19


B@

You realise that 600w the total system power usage right? The system includes an overclocked i7.
The 480 has a maximum of 250W which in actual usage would be very hard to achieve.

 

[B@Th*nG]

Ahh fair enough

B@

 

[FoxEye]

B@t, an eBay auction just ended for a seller refurbished 7850, no warranty, no games, no box, just bare card... guess how much.

£155

£5 more than you can buy a brand new MSI from here, with full warranty and Sleeping Dogs...

Too many nutters on eBay!

 

[B@Th*nG]

Lol, I will remain happy with the price considering the circumstances

B@

 

[eddyr]

You can run some rough numbers using http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-review-benchmark,3148-19.html
with the assumption that the gtx480 and 580 as having equal load consumption and the 480 likely having worse idle consumption. A 480 vs 580 review should confirm the first premise not sure about the second.


These is a 30W difference in idle consumption and a 40W diff in display off idle. Ill use a conservative 30 watts for the idle calc.
Ill use the 7870 load figures (as has been said, if you get a 7850 you may as well oc it) which gives a (conservative) 100w diff.

Assuming a 24/7 on PC, 12 hours gameplay per week and a 0.15p per kwh, it comes out to a conservative estimate of £46 per year.

Thats not factoring in the 10 watt higher 'display off' power of the 580 over the 7850 from the data, or the fact that the 480 was a smidge more power hungry and probably had worse idle power gating than the refined 580, or that the 7850 in the above review had a little more vram to power. If you run dual monitors you also have to consider the raised clocks or if you fancy some altruistic gpgpu action when not gaming, extended time at load.
I will agree that power consumption isnt always an important consideration but depending on usage scenario's it can be and I think definitley is when looking at second hand older highend gpu's.

The kettle argument doesn't entirely hold water either. People like their hot drinks, not using power to heat the water means going without. The same for the other appliances. In the case of the gpu's you are not losing out and are getting equivalent usage (and performance) at lower electricity cost.