Will electricity prices influence your next gpu purchase?

Boomstick777 · 20 Jul 2022 at 14:50

Quartz said:
Have you run the numbers? The cost of the electricity even a power-hungry GPU uses in a gaming session is very small. You don't game all day every day do you?

My electricity has almost x4 in price, so I am in a state of heightened panic in general about anything that uses power

Winter is coming and I am scared what it may bring!

The upcoming cards are rumored to be very power hungry, so I am hesitant about them. I would like similar power envelope to what I have now with an RTX 3070 but better performance, hopefully a bit better than RTX 3080.

Quartz · 20 Jul 2022 at 15:13

I suggest you run the numbers rather than rely on emotion.

Miganto · 20 Jul 2022 at 22:34

Would be nice for reviews to put in an average yearly running cost alongside the cost to purchase - Seems weird they do a 'cost per performance' but dont include running cost which would even more heavily lean towards the cheaper models.

Tetras · 21 Jul 2022 at 00:46

Quartz said:
I suggest you run the numbers rather than rely on emotion.

Yeah, for most people even with a high end rig that is gaming for 4-5 hours a day, it wouldn't exceed a few hundred a year and if that's so important you probably wouldn't own that kind of rig in the first place.

TOW · 21 Jul 2022 at 05:31

No one who is willing to spend £1-2k on a GPU cares about a few extra Watts during the infrequent times their usage is high enough to cause peak power draw.

It’s only a consideration for entry-level GPUs at the bottom of the market.

If they buy a £1-2k GPU and worry about an extra £1-2 per month on power draw over the competition (likely lower)… their financial planning is so poor, they have bigger things to worry about.

q974739 · 21 Jul 2022 at 08:45

Yes, electricity prices will influence my next choice, in a combined heat-noise-cost tie breaker. If my options are to get an overclocked card or a lower clocked better hard (but for more money) I'd likely go for the more expensive card. Long term the prices will be similar, but it'll be less annoying in the mean time.

Quartz · 21 Jul 2022 at 09:16

Miganto said:
Would be nice for reviews to put in an average yearly running cost alongside the cost to purchase -

Such a figure would only be of interest to miners. The GPUs already have a power requirement and you can calculate from that the hourly cost.

rare · 21 Jul 2022 at 09:34

It’s the heat that’s the issue for me. The heat both my 6900xt and 3080Ti put out is incredible. Might look to go mid range next time round if the performance is similar to those cards. I should have kept my 6700xt that was a really impressive card in terms of performance to power draw/heat.

K4Y84 · 21 Jul 2022 at 09:46

rare said:
It’s the heat that’s the issue for me. The heat both my 6900xt and 3080Ti put out is incredible. Might look to go mid range next time round if the performance is similar to those cards. I should have kept my 6700xt that was a really impressive card in terms of performance to power draw/heat.

You tried under volting? Knocked around 50w of my 3080ti without losing any performance.

Oyeee · 21 Jul 2022 at 10:22

Why do people get so defensive about bad power efficiency? Electricity prices are going up as a whole, not just for GPU. So it all adds up in the end. When outr bills have essentially tripped, best believe I'm going to look into power consumption. I've already under volged my 3090 but with the way things are going, this will be my last generation. PC gaming has become just overpriced ***** at this point.

I dont get why some here are so trippy about others wanting to say and leaving drive by comments like you couldn't afford GPU in the first place. Not like inflation was through the roof when this generation came out.

Puzzled · 21 Jul 2022 at 10:37

With electricity prices expected to be close to 50p a kwh this winter then I think everyone will looking at what they use.

I use a low powered pc for day to day stuff so my gaming pc is hardly on but I'd still prefer a gpu that has lower power requirements so I can keep my current psu and as others have said heat.

Miganto · 21 Jul 2022 at 12:58

Quartz said:
Such a figure would only be of interest to miners. The GPUs already have a power requirement and you can calculate from that the hourly cost.

I agree that miners would be interested, but they know this already. I disagree completely that only miners would be interested though; it would lead to a full 'price per performance' for normal users too, there's clearly an interest in pri/perf as quite a few reviewers do it, but they only give the upfront cost, not the running cost so it's not a true figure at all and makes it semi pointless. Running costs matter, people care about the tiny wattage difference between intel and amd for cpus, so larger chunks of wattage difference between amd/nvidia / new generations / different levels will ofc make a big difference over time.

Quartz · 21 Jul 2022 at 14:58

Miganto said:
it would lead to a full 'price per performance' for normal users too,

But they can already tell that from the power reqauirements on the box.

Miganto · 21 Jul 2022 at 17:44

Quartz said:
But they can already tell that from the power reqauirements on the box.

As they can also tell the price per performance by looking at the price on the website.... it's called collation of information, why are you being so obtuse on this?

NewbieOneKenobi · 22 Jul 2022 at 01:10

Will electricity prices influence your next gpu purchase?

They might. I'm not a person who goes out of his way to be green, but in an 'other things being equal' sort of situation, I would opt for less power consumption just to consume less power. But if electricity prices are going to rise and if GPUs offering the same performance are going to have a 30% difference in power draw between them, then I'm going to have to consider that factor together with the price. Like with cars: price is one thing, cost of ownership is another, and you have to consider both. Same for those crazy overclocks doubling your wattage for like 8% fps gain. Good for benchmarks, not optimal for day-to-day gaming. Of course, I'll be tempted, I'll probably give in a lot of the time, but I'll have to consider if it's truly worth it. This will also influence such decisions as between an extremely factory-overclocked card with a higher limit vs just simply buying something one grade higher and perhaps even undervolting it slightly. In short, fps per gold piece is going to become a thing for me.

In a way, this is similar to factoring in the cost of a PSU upgrade — the difference in the electricity bill suddenly strikes me as a very similar cost to that.

gpuerrilla · 22 Jul 2022 at 08:29

If the next GPU purchase meant you were having to upgrade your PSU as well would that make a difference?

We all know most enthusiasts would not bat an eyelid as its performance they want. However, lets say you have a recent and quality unit already but it is only 600w (as your previous GPU was not a guzzler). Are you happy having to spend £100+ on a stronger unit because the new gen of GPU's coming in will consume more watts that the current range?

Alan McFall · 22 Jul 2022 at 09:24

gpuerrilla said:
If the next GPU purchase meant you were having to upgrade your PSU as well would that make a difference?

We all know most enthusiasts would not bat an eyelid as its performance they want. However, lets say you have a recent and quality unit already but it is only 600w (as your previous GPU was not a guzzler). Are you happy having to spend £100+ on a stronger unit because the new gen of GPU's coming in will consume more watts that the current range?

I have 5 PC's in the house so having an extra 750w is no issue, don't currently have a spare for repairs

gpuerrilla · 22 Jul 2022 at 12:31

Alan McFall said:
I have 5 PC's in the house so having an extra 750w is no issue, don't currently have a spare for repairs

Spares is good IMO, but like you I have other rigs too. Its people who upgrade that have to also do the PSU so its actually increasing the cost in that scenario by another £75-125 if you want a quality PSU that can handle the higher demands (transient spikes).

oldestgregg · 23 Jul 2022 at 13:40

It is going to be the low end where people are going to make it a deciding factor.

To be blunt, if electricity cost is that much of an issue when you are spending over a thousand pounds on a graphics card you probably should not be buying a thousand pound graphics card.

dave28 · 23 Jul 2022 at 13:46

I am on a fixed contract that is 20p per KWH and they cant touch it for another 13 months. After that then i will care because it will likely shoot up then