The Power Party is About Over

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by screwballl

~123W for my card? cool...

Those figures are for multi-GPU setups. If you were to run TWO of your cards, it would be ~123W.

[screwballl]

so my single X1950GT runs at 60 something Watts? that doesn't seem right

ok found some numbers:
techPowerUp! Review :: Sapphire X1950 GT :: Page 13 / 15
115W idle
193W avg
197W full load

[Capper]

I measured the power draw with and without a card installed, with the system idling (As I could measure power draw at load without a card.

[simple_inhibition]

im kinda thinking outside the box here, but what about video game developers improving the efficiency of the software itself? like make it easier to display games at the same level of eye candy? i think that coupled with improved efficiency on the graphics card side of the house would help out

[MantaBase]

Originally Posted by simple_inhibition

im kinda thinking outside the box here, but what about video game developers improving the efficiency of the software itself? like make it easier to display games at the same level of eye candy? i think that coupled with improved efficiency on the graphics card side of the house would help out

I don't know - maybe. Way out of my field.

But what would they do? Something like limiting the FPS to 60 or 70 max - but gamers would freak if you did that. I did hear of a Doom type game they managed to fit on a 1 MB floppy. But I'm not sure it saved any power. Cool though. I think it used Default windows stuff to "build" itself.

[MantaBase]

A 240V 20Amp circuit will give you 4800 watts. I know the one in my garage is only a 10 amp though - so 2400 watts.

I've read that at higher voltages, PSUs are more efficient (about 5%). Of course, it requires an electrician to rewire your house.

[stinger608]

Originally Posted by MantaBase

Where the heck did you find that chart??
I looked every where!

Rich measured an 8800 GTX at 87 watts IDLE. The reason I think you are looking at more than 200watts per card is because the board can supply 150 watts and each PCI-E can supply 150 watts (and since I suck at math I added that up to 700 watts when it's actually 600 - lol).

Lets see - for fun

2000 watt PSU operating at 80%+ efficiancy needs 2400 watts at the wall for full power. Thats' 800 more watts than a 15 amp AC circuit and 200 more than a 20 amp circuit.

Originally Posted by screwballl

~123W for my card? cool...

Manta, just for fun, run those numbers at 220V instead of 110.

Exactly my thoughts on this Screwballl!!! I would guess the next thing would be a 220v dedicated outlet just for your computer
10 years from now, they will be putting 440 3 phase outlets for computers

[simple_inhibition]

my whole idea behing improving the games efficiency is that if games arent as demanding, yet maintain the current rate of visual quality progression, we could cap the max wattage for video cards and not need as powerful gpu's. now your thinking, wouldnt that fly into the face of technological advancement? well heres my other idea. make video cards themselves upgradeable. ati and nvidia create different class video card motherboards shall we say. complete with gpu socket, memory sockets and feature sockets. now my idea for these different class gpu boards would kind of follow how the cpu industry is going. say 35-55w for the low end, 55-75w for mid range and 75-130w for the high end. each level will have there own sub class of gpu's and memory for purchase. also available will be an added features socket. say you can buy a dx10.1 chip to transform your previous dx10 card. or say you love max AA and max AF, you buy the add on chip that enables max AA/AF that costs nothing in terms of performance as it offloads it from the gpu itself.

[Reloadron]

Originally Posted by MantaBase

Where the heck did you find that chart??
I looked every where!

Rich measured an 8800 GTX at 87 watts IDLE. The reason I think you are looking at more than 200watts per card is because the board can supply 150 watts and each PCI-E can supply 150 watts (and since I suck at math I added that up to 700 watts when it's actually 600 - lol).

Lets see - for fun

2000 watt PSU operating at 80%+ efficiancy needs 2400 watts at the wall for full power. Thats' 800 more watts than a 15 amp AC circuit and 200 more than a 20 amp circuit.

My bad Manta. I didn't post a link:

The Truth About Graphics Power Requirements V2 - Graphic Hardware - Forums - www.atomicmpc.com.au

I have left the link here before and simply forgot. The few small and minor experiments I have done with their info have proven to be pretty much on target. Nothing big scale though. Again, I won't swear by their numbers.

Oh yeah, been without Internet all afternoon but I did do a sort of post relating to your article. Keep in mind it is a spoof of the need for GPU power.

Yes, absolutely. Soon we will need dedicated 30 Amp service outlets if they don't start making things more efficient. As usual teh Manta is right on!

Ron

[Capper]

Lets go guys, lets get this story dugg!!!!!!