How Much Power Does Your Graphics Card Need?

[Trulipan]

to edit a little my previous post: I somehow missed comments pages 4-5 where similar discussion took place, but the closest answer I got is from nukemaster (cheers man!).
But, the dilemma still stands: how can we be sure that our PSU is able to handle the load on the rails, or how it is designed to do it. The story is quite interesting when we are near the power limits of the PSU on 12V rail(s). Sometimes it can save 100-200$ for a new power supply.

 

[nukemaster]

Most good quality name brand power supplies will handle there max rated loads fine. Most people think system uses more power then they actually do.

Example

My system right now at idle is taking about 170 watts at the wall

P35 DS3R
Q6600 @ 3.2 on 1.325 volts(1.25 load, damn vdropp, i am gonna mod this sucker soon)
4 Sticks of DDR2 - 2.0 volts
3 x WD blacks 640gig
2 x Seagate 7200.10 500gigs
LG BD reader
Internal card reader(SDHC FTW, crappy class 4 speed cap FTL)
SB Audigy2zs
HD 5870(this cuts idle power lots)
Its all an Antec 900 With 3 120mm fans and the top 200 on low, There is also an Antec spotcool on low for my memory
This system is running on an OCZ(FSP built) 700 watt PSU.

I will get you some load numbers if you want them.

VPU full load fur rendering and 1 cpu at full load ~383
CPU full load Prime ~255
Prime + Fur ~455

Keep in mind those are from the plug so this does not remove the losses in the psu. In a best case the psu only looses around 20% to heat so

Idle 170 --- ~136
VPU full load fur rendering and 1 cpu at full load ~383 --- 306
CPU full load Prime ~255 --- 180
Prime + Fur ~455 --- 364

All numbers are from my UPS. There are more accurate ways to measure.

 

[rizwan32]

really informative. Please update this article with new graphic cards.

 

[rizwan32]

really informative. Please update this article with new graphic cards.

 

[Guest]

how much power does ASUS EN210 SILENT ddr3 1gb card consume????