Switching from video card to Onboard video without removing anything

[alvinyang]

Guys,

I need help on this. I don't really do games anymore because I now work from home. My gaming PC has now become a 14 hour a day download and office computer. However, I have a ATI 4850 video card.

My plan is to switch to my onboard graphics when I'm not playing games. I was wondering if this was possible by just switching it in the BIOS? I don't want to keep on removing and installing my card every time. It's too much of a pain. Can this save me money? Or, do you I end up paying more for energy consumption?

My end goal is to save power. Based on stats, my video card eats up around 131 Watts on idle and that is still a lot.

Any thoughts?
My motherboard is: MSI G31TM-P31.

 

[jyjjy]

The HD4850 uses closer to 40w at idle but that is still considerable and will add a few dollars per month to your power bill. Basic computer usage will not increase that amount so you will gain nothing from using the IGP instead of the card if you leave it installed. The only option is to take out the card.

 

[Timop]

You could just just get Rivatuner/After burner and underclock to card to as low as possible for desktop usage, then revert it back to normal when gaming, should save you a bit power.

 

[jaguarskx]

Do not post the same question in multiple threads. A mere "Bump" is all that is necessary to bring it back to the top. And do not do it more than once every hour or two.

To answer your question, as long as the HD 4850 is connected to the PC it will be idling and draw power. The bad thing about the HD 4850 is that it is not particularly energy efficient compared to the HD 5xxx series. But it is on par compared it's competition back in the day. It idles at about 41w and over time it can add up. Assuming 14 hours a day, 365 days a year at 41w per hour that works out to 209.5k hours over the course of the year. @ $0.10 per KWH, that works out to $20.95; your actual cost will be determined by how much you actually pay per KWH. Saving less than $2 per month is not really worth the pain of constantly installing / uninstalling the card. I'd rather just buy one less beer at a bar or drink tap water rather than bottled water to save a mere $2 dollars. Actually cutting out a single beer or cut down on bottled water will save you more money per month.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/sapphire-toxic-hd4850_5.html#sect0