The Summary of ATI HD 4xxx Power Consumption

[d1ve2blu3]

Since there are so many benchmarks about power consumption of graphics cards and sometimes there are big gap between the result from one benchmark to another. So I decided to do some maths...
with these conditions:

a) Samples are taken from 17 benchmarks results which means different brands and system set-up
b) To narrow these gap and for safe guidelines:
- Only benchmark of total system power consumption under heavy load (not idle) are used
- The average of power consumption are taken from 3 benchmark with the higest results
[ie: benchmark result of 4850= ...227-252-269-271-276 Watt, then the average is: (269+271+276)/3]

And the result:

Type = Average [ATI PSU Recommendation]

4670 = 212 Watt [400 Watt]

4770 = 243 Watt [450 Watt]

4830 = 244 Watt [450 Watt]

4850 = 272 Watt [450 Watt]

4870 = 340 Watt [500 Watt]


Hope this can help those who wanna upgrade their graphic card but worrying their psu capabilities and dont want wasting too much time to check all those benchies

 

[Onus]

A lot depends on the quality of the PSU. An Antec Earthwatts 380W will run a 4670 24/7 month after month; I'm doing just that (it should also handle up to a 4850, but that combo I haven't used personally). OTOH, a cheap PSU will croak long before it gets anywhere near its labeled output: http://www.corsair.com/cinema/movie.aspx?id=622747.

 

[d1ve2blu3]

Agree, quality PSU does count =)

 

[Proximon]

There are just too many factors These numbers are good for quality PSUs on basic systems I'm sure.

Throw in many adjustable fans, multiple large HDs, water cooling pumps, etc. Does anyone ever measure the power spike when you open the DVD drive?

Most places don't even have the equipment to properly test transient loads.