Will the following reduce my power consummption (underclock)

[lightserith]

Hello,i currently have a crossfire x system with two hd 4870s with a 800 watt psu and at times i wont always be gaming, so i want to save energy and my electricity bill.


Given the above context, will underclocking my video card and cpu to the lowest values lower power consumption to a noticable amount so as to reduce electricity consumption? would it make a better impact on electricity bill? or would going from normal clock speeds to extreme underclocking have no noticable benefit w/ respect to my electricity bill/power consumption


thanks in advance

 

[overshocked]

Well, assuming you dont run your system 24/7 then it would make little affect on your electricity bill.
Your system is likely consuming about 600w at full load, somewhere around 550 idle. So under clocking it would save maybe 100w. so now your system will consume 450w. Wich if you run your system for an hour will consume the same amount of electricity as leaving the 3 lights, that are in your living room on for 2 hours.

The point is that a computer doesnt use that much electricity to begin with, and your cpu has power saving functions already in use to cut the power a little. You will not save that much money on your power bill, unless you run your system 24/7 for downloading files, etc.

 

[Shadow703793]

^ Well said. +1.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I think the shocked fellow being conservative and would think that power consumption of a idle system would be much lower....closer to 350 or 400w...but let's say for the sake of argument that you can save 50 watts by underclocking....assuming you working or schooling, there's about 4 hours a weekday and 12 hours per weekend you might be on the puter......if more, that's a bad thing

so 52 hours per week x 500 watts x $0.10 per kw-hr x 4.3 weeks per month / (1000 watts per kw x 0.85 efficiency)...


Ya saved ya self $1.32 on this months electric bill....then again, your underclocked PC let off less heat so your heating bill was higher

 

[overshocked]

^ yeah, i was being conservative, depends on other things though.

Basic idea is the same though, you wont save very much money.

 

[scooter69]

My system doubles as a space heater for my bedroom, that way I don't have to heat the whole house. I agree though, you're really not going to same the planet... No offense.

 

[jsc]

If you are concerned with saving energy, why are you running two pretty powerful video cards? I know, you are a gamer.

Well then, treat the power consumption as part of the cost of doing business.

 

[vexun11]

I know this forum is old but I am just curious, I am living with my parents, their power bill has gone up like 30% now up to like 350$ a month, we do live in a big house however its just 3 people here, I have my i7 system that I keep running 18 hours a day, how much a month, rounded or a close guess would you say my computer running would cost? I have my specs in my signature, just an i7 930 @ 4ghz 6gb ddr3 1600 and a 5830. Would it be like 30-40$ a month that my system is costing? or 20$ a month? I am just curious because I doubt that my system is using 100$ + a month, I don't want to be responsible for that extra power being used.

 

[jsc]

Buy a Kill-a-Watt meter and measure your power consumption.