Power Efficiency

[Neuromancer]

Need my quad core PC for more than gaming and running uup to 200W at idle just for crossfired 4850s just is not economical.

Saw the 280 sues between 35 and 50W at idle making it very efficient, I have not seen the specs on 285 or 295 though (gotta imagine that the 295 is a real pig though)

I would prefer staying with ATI to have a pure AMD system, and since I have a quad fire motherboard already, but I really like the power efficency of the 280 (not as good performance as my current setup but close enough).

Read over a year ago that all future nvidia chipsets would come with an IGP and run hybridSLI allowing the discrete card to be disabled (totally turned off) when the power was not needed. If this is real, I may want a recommendation for a good PII 920 OCing motherboard as well.


a) Advice upgrading to single card solution
b) Maybe some software alternatives to help reduce power consumption
c) Possibly advice on nVidia hybridSLI board good for OCing PhenTwo

[MadMan007]

You're just in time...for HybridPower on the desktop to be going away. http://www.techreport.com/discussions.x/16604 I guess you could get one of the chipsets and GPUs that currently support it but I wouldn't count on having the greatest support from NV going forward for something that's been abandoned.

[Neuromancer]

Oh joys, how lucky for me.

On a postive note, that article also shows TOTAL system power at idel and CrossfireX 4850s are not too bad (not nearly as good as the 200 series though :( )

Thanks for the update.


Well I guess I will keep my classies thread up looking for a 200 series card than.


Do you think it beneficial to change over to an nVidia motherboard? Or should I just keep trucking with my 790FX? Newegg does not seem to have a great selection of 8 series mobos for AMD. And I do not know if 7 series is good enough for the PhenTwo.

Currently have a FoxConn A79A-S motherboard, it is sweet and the only problem I had with it was the BIOS had a glitch where you could not set HT/NB links lower than stock. That has been fixed with a BIOS update though so I am looking forward to getting to work on that :)

[Firestrider]

I would wait until HD 4750/4770 cards come out (should be soon). Those are going to be 40 nm, draw about 78 watts, and have about the same performance as a 4830.

[Badbonji]

I would get a GTX285, it offers the same performance as a HD4850X2 and uses less power :)

[MadMan007]

The ONLY reason to get an NV board any more (and always was imo :p) is for SLI but that's fading for Intel systems. For an AM3 (? or AM2+, didn't look up your mobo) if you're concerned about power draw I'd avoid NV chipsets. They always tend to ave high power draw.

[Kuroimaho]

As already mentioned the first 40nm card will be the 4770 and the power envelope for that is 80W so while performance should be close to the 4850 for 100$, sounds like something you might want.

[Neuromancer]

Yah, I am looking for a single card setup though as I am considering Water cooling again.

Gets hot upstairs, and I can not leave the HS yates running at full blast all the time.