Big picture: PC gaming ... and power costs... what to do??!!

[syn1kk]

I am reading about the GPUs that are coming out in this forum thread A new round of power requirements is rumored. I realize that is more speculation and will not happen exactly, but the trend of the video card using more power is true!

So basically I am pointing out that 3 years ago all you needed was a 350 watt PSU. Now the average PSU is more like 500 watts. Soon in the next couple of years that average PSU will be more like 700-1000 watts. To put 1000 watts into perspective let me give you a quote:

1200watts is close the monthly power consumption of a small 1 bedroom apartment.

A PSU is not efficient in operation and so the larger the psu the more power is wasted. So what will you do when your computer is idling??!! This will waste tons of energy/money.

Should you have one machine ONLY for gaming and a laptop that only sips power at like 60watts total? (maybe not 60 I dont know exactly how much a laptop on average sips power)

I think that the average person will not do this... too expensive! So the only way is to somehow have a new way of supplying power that is more efficient... how??? I have no clue.

 

[jaguarskx]

Since I am the original poster of that thread, I would say that it is more than mere speculation. I think the proper term would be "probable" because according to the article OCZ already has a 300w secondary PSU that will fit in a 5.25" bay this is strictly for powering the GPU.

Since ATI and nVidia neither comfirmed nor denied the statement that the new DX 10 GPUs will consume 130w - 300w of power also points in the direction of "probable".

I am sure these power requirements will be for thier premium GPUs. ATI is currently the worst offender in terms of power consumption according to these actual power measurement under 100% load.

How and why will power requirements reach such dizzying heights? Call it Quad SLI. nVidia recently released the 7950GT which is basically two 7900GT/GTX GPUs on a single card. Add another 7950GT onto your motherboard and you now have Quad SLI. Since a single 7900GTX uses about 85w of power, I am pretty sure the 7950GT will use over 120w easily. Slap another 7950 for the Quad and your GPUs will be gulping down over 240w watts (theoretically speaking).

ATI may answer nVidia's challenge with their own Quad Crossfire cards, but that is pure speculation on my part. Only time will tell....
.

 

[jaguarskx]

A PSU is not efficient in operation and so the larger the psu the more power is wasted. So what will you do when your computer is idling??!! This will waste tons of energy/money.

Should you have one machine ONLY for gaming and a laptop that only sips power at like 60watts total? (maybe not 60 I dont know exactly how much a laptop on average sips power)

I think that the average person will not do this... too expensive! So the only way is to somehow have a new way of supplying power that is more efficient... how??? I have no clue.

That may be true, I actually never read any PSU reviews over 600w. But I do recall someone posting about a 750w PSU who's efficiency dropped to 50% when the PSU was somewhat stressed thru full power. Wow, at 100% load that would mean that the PSU will be sucking 1500w from the A/C outlet.

Fortunately, newer PSUs are becoming more efficinent. In fact, to get an EnergyStar approval sticker, a PSU and other elecrtic devices must pass the "80Plus" test where the device must be at least 80% efficient when under any load. That means a hypethetical 1200w PSU that is stressed at 100% cannot draw more than 1500w from the A/C outlet. But the 80% efficiency must also apply when the PC is only drawing around 100w when you are simply surfing the net, which means it cannot draw more than 125w from the A/C outlet.

 

[pengwin]

Should you have one machine ONLY for gaming

called Game Consoles :lol: :lol: :lol:

j/k

i kno what u mean

 

[syn1kk]

The assumption is that you dont want to buy a console! That would defeat the whole purpose of this post :roll: .