How to save power/reduce heat with SLI setup???

[touchdowntexas13]

I have two GTX 470's installed in my gaming/work pc. During the week I don't game much due to school, so I would like to be able to disable one of the cards from drawing power without physically removing it from the system. This would also help keep my room a bit cooler. Does anyone know a way to do this?

Would any of these solve/reduce my power/heat issue?
*disable SLI in Nvidia control panel
*disable second 470 in device manager

Thanks!

 

[hunter315]

Check using GPU-Z, when not in game the second one should be pretty much turned off, it might be entirely turned off actually.

 

[touchdowntexas13]

Check using GPU-Z, when not in game the second one should be pretty much turned off, it might be entirely turned off actually.

You mean after disabling SLI in control panel/device manager or check while my SLI settings are still enabled?

I know that the second video card does not actually turn off when I'm not gaming while SLI is enabled. I use MSI Afterburner for fan control and monitoring and it shows the second video card running at 51 MHz (core) and 40% fans speed.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

they should drop to idle speeds automatically and not use too much power. disabling windows aero should drop power consumption too.