Power consumption utility

[npolite]

Hello,

I currently have an Asus 9600GT Silent and I am wondering if it will be worthwhile to upgrade to a GeForce 210 to save on power. I don't game much at the moment so if I need to I will swap the card back. Is there any utility that I can use to see how much my card is pulling and if not is this the best reference?

http://www.geeks3d.com/20100226/the-real-power-consumption-of-73-graphics-cards/

Any help would be appreciated.

Nick

 

[rolli59]

The power savings over several years would not pay for the purchase of the GT210 downgrade! http://www.geeks3d.com/forums/index.php/topic,1946.0.html

 

[fb39ca4]

The Geforce 210 is a downgrade, you will get worse performance.

 

[hunter315]

It will only save you about 50 W under full load which isn't going to add up quickly. Lets be a bit liberal with our math here, assume 50 W under load, 5 hours under full load a day on average, thats 250 watt hours per day, over a year thats 91.25 kWh, at 15 cents per kWh thats about $13.70 a year so it would take 2-3 years to pay off the GT 210 on electricity costs alone, but you will also be losing performance and i doubt its going to be at full load that often. Most systems with low end cards like that spend most of their life in low power states which means it will take quite a bit longer to pay off with electricity savings.

 

[npolite]

Thanks for all of the responses. Since I will be mostly at idle or close to it, mostly web browsing, I was looking at comparing both since I wouldn't be gaming. I know that the 210 I was looking at is $20 after rebate. Initially I thought that the 9600GT was consuming 157W at idle until I found out it was the total of the system. If the difference from geeks3d is 25W for the 9600GT vs 9.7W for the 210, I guess there isn't much of a savings.

 

[jaguarskx]

The amount of money you can potentially save depends on where you live and what you do with your PC.

The last time I've checked, in the US the average cost per KWH is around $0.12. The state with the highest rate is Hawaii at almost $0.45 per KWH. I don't recall which state had the lowest, but it was around $0.06 per KWH.

Since you do not play games much, the video card will be idle most of the time. The 9600GT actually consume a decent amount of power while idling; 18w. The GT 210 consumes 4w while idling. That's only a difference of 14w.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/gf-gt240-1gb_4.html#sect0

The following GT 210 can be bought for $15 after rebate + $7 for shipping; totaling $22.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500209


Assuming your PC is on 24/7 for one year, that means the difference in power consumption between the two cards will be 122.6KHW (365 days * 24 hours * 14w). Assuming an average of $0.12 per KWH, you will be saving about $14.72 per year. That means after 18 months of running your PC 24/7 your electricity savings will equal the amount you spent on the GT 210. However, most people do not leave their PC running 24/7... let's say they use their PC for 6 hours per day. The means it would take about 72 months to break even between the cost of the card and the amount of electricity save. 72 months = 6 years.

 

[npolite]

Best answer selected by npolite.

 

[npolite]

Thanks for the breakdown. Taking 6 years to break even isn't worth it I guess