Higher monitor resolution= more power consumption?

[thEnurburghype]

Sorry for the dumb question but, I wanted to know if you have a higher monitor resolution for e.g 1080x1920 vs 1280x1024 will it draw much more power from my graphics card (sapphire 6850)? Will the difference in power consumption be HUGE in games like battlefield and crysis? heard the total system tdp in watts for the whole system is around 250..what about 1280x1024, will it be like half the wattage?....and thanks!

 

[kevin83]

Your monitor pulls power from the wall.
Your computer also pulls power from the wall.
The only thing being sent to the monitor by your computer is an unpowered digital video signal.
The graphics card will only use less power if it is taxed so little with the lower resolution that it decides to downclock itself, which will rarely happen if you are really playing a game.
Your power consumption should be worried about if you have a limit on what you can afford or are able to draw from the wall or if you have a terrible power supply. In the case of a low-end power supplyl (say 350w) then you should use one of the many on-line calculators to estimate your system's needed wattage, and buy a new PSU if necessary.

 

[thEnurburghype]

ya i'm talking about the PSU..i have a 1280x1024 reso and the 6850 draws 250 watts according to 1920x1080 benchmarks here itself at tomshardware.. could my smaller monitor use half of the capacity of the graphics card that could in turn use less power from the six pin and thus i could less likely be getting into problems with my current crappy psu?

 

[kevin83]

You'd have to manually underclock your graphics card. Tom's did an article on this.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-power-consumption,2950.html

There is probably no point though. If you are seeing crashes related to your gpu's power use, you should be getting a new PSU anyways.

 

[thEnurburghype]

ok thanks buddy, ill change that one