Power Consumption
All of our thermal, acoustic, and power testing was run on a machine with three monitors. Particularly if you’re looking at a GeForce GTX 690 or Titan card, 5760x1080 or 5760x1200 are likely resolutions.
Now, be aware that outputting to a single 2560x1440 display will yield different power consumption results. For a better idea of what you can expect from the Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition in single-monitor mode, look back to AMD Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition Review: Give Me Back That Crown!
If you hook the same Tahiti-based GPU up to a trio of screens, however, its core operates at 500 MHz, while memory runs at a full-speed 1,500 MHz. The result is relatively high draw, regardless of whether the displays are off or you’re just clicking around on Windows’ desktop.
Total system consumption with one Titan driving three screens in display-off mode (after 10 minutes, by default, in Windows’ Balanced power plan) is about the same as one GeForce GTX 680. A dual-GK104 GeForce GTX 690 uses just a few watts more.
With all three monitors on and idle, Titan matches the 690’s power use. Of this group, only GeForce GTX 680 is lower.
This line graph represents system consumption during the first and second graphics tests in 3DMark. Two GK104s on the GeForce GTX 690 clearly use the most power, followed by Titan, then AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition, and finally GeForce GTX 680.
Work out the averages, and a Titan-based machine uses 311 W through our test. Swapping in a GeForce GTX 690 increases that number to 339 W. And the GeForce GTX 680 drops it to 265 W. AMD’s Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition averages 285 W.
