Power, Heat, And Efficiency
My new build might cost 2.5 times as much as its predecessor, but that doesn’t mean it needs to pull twice the wattage from the wall. Since it doesn't even double the former machine's performance, I’m happy to see that its peak power draw is only around 26% higher.
Packing a GeForce GTX 690 into a so-called mini-ITX case, the temperatures chart is my chance to stick a finger in the eye of convention. When that convention is represented by Chris' former comments, enough said (Ed.: Hey, if you used a Titan you wouldn't have had to finagle that cooling setup!).
In Angelini’s defense, his statement referred to specific enclosures. But sticking to the "eye of convention" theme, it was really the front and side panel vents that made the difference. That is to say, the Tiki and Revolt he mentioned could have been designed to hold this card by simply placing case exhaust vents at both ends of the card's heat sink and an intake hole near its fan.
Efficiency compares work to power, but my data is presented in terms of work over time. That means I need to compare performance to power in order to rate my new system's comparative efficiency loss or gain. An 82% performance gain in games hints towards an efficiency victory, while a 1% difference in storage performance dampens my hopes slightly. I’m happy this time that storage counts towards only 10% of my total performance calculations.
The new system is more efficient than my previous build, but not by the margin I hoped. A 3% gain at stock speed and a smaller 6.4% loss when overclocked could almost be credited to the new build’s pricey 80 PLUS Platinum-rated power supply.
