Power consumption 800xl Vs 7900gt

david25 · Post by **david25** » Wed May 17, 2006 6:59 am

Hi, I am looking for a faster card (have 800xl) that doesnt use any more power, the 7900gt looks good, but I've conflicting evidence of its power usage,

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... 006_6.html

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/ ... gtx_6.html

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hard ... 00_gtx/26/

Does anyone have any further stats?

Thanks

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:54 am

I don't see anything conflicting, Computerbase measure total power draw.
Computerbase says the 7900GT uses 16 W less (~12 W included PSU loss), and Xbit says 1 W. The difference could be because of different drivers used. Go for the 7900GT, it looks really good to me.

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Thu May 18, 2006 3:54 am

I went from X800XL to 7900GT. Judging from my temps the numbers from Xbitlabs are correct; 7900GT is sligtly hotter while idle and sligtly cooler under load. For both cards I've been using the BQ Polar Freezer.

scara · Post by **scara** » Thu May 18, 2006 4:50 am

From a UK magazines' (Custom PC) recent test of most current graphics cards:

System load running 3Dmark06 (they don't say if it was peak or average unfortunately)
x1900xtx = 306w
7800gt = 216w
x800xl = 214w
x1800xl = 213w
9800Pro = 203w
7900gt = 200w
6200 tc = 163w

All the cards that are faster than the 7900gt consume alot more power; at least 30W more according to their tests. The slightly faster and slightly cheaper x1800xt measured 261w for example.
The 7900GT seems to be easily the best choice for quiet gaming at the moment.