[wplug] video card power consumption

Patrick Wagstrom pwagstro at andrew.cmu.edu
Mon Sep 10 07:21:10 EDT 2007


curlynoodle at gmail.com wrote:
> Patrick Wagstrom wrote:
>> I'm thinking about changing video cards in my currently MythTV box. 
>> Right now I've got a fanless NVidia GeForce 6600LE with 256MB of ram. 
>> The problem is that the card runs really hot, around 67 celsius, 
>> causing problems in my home theater setup, so I'm looking at switching 
>> to something better.
>>
>> Does anyone know of a site that provides a good comparison of the 
>> power consumption of modern video cards?  Overall performance isn't 
>> critical for me as it's just running MythTV over a DVI->HDMI cable.  
>> Hopefully someone knows of a good site where I can look at some of the 
>> tradeoffs of the cards.
>>
>> If need be, I'm not opposed to upgrading motherboards to something 
>> with integrated video either.
>>
>> So, anyone know where I can find something like tomshardware.com VGA 
>> charts that shows power consumption?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> --Patrick
> 
> This article is dated, but may have some useful information:
> http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-vs-nv-power.html
> 
> You may also be interested in:
> http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_11761.html

Thanks Dave.  I had found a similar article on xbitlabs about Radeons, 
but hadn't seen this one NVidia cards.  Unfortunately, it's from 2004 
and only covers the 5000 and 6000 series of cards, which you basically 
can't buy anymore.  Odds are the card I'll get will be something in the 
7000 or more likely 8000 line given their widespread availability and 
low prices now (There seems to be a decent amount of 7300 and 8400 cards 
that are smaller and fanless, which is promising).

The NVidia.com page is interesting, but it has only peak power usage, 
not idle and covers only the Quadro series.  For a MythTV box, putting 
in a Quadro is extreme overkill.

Building a quiet box is a bit of a challenge.  I could also add the 
requirement that HDMI on the card would be nice as it eliminates another 
cable going to the LCD set in the living room, but I think that just 
makes me picky.

It's looking more and more like I'll have to just get a new motherboard 
like one of these with integrated HDMI and video:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128063
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138061

--Patrick


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