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Energy Costs: The Facts on SLI/XFire (EU vs VS)

Last response: in Systems

Hey guys

There seems to be alot of disparrancy between enthousiasts about just how valuable "energy efficient" really is. This post will tell you just how much money you will save by getting a more greener card, how much extra money SLI is gonna cost in electricity bill and all this sorted between EU and US.

The price of 1kWh in Austin, Texas: €0.0914/$0,122. (Gexa Energy 1/2th year fixed)
The price of 1kWh in the Netherlands: €0,2385/$0.318. (Eneco Energie)

So basicly energy is 62% cheaper in the US.

Lets compair some of the more popular cards in the past

Videocard/system draw idle/system draw load (measured at the socket, using a 80+ ceritfied PSU)

GeForce 8800 GT SLI (512 MB) _ _ 203 _ _ _ 392
GeForce 8800 GT (512 MB) _ _ _ _ 115 _ _ _ 239
Radeon HD 4870 CF (512 MB) _ _ _ 242 _ _ _ 460
Radeon HD 4870 (512 MB) _ _ _ _ _147 _ _ _ 288
Radeon HD 4850 CF (512 MB) _ _ _ 177 _ _ _ 367
Radeon HD 4850 (512 MB) _ _ _ _ _122 _ _ _ 237

Draws per videocard, idle:

GeForce 8800 GT (512 MB) 88 watts
Radeon HD 4870 (512 MB) 95 watts
Radeon HD 4850 (512 MB) 55 watts

To keep things simple, im going to assume that that PCs are used idle fulltime for 9 months. This is equivalent to 2 years 9 hrs a day, 3 years 6 hrs a day and 4 years 4,5 hours a day. (Pretty conservative estimate)

So how much would you save if you got a HD 4850 instead of a HD 4870?
Netherlands: €63

How much would that SLI cost you extra in electricity bill?

GeForce 8800 GT (512 MB) €138
Radeon HD 4870 (512 MB) €149
Radeon HD 4850 (512 MB) €86
GeForce 8800 GT (512 MB) $71
Radeon HD 4870 (512 MB) $76
Radeon HD 4850 (512 MB) $44


Added energy costs of that extra card can be higher then the purchase costs at least here in the Netherlands. Also in the US this added cost is relevant.

Difference between idle 55w cards and idle 95w cards are not that big in america, and could be somewhat in line with the added preformance. However, when factoring in this added energy costs between two of such cards in the Netherlands, it appers you start paying alot extra for that increased preformance. (abeit over a longer period in time and only if you are responsible for the energy bill)

If you want to relate to this figures you should take into account the amount of time you will use the system (ie 24/7 download station or no) and what the electricity price is in your area.

On a personal note i now see that instead of getting the 80w idle 9600 GT i should have purchased the 55w idle HD 4850. The benefit in less energy consumption is €40, enough to cover the price difference between the two. I would have had a significantly faster GPU card for the family machine as well as a cooler machine and saved the enviroment.

Take care.

me personally i could care less. thats not to say that i want to be wasting energy...but im not going to gripe over 50-60 dollars a year for the performance that i want. the same time i will not by a card that performs 5% faster at a much higher energy consumption.