Efficiency and its importance in gaming - updated GPU cost effectiveness list

[pandemonium]

Very informative post, although the poll doesn't really match the topic?

The poll is actually for me to determine what to display on future efficiency spreadsheets. I plan on doing this with other components and even builds in the future - we'll see.

I'm anxious enough to start getting a spreadsheet together every month or so for GPUs and CPUs for certain since they're the most potent pieces and also the most readily documented.

It's also interesting to see the frequency most people upgrade. What can I say, I'm a dork.

 

[Elfear]

Personally, I couldn't give a brass monkeys about energy consumption! Performance then noise are my only considerations!

Says the guy with the 9600GT. Obviously price is a consideration if you have a 9600GT instead of three GTX 580s. If price is a consideration, than the topic at hand is relevant to you. So much for those brass monkey balls.

 

[Concillian]

Just like living in an area where energy costs are doubled (such as CA), this can make a HUGE difference.

Don't I know it.

here we get some baseline level of power at 11 cents per kWh
30% more than that is 13 cents
anything over that is 32 cents

Edit: I just checked my bill and the baseline level of power is about 13 kWh a day in winter. Probably a little higher in Summer. I'm using around 450 kWh a month (family of 3). That's with an electric clothes dryer / gas range.

Our power company rolls all the fees / taxes into the per kWh charge, so there's nothing more than those 11 / 13 / 32 cents, so this is comparable to lower numbers in areas where the fees are seperate from the per kWh billing.

I've managed to get us so we are not exceeding 130% and this has made our electricity portion of the bill about $60 a month. All computer purchases are made with power consumption as a factor. I also have timer switches on our entertainment center and some other stuff that has high idle power draw. These are off from 1am to 7am to conserve power. We also hibernate our computers regularly. The more power we save elsewhere, the more I can put into the performance side.

When we were leaving computers on 24x7 and not really paying attention to power usage, our electricity portion was $100-150. Now it's ~$60. It's made a big difference due to that serious jump in price from the third tier.

 

[Barfo]

I upgraded my 4850 to a 6850 a few months ago and since my computer is on for 6 days a week, I've definitely noticed a difference in my power bill. The difference in idle power consumption is so big.

Plus, I didn't have to buy a new, beefier PSU.

Plus, my computer is much more silent.

And much cooler too.

And the performance improvement is very, very sweet.

So yeah, efficiency is pretty important to me.

 

[SolMiester]

Says the guy with the 9600GT. Obviously price is a consideration if you have a 9600GT instead of three GTX 580s. If price is a consideration, than the topic at hand is relevant to you. So much for those brass monkey balls.

I dont understand you, price is alway a consideration, perhaps I should of said that, if I can afford a card, energy consumption doesnt come into it...

 

[pandemonium]

Nothing major introduced to the data:
-prices updated to today
-benchmark results are the same as previous spreadsheet from cited review
-added $.21 kWh rates as well as 2 year and 4 year frequencies for upgrading (total of 4 sheets)
-all spreadsheets sorted by FPS/total costs

I noticed while updating prices that most nVidia cards stayed the same and a lot of AMD cards dropped. Particularly noting the 6850 and 6870, which now are attaining leading positions.

In short, here are the recommended efficient setups per upgrade frequency/kWh for gamers that prefer higher frame rates (60+) and settings. (If you can live with lower frame rates or settings, there are more efficient builds shown on the spreadsheets.)

--For 2 years use and with $.07 kWh energy charges the HD6870 CF @74.8FPS takes the lead and second place goes to GTX460 1GB SLI @61.9FPS.

--For 4 years use and with $.07 kWh energy charges the HD6870 CF or GTX460 1GB SLI again, but an HD6950 2GB CF @89.1FPS isn't far behind the GTX460 SLI in terms of efficiency and has a lot more power.

--For 2 years use and with $.21 kWh energy charges the same as above except the HD6950 2GB CF starts to really catch up.

--For 4 years use and with $.21 kWh energy charges the leads start to really pull away from the majority of how other setups are. Again, being those listed above, except we're starting to see single GPUs become more efficient. Namely the HD6950 2GB @50FPS and HD6970 @55.7FPS. The HD5870 CF @75.2FPS starts to reach the top as well just barely above the GTX460 1GB SLI.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Aom9AHEzDd75dE9ValFJcWw2RW1PM0s4TlVxcE5Uanc&hl=en#gid=0

More updates to come in the future! As always, comments and suggestions are welcome. Anything I can do to make it less cluttered, easier to read, or more informative I'm happy to oblige.

 

[Silverforce11]

Man, Americans have it good. Such crazy cheap electricity, its ridiculous how much other developed countries have to pay. In many EU countries its over five times the price. So much taxes and green energy scams.

 

[Dark Shroud]

People are trying to push those green energy scams here. Our electricity is also going to be going up thanks to Obama and the EPA trying to monitor Mercury now. Which is a key point of Coal.

 

[blastingcap]

People are trying to push those green energy scams here. Our electricity is also going to be going up thanks to Obama and the EPA trying to monitor Mercury now. Which is a key point of Coal.

Oh brother.

Americans have had huge subsidies for certain industry segments for decades, such as for corn and sugar and agricultural in general, or for oil. Yes your oil is extremely subsidized, with cheap land leases and cheap mineral and separation rights. The DOE has estimated that from 1949 up until the last decade or so, almost all direct and indirect (e.g., tax) subsidies to energy has gone towards oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy. Even if you discount the 1949-1977 time period, where a LOT of subsidies went towards nuclear, and count from 1978 onwards, most money has gone towards oil/gas/coal/nuclear. Renewables got the leftovers. And this is before you consider the externalities of hydrocarbon and nuclear technologies, which include GHGs as well as acid rain and environmental degradation from strip mining, etc.

Well, now it's time to pay the piper and pull the oil/gas/coal/nuclear corporate welfare queens away from the government's teat. The time is long past when those industries were nascent; they do not need additional government support to get them on their feet. If you're going to give money away at all, give that money to industries that are doing real innovation and do a hell of a lot more for real energy independence: solar, wind, hydro, and especially geothermal.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/subsidy2/pdf/chap3.pdf

 

[Silverforce11]

And the main reason why it's all BS, all these green scams and taxes have not reduced the EU's total emissions, since whatever manufacturing or jobs made unprofitable just went overseas and now the EU just imports off-shore emission intensive products. All pain, no gain and we still have to pay stupid high prices for energy.

I've always wondered why some ppl on tech forums don't seem to care about perf/watt and i guess its because they are in the USA. A 50W difference adds up to be a lot when you have to pay 0.5 Euro per kWh.

 

[pandemonium]

I've always wondered why some ppl on tech forums don't seem to care about perf/watt and i guess its because they are in the USA. A 50W difference adds up to be a lot when you have to pay 0.5 Euro per kWh.

Some Americans care about it, such as I.

Though, I'm well aware of energy costs being much higher in EU nations. Poland, for instance, gasoline is nearly 4x the cost as it is here in the US (when you consider average income as well as currency trade amounts).

So this information is even that much more valuable.

 

[pandemonium]

Sorry all. I was in a rush to finish this up earlier and apparently didn't make the spreadsheet public (could've sworn I did though /shrug). It's available now for public viewing. >.<

 

[Zanovar]

And the main reason why it's all BS, all these green scams and taxes have not reduced the EU's total emissions, since whatever manufacturing or jobs made unprofitable just went overseas and now the EU just imports off-shore emission intensive products. All pain, no gain and we still have to pay stupid high prices for energy.

I've always wondered why some ppl on tech forums don't seem to care about perf/watt and i guess its because they are in the USA. A 50W difference adds up to be a lot when you have to pay 0.5 Euro per kWh.

This,well said.

 

[UpstartXT]

Interesting, thought I was spending $90 to step up on EVGA from a 470 to a 570, guess I'm actually spending $90 up-front and about $160 a year for as long as it will be in use.

 

[n0x1ous]

And the main reason why it's all BS, all these green scams and taxes have not reduced the EU's total emissions, since whatever manufacturing or jobs made unprofitable just went overseas and now the EU just imports off-shore emission intensive products. All pain, no gain and we still have to pay stupid high prices for energy.

I've always wondered why some ppl on tech forums don't seem to care about perf/watt and i guess its because they are in the USA. A 50W difference adds up to be a lot when you have to pay 0.5 Euro per kWh.

Interesting point, and true too. I don't give a da** about power consumption. The only reason i would ever even think about it is to make sure my PSU can handle whatever cards I would use and I often wondered what the big deal was about it, but your right, if I had to pay that rate for a kwh i would definitely care. But being in the US, i just dont.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

lol good post OP.
Me I dont care about power as long it gives me oempf in performance.
My powerbill is like 15 usd for 2 months and im running 3 x hungry gpus plus my wife is running a full on hexacore photoshop workstation 24/7.

 

[Wuzup101]

I tested the system in my signature with a kill a watt and got the following results:

Idle Draw: 136W
Prime 95 Draw: 257W
Furmark Draw: 566W
Prime 95 + Furmark Draw: 658W

I'm very impressed with the idle draw (given the pair of unlocked / overclocked 6950's). I don't mind the high full load draw because I enjoy it for gaming (though I might think before I stress test using furmark for long periods of time). This system isn't at that sort of load for 8 hours a day (not even close). If I get 8 hours a week of gaming in I'm VERY happy (well maybe a bit more now since I'm playing Rift a bit).

Edit: Great post OP! Gives us all a bit to think about. I'm actually working on building a power efficient home server... and this post has got me thinking!

 

[Elfear]

I tested the system in my signature with a kill a watt and got the following results:

Idle Draw: 136W
Prime 95 Draw: 257W
Furmark Draw: 566W
Prime 95 + Furmark Draw: 658W

I'm very impressed with the idle draw (given the pair of unlocked / overclocked 6950's). I don't mind the high full load draw because I enjoy it for gaming (though I might think before I stress test using furmark for long periods of time). This system isn't at that sort of load for 8 hours a day (not even close). If I get 8 hours a week of gaming in I'm VERY happy (well maybe a bit more now since I'm playing Rift a bit).

Edit: Great post OP! Gives us all a bit to think about. I'm actually working on building a power efficient home server... and this post has got me thinking!

Interesting. We have very similar rigs except for the cpu and I pull 750-770W running through Stalker: COP. At idle, I use 200-210W. I'm using a BFG ES-800 which is pretty efficient. My cpu must be a lot more of a power hog than I originally thought.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

This is how the homes here are wired
POWER LINE FROM OUTSIDE----->DB------->PAYMETER--------->DB-->THEN GOES OUT TO THE HOME.
Now if anything goes faulty in your db its your problem. You got to hire a private electrician to fix it. The people who installed it made the wiring for the plugs 3mm. Almost melted electrician fixed it now I dont get charged for all the plugs in my home just the lights lol

 

[Wuzup101]

Interesting. We have very similar rigs except for the cpu and I pull 750-770W running through Stalker: COP. At idle, I use 200-210W. I'm using a BFG ES-800 which is pretty efficient. My cpu must be a lot more of a power hog than I originally thought.

That definitely is interesting. I do have Stalker: COP installed... maybe I'll check it out later just to give you a comparison. I never owned a cpu / mobo from your generation. I went to this system from a C2Q q6600. I should note that I do have c1 and EIST enabled so my rig does idle at 1.6ghz / <1V. I'm not sure if you have any soft of power saving enabled.

Honestly what I'm really waiting for is great switchable graphics. I would love to be able to use a high performance gaming card that could be shut almost completely off when not in 3d environments. I know there are some solutions for this starting to emerge... but it's still limited.

 

[pandemonium]

Sorry that I've been on hiatus everyone. Other things in life demanded more attention than researching component efficiencies, such as family and vehicle upgrades. Blasphemy, I know.

I'll be creating an updated spreadsheet for GPUs today. It should be done by the time I leave work. This time it will encompass more gaming benchmarks and have an average FPS overall, as well as individual spreadsheets for each bench, to give a much broader focus.

Let me know if the break-out and readability needs to be changed or any other recommendations you may have. I know the spreadsheet will become a giant monster, but this is hopefully to include various people's lifestyles, economies, and determining factors in their upgrading choices globally.

 

[pandemonium]

Alright. My head is spinning from all these numbers. I didn't finish labeling the ranks of each card on each spreadsheet, but the more important information is there.

Can't decide on what card to get? Not brand loyal? Find the game that you play, click on that spreadsheet. Scroll over to find your costs in kWh and about how long you think you'll own the card.

It doesn't get more definitive than this ladies and gents.

 

[Rezist]

I care mostly about heat and noise so efficiency plays a big part in that.

 

[darckhart]

I like the data you're collecting and the charts you're making.

I disagree with the whole harping on the energy bit. I'm as much for conserving as the next guy, but the cost savings due to hardware changes and usage patterns are insignificant compared to the amounts squandered by typical American activities including alcohol (after work happy hour, friday and saturday night festivities, and that stash you keep at home), services not actually used (like cable tv and unlimited data wireless plans), transportation (gas, tolls), excessive social entertainment (movies, restaurants, outdoor team sports/hobbies), and impulse shopping.

 

[Dark Shroud]

Well I don't drink or partake of the herb. And I don't drive that often. Besides my old CRT HDTV my PC consumes the most energy in my home. That TV is going to be replaced soon because our utilites are going up.