HD 4890 Power Consumption

[Phew]

So, I've been reading some 4890 reviews, and it's pretty clear that it is neck and neck with the GTX 285 (which is $100+ more expensive) in performance, with potentially more overclocking headroom. What's not clear is how the cards compare power consumption-wise.

X Bit Lab's Review has the 4890 with even lower idle power consumption than the GTX 260, which has been shown to be very miserly with power.

However, Anandtech's Review has the 4890 using almost 25W more than the GTX 260 at idle. Other reviews are all over the place.

I know each review site has a different methodology for measuring power consumption, but I would expect the relative trends to be at least somewhat consistent. Is there something behind these wild variations (driver differences, differences between brands, operating system, other)?

 

[Cookie Monster]

Xbitlabs unlike most review sites measure the actual power consumption of the card not the total system power consumption. So I think they give you a more correct result regarding power consumption figures.

 

[Phew]

Yeah, I saw XBitlabs measures the voltage drop across resistors on each of the PSU lines. It doesn't get more direct than that. There are a lot more variables with system power consumption.

Basically, I'm just hoping Xbitlabs is correct I'm going to put my 4890 under water soon, so low idle power consumption is important to me. I have my radiator fans controlled based on the water temperature, to get my computer as whisper-quiet at idle as possible. The less heat the GPU is dissipating into the water at idle, the quieter my computer. I don't care how loud it gets during games.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: Phew

Basically, I'm just hoping Xbitlabs is correct I'm going to put my 4890 under water soon, so low idle power consumption is important to me.

I think you can tweak the idle clock so that it uses less power. Set up a profile or some such.

 

[Phew]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
I think you can tweak the idle clock so that it uses less power. Set up a profile or some such.

Yeah, there are various tools to drop the idle clock and voltage, I'll mess around with that once I get a water block for the 4890. Neither EK's nor Koolance's are available yet.