6800 GT Power Save question

[Mighty_Ferguson]

Hi,
Sorry if this has been covered in another thread. I searched for it, but couldn't find anything.

Some initial information: I have a Sony CPD E400 monitor. According to the manal, there are 2 different power saving modes.

1) Sleep/Suspend - the monitor warms up very quickly, uses about 15W power, the monitor LED flashes between green and amber.

2) Deep Sleep/Active Off - the monitor takes more time to warm up (like it was all the way off), uses about 3W power, the monitor LED is solid amber.


I recently traded up from a Radeon 9800 Pro to a BFG 6800 GT AGP card. When the Radeon card put my monitor into power save mode, it would go into Deep Sleep mode. When the 6800 card puts it into power save mode, it only goes into Sleep mode. I haven't changed any Windows power management settings, and there doesn't seem to be an option there for that anyway. I can't find any sort of option to control this in the nVidia settings, and even a call to BFG tech support yielded nothing (they had no idea what I was talking about). Do any of you guys know if this is configurable anywhere? Maybe a registry key?

The reason I'm asking is that I leave my computer on all the time, and I've seen a somewhat substantial increase in my electric bill that coincides with the time I installed the 6800 card, and I can't account for the increase any other way.

Thanks, any help is appreciated.

Mighty Ferguson

 

[Foobar]

Hi, I have a similar problem with a Ti4200. I use Entech's EnergySaver screen saver. It turns off the sync signals to the monitor so that it properly enters DPMS poweroff. Without energysaver, Windows XP just blanks the screen yet the CRT remains running on full.

I have Windows set to activate EnergySaver after 15 mins, and EnergySaver set to power off the monitor after 0 mins (i.e. immediately after it's initiated).

http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/es.shtm

If there are BNC inputs on your monitor, you'll also need to make it blank the screen (with Marquee and no text) because the monitor thinks that the green video also has the sync. If you use a regular VGA or DVI cable there are no worries.

(Yes I know there's a "Blank Screen" screen saver, but it doesn't blank the screen when you use it with EnergySaver. That's why I use marquee with no text)

As for your electric bill, it's probably the 6800 sucking down the juice, not the extra 10 W or so from the monitor

 

[Mighty_Ferguson]

Thanks very much for the tip, that sounds perfect. I'll try the screen saver app.

Much appreciated.

-Mighty