How much power does an idle physx card suck down?

I

idividebyzero

Gawd
Joined
Feb 5, 2007
Messages
578
Since Im getting an AMD card I would still like to have physx since it makes a big difference in some games, but I have an HTPC which is on most of the day and I dont want another video card sucking down massive amounts of power and raising my monthly bill.

Anyone know how much power a dedicated physx card uses while not doing anything in windows? I would hope they are smart enough to put it to sleep when not needed because video cards use up a ton of power.
 
It depends on the card, a 500 or 600 series card at idle is about 10-20 watts, or about $10-$15 a year if you leave your computer on most of the time. A 400 series maybe a bit more.

I have an extra 570 laying around I'll toss in this afternoon when I get home and see what the difference on my Kill-a-Watt meter says.
 
thanks, Im going to try it with a 9800gt that I dont think outputs video anymore, it may or may not work for physx. The 9800gt does a max 105w, the 570 does 219w so if its higher than a few watts its probably safe to assume I can divide it by half.

10-20w would be fine, I dont want it doing anything near 100w because thats almost like running a space heater and would cost a fortune.
 
Finally got a chance to plug in the 570. After getting the drivers installed, looks like it draws just under 20 watts at idle. Total system draw:
114-115 Watts with single card
132-133 Watts with 570 set in PhysX mode

Granted the Kill-A-Watt meter isn't the most accurate thing in the world, but it should be fairly close.
 
Last edited:
It doesnt suck enough power for you to notice. Are you paying the bills? Go turn off some lights in the house, you would do better that way than worring about one card in your computer.
 
agr964 said:
Finally got a chance to plug in the 570. After getting the drivers installed, looks like it draws just under 20 watts at idle. Total system draw:
114-115 Watts with single card
132-133 Watts with 570 set in PhysX mode

Granted the Kill-A-Watt meter isn't the most accurate thing in the world, but it should be fairly close.
Click to expand...

thanks, thats surprising, I was worried a physx card would add to the monthly bill but at 20w it wont do much. The HTPC is almost always running HDTV from a tuner so it will use a lot more power than normal Windows idling but the physx card shouldnt be affected by that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top