VGA Power Consumption

For power consumption tests, Benchmark Reviews utilizes an 80-PLUS GOLD certified OCZ Z-Series Gold 850W PSU, model OCZZ850. This power supply unit has been tested to provide over 90% typical efficiency by Chroma System Solutions. To measure isolated video card power consumption, Benchmark Reviews uses the Kill-A-Watt EZ (model P4460) power meter made by P3 International.

A baseline measurement is taken without any video card installed on our test computer system, which is allowed to boot into Windows 7 and rest idle at the login screen before power consumption is recorded. Once the baseline reading has been taken, the graphics card is installed and the system is again booted into Windows and left idle at the login screen before taking the idle reading. Our final loaded power consumption reading is taken with the video card running a stress test using FurMark. Below is a chart with the isolated video card power consumption (system without video card minus measured total) displayed in Watts for each specified test product:

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 surprised us with chilly idle and lukewarm loaded temperatures when we tested it last month, but the surprises keep coming as we measure power consumption on the GTX 570. Utilizing 15 of 16 possible SMUs, the GeForce GTX 570 requires two 6-pin PCI-E power connections for proper operation. Resting at idle with no GPU load, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 consumed 31W - identical to the GTX 580 by our measure. Compensating for a small margin of error, this roughly matches idle power draw from the GeForce 8800 GT and slightly less than the GeForce GTX 280 or GTX 465. Compared to the GF100 inside the GeForce GTX 480, it's nearly 26% lower.

Once 3D-applications begin to demand power from the GPU, electrical power consumption climbs. Because the GeForce GTX 580/GTX570 series uses new hardware power monitoring technology not included on previous GeForce models, we've had to work around the power-throttling effects enabled when using FurMark or OCCT. To do so, we merely renamed Furmark.exe to Crysis.exe and changed some file names and locations. Measured at full throttle with FurMark's 3D torture load, the GeForce GTX 570 topped out at 241W maximum power draw. NVIDIA's stated max TDP is 219W, which is 22W less than our measurements - although power supply efficiency rating and margin of error have not been factored in.

While the idle power draw is identical to older models like the GeForce 8800 GT, it's still better than the GeForce GTX 280 and more recent GTX 465 models. At full power load the GeForce GTX 570 matches up to the ATI Radeon HD 5870, but still operates well below the levels of ATI's Radeon HD 5970 and the GeForce GTX 580.

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