9600GT OC Replacing 8800GTX

Hi,

I am thinking about replacing my 8800 GTX (not very economical) with a 9600GT (hopefully a much lower power consumption?) the 8800 runs at very very high temperatures and i can only assume that it uses a lot of electricity. The electricity bill was VERY VERY high and it was actually shocking!

I just wanted to know if anyone more knowledgable can help me find the wattage consumptions for the 9600GT OC as i dont know what the technical stuff means. i will be gaming in the summer. probably CoD etc on a 20" screen, will it be sufficient? i also have a 24" will it be able to handle that? because i have a 8600GTS in one of my computers and it works a dream for the normal stuff that i do. i was hoping its upgraded version was similar? and since its OC'ed will it consumer more power??

Thanks guys,

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...ory_oid=-31463

suprisingly PC world seem to have the best price!

The ATI RV740 is coming out in the next two months as are some lower power consumption variants of the 9800GT. I would wait for these to come out.

The 9600GT will be a massive downgrade from a 8800GTX.However a 9800GT or RV740 should have slightly less performance and lower power consumption.

How is that a good price?

£90 for a 9600GT

Scan have a Palit one for £70

Anyway pricing aside I'm with Cat going from a 8800GTX to a 9600GT is a huge drop in graphics performance I would wait for the 740 chips from ATI (April) or the GTS 240 (more power efficient 9800GT) they will have a much lesser impact on performance but still offer good energy savings.

As to actual power consumption figures check this review from Tech Power Up (not for either card but they list everything they have reviewed :)) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/L...TX_285/24.html at idle you will save ~35W which probably converts to £20 a year, under load 55W but in power consumption terms idle is probably the more important figure as that is what it will be doing most of the time.

Check the performance figures in that review as well http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/L...TX_285/26.html the drop to the 9600GT will cost you 25-33% depending on resolution.

Personally I do not think it is worth it wait for the newer lower power draw, higher end boards to arrive in the next few months and maybe go with one of them, they will be more likely a 5-10% drop in performance but still with energy savings.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Webby

Personally I do not think it is worth it wait for the newer lower power draw, higher end boards to arrive in the next few months and maybe go with one of them, they will be more likely a 5-10% drop in performance but still with energy savings.

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I agree!! :) The 8800GTX is a good card and if I were upgrading it would be something with similar(or lower) power consumption and higher performance.

Since you have two 8800GTX cards a GTX295 will probably not only have much greater performance but lower overall power consumption too . Also even a GTX280 or GTX285 would have better performance probably with lower power consumption.

I think that the other components in your system such as your QX6800 will consume a lot of power too. The TX850 you have also is not the most efficient PSU available. You also have a large display too!! This all adds up to a system which consumes a lot of power.

The best way to save power is to use a lower power system(or even a notebook) for less taxing tasks and use your most powerful computer only for applications which actually need the extra processing power.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Webby

Anyway pricing aside I'm with Cat going from a 8800GTX to a 9600GT is a huge drop in graphics performance I would wait for the 740 chips from ATI (April) or the GTS 240 (more power efficient 9800GT) they will have a much lesser impact on performance but still offer good energy savings.

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Interesting. I was waiting for passively cooled BFG 9800GT, and now there's a more suitable chip in the pipeline. Wonder if BFG will provide that passively cooled too.

Thanks a lot for the advice, the thing is, my parents play facebook poker a lot (maybe like 10 hours a day) and my computer is constantly on for 16 hours a day. not i don't play games that much now, but its inefficient to have such a powerful card to do daily tasks? im not too sure why there was such a huge spike in our electricity bill though!

do you guys think that having the card in constant use could do that?
i think i may just give them my current card (8600GTS) and take the 8800 GTX as i don't use the computer too much anyways.

just wondering, i have a 24" Dell TFT, will having a better card mean videos etc look better? with the 8600, the monitor lags majorly when i play CoD though.

also thanks for the links.

one of the reasons i am reluctant to take the card is because it runs very hot and will need active cooling, i am running my 8600 with a heat sink only and it runs like a dream! the only fans i have on are one exhaust fan and an AC7 fan which i can control depending on what im doing. usually runs on 50% when idle which is silent which is priceless.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Webby

How is that a good price?

£90 for a 9600GT

Scan have a Palit one for £70

Anyway pricing aside I'm with Cat going from a 8800GTX to a 9600GT is a huge drop in graphics performance I would wait for the 740 chips from ATI (April) or the GTS 240 (more power efficient 9800GT) they will have a much lesser impact on performance but still offer good energy savings.

As to actual power consumption figures check this review from Tech Power Up (not for either card but they list everything they have reviewed :)) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/L...TX_285/24.html at idle you will save ~35W which probably converts to £20 a year, under load 55W but in power consumption terms idle is probably the more important figure as that is what it will be doing most of the time.

Check the performance figures in that review as well http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/L...TX_285/26.html the drop to the 9600GT will cost you 25-33% depending on resolution.

Personally I do not think it is worth it wait for the newer lower power draw, higher end boards to arrive in the next few months and maybe go with one of them, they will be more likely a 5-10% drop in performance but still with energy savings.

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oh thought it was a good price since it was the OC version lol

Can you borrow a plug socket meter, e.g. electricity meter ? Lidl used to have one going cheaply, but depends on store if still got any in stock

Then note readings during idle desktop useage, gaming, etc.

ok, i am going to keep the 8800GTX for gaming during the summer and i just bought a 7200 for the time being. it was the cheapest option in the shop and should be sufficient for what i want it to do atm.

thanks for the help guys.!

So i am going to keep the 8800 GTX, but i bought a cheap one to keep the parents happy. i have a 23" Dell TFt, you think it will be power (without noticeable lag) easily with all the highest settings?

The 7200GS will support resolutions upto 2048 x 1536. However it would be entirely useless for any games in the last few years which require 3D acceleration. It only has 2 pixel pipelines!!

However for normal usage it will definitely have much lower consumption than an 8800GTX!! :)

vincent, dead chap. While I for one, monitor emectricity costs more than most... I'd not blame your PC on the elctricity bill UNLESS yiou're using it, 24/7/52 because it's not to blame.

THE only way it'll be killing your elec bill is either
A: folding at home or similar distributed computing
B: you game, all day,e very day, and never sleep. ever.

Before you ruin your gaming life for ever, go to B&Q and find a Power reading machine. It plugs into the wall soket, and then yuo plug your PC into that.

It tells you how much electricity uyou've used over whatever time scale you leave it plugged in for. AND if you can suss the booklet, you can even input your electricity prices so you can SEE what it's costing.

Frankly, I use mine to monitor the kilawatthours abnd once I've done that for a week, I grab the elctricity tarrif chart, and work out what it cost me.

So dont blame thew PC yet... more likely to be the immersion in the hot water tank is still on from oember ;)

I reckon the rise in the eleccy bill are partly to do with the increase in prices and also probably increased usage over the winter especially as it's been pretty cold.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zak33

Vincent, dead chap. While I for one, monitor electricity costs more than most... I'd not blame your PC on the electricity bill UNLESS you're using it, 24/7/52 because it's not to blame.

THE only way it'll be killing your elec bill is either
A: folding at home or similar distributed computing
B: you game, all day,e very day, and never sleep. ever.

Before you ruin your gaming life for ever, go to B&Q and find a Power reading machine. It plugs into the wall socket, and then yuo plug your PC into that.

It tells you how much electricity uyou've used over whatever time scale you leave it plugged in for. AND if you can suss the booklet, you can even input your electricity prices so you can SEE what it's costing.

Frankly, I use mine to monitor the kilawatthours and once I've done that for a week, I grab the elctricity tarrif chart, and work out what it cost me.

So dont blame thew PC yet... more likely to be the immersion in the hot water tank is still on from oember ;)

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Hey thanks for the reply, i guess its a combination of higher rates and more use in general then. its just that my mum hit the roof!! and it was the only variable that was different from the previous quater. hence i thought it was because of that lol!

thanks for the help guys. i am going to keep the 8800GTX for the summer :)

I would check the bill to see if it's an estimate, also check the lst one to see if that was an estimate too.
they could of over calculated the usage this time, or under calculated it last time adding the difference on to this bill or even a combination of both.

Also I hope no one left anything on over night, like the oven? and tumble drying, you have one? been using it more often? tumble driers eat up a heck of a lot of power.

I have a Dell 248WFP monitor, and just wanted to know if i can play it on high settings and full resolution with no problems? (with the 8800GTX) my 20" its brilliant, but i want more lol!