Power efficiency of Z77 with discrete graphics

[alex_stanhope]

I understand that Z77 motherboards have Virtu MVP to control the relationship between the integrated and discrete graphics cards. Has anyone seen any numbers on how efficiently it turns off the discrete card during non-GPU-intensive tasks (browser, office apps, etc)?

I'd like to do some simple virtualisation hosting of some 2-core VMs (very little GPU activity) and play some games. The latter requires a decent discrete GPU, the former only 2 over clocked cores. I'm considering choosing Z77+quad over X79+hex (both with a GTX680) because I wonder if it would be more power efficient for the VM stuff, and I don't really need six cores for games.

[SwiftJustice]

I dont know for sure but it somehow increases the performance.

watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvoMWXPzTlg

hopefully it will answer some of your questions

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

With a GTX580 power consumption at idle is not reduced massively:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rk,3174-6.html