GPU/CPU fanspeed and power consumption

Mayday · April 2012

Hello.
I own a Gainward nvidia gtx275, a rather monstrous card with an even more monstrous custom cooling system (accelero extreme gtx pro).
I bought this card specifically for gaming but I don't really play much these days, it's mostly just browsing the web, drawing in photoshop and watching movies.

I have a power supply with half-passive cooling (tacens valeo III 500W). It's great as long as the fan is off... so here's my question: if I replace the GPU with a cheap old one (with passive cooling as well), will the power consumption decrease significantly and thus lower the temperature of the power supply? Or is the power consumption of my current GPU equally low as long as I'm not playing any games (bar the amount of power used for the 3 GPU fans, which I don't suppose is significant).

Also if anyone can recommend me good fan to replace my current 139mm one, I'd be very grateful. Or maybe a 140mm will fit? Those are much easier to get and there's a much bigger selection.

GnomeTank · April 2012

If you aren't playing games, your GPU should be sipping power. The 275 isn't that old, and it's generation certainly had 2D/3D clock settings that will alternate depending on usage. You shouldn't need to replace much of anything. If you never go in to 3D mode, you're card will never shift to full power draw.

That said, you can still save some power by going with a cheapo video card, or if you have a CPU with integrated graphics, setting up your system to use the integrated low power graphics when in Windows and only even engage the 3D card when you are doing 3D.

Mayday · April 2012

Thanks!
I've also found out that I can safely install a 140mm fan, so good news there.

Alecthar · April 2012

GnomeTank wrote: »

If you aren't playing games, your GPU should be sipping power. The 275 isn't that old, and it's generation certainly had 2D/3D clock settings that will alternate depending on usage. You shouldn't need to replace much of anything. If you never go in to 3D mode, you're card will never shift to full power draw.

That said, you can still save some power by going with a cheapo video card, or if you have a CPU with integrated graphics, setting up your system to use the integrated low power graphics when in Windows and only even engage the 3D card when you are doing 3D.

In my experience switchable graphics isn't as simple as you make it out to be there. Only certain motherboards and software/firmware combinations can do it, because enabling and disabling GPUs is generally a BIOS-level operation.

TetraNitroCubane · April 2012

Alecthar wrote: »

GnomeTank wrote: »

If you aren't playing games, your GPU should be sipping power. The 275 isn't that old, and it's generation certainly had 2D/3D clock settings that will alternate depending on usage. You shouldn't need to replace much of anything. If you never go in to 3D mode, you're card will never shift to full power draw.

That said, you can still save some power by going with a cheapo video card, or if you have a CPU with integrated graphics, setting up your system to use the integrated low power graphics when in Windows and only even engage the 3D card when you are doing 3D.

In my experience switchable graphics isn't as simple as you make it out to be there. Only certain motherboards and software/firmware combinations can do it, because enabling and disabling GPUs is generally a BIOS-level operation.

The GTX 275 automatically regulates its clockspeed on the Core, Shader, and Memory modules depending on system demands. If the card isn't running a program that requires a lot of power, these clocks all stay very low. When something that the card thinks requires more power starts running, the clocks turn up and the card will pull more juice. It's all video-driver level stuff, and doesn't require any special motherboard or firmware.

A program like EVGA precision can let you observe the clockspeed changes in real time, and also regulate them yourself if need be.

Alecthar · April 2012

TetraNitroCubane wrote: »

Alecthar wrote: »

GnomeTank wrote: »

If you aren't playing games, your GPU should be sipping power. The 275 isn't that old, and it's generation certainly had 2D/3D clock settings that will alternate depending on usage. You shouldn't need to replace much of anything. If you never go in to 3D mode, you're card will never shift to full power draw.

That said, you can still save some power by going with a cheapo video card, or if you have a CPU with integrated graphics, setting up your system to use the integrated low power graphics when in Windows and only even engage the 3D card when you are doing 3D.

In my experience switchable graphics isn't as simple as you make it out to be there. Only certain motherboards and software/firmware combinations can do it, because enabling and disabling GPUs is generally a BIOS-level operation.

The GTX 275 automatically regulates its clockspeed on the Core, Shader, and Memory modules depending on system demands. If the card isn't running a program that requires a lot of power, these clocks all stay very low. When something that the card thinks requires more power starts running, the clocks turn up and the card will pull more juice. It's all video-driver level stuff, and doesn't require any special motherboard or firmware.

A program like EVGA precision can let you observe the clockspeed changes in real time, and also regulate them yourself if need be.

I was referring to switching between integrated and discrete graphics, which is distinct from the power-saving features you're referring to.

Falken · April 2012

GnomeTank wrote: »

If you aren't playing games, your GPU should be sipping power. The 275 isn't that old, and it's generation certainly had 2D/3D clock settings that will alternate depending on usage. You shouldn't need to replace much of anything. If you never go in to 3D mode, you're card will never shift to full power draw.

That said, you can still save some power by going with a cheapo video card, or if you have a CPU with integrated graphics, setting up your system to use the integrated low power graphics when in Windows and only even engage the 3D card when you are doing 3D.

Bit of an oversimplification here. Aero is 3D.

GnomeTank · April 2012

Falken wrote: »

GnomeTank wrote: »

If you aren't playing games, your GPU should be sipping power. The 275 isn't that old, and it's generation certainly had 2D/3D clock settings that will alternate depending on usage. You shouldn't need to replace much of anything. If you never go in to 3D mode, you're card will never shift to full power draw.

That said, you can still save some power by going with a cheapo video card, or if you have a CPU with integrated graphics, setting up your system to use the integrated low power graphics when in Windows and only even engage the 3D card when you are doing 3D.

Bit of an oversimplification here. Aero is 3D.

But it's smart and doesn't force your graphics card in to 3D mode. I know, I've checked, several times. If you are sitting at a raw Aero desktop, your grahpics card should be in "2D" power mode, unless your drivers are terrible. If Aero is causing your card to switch in to 3D full power mode, then you have bad/old drivers.

Mayday · April 2012

Well, for now I've switched over to a cheapo radeon x300 (cost me about $8 heh :P ).
I'll probably compare the power supply fan intervals at some point between this and the 275 (currently its about 45s every 7 minutes) but right now I'm enjoying the almost complete silence of my PC way too much to bother.

GnomeTank · April 2012

Oh, this was about fan noise? I could have told you how to adjust the fan RPM down when in 2D/low power mode. I am surprised it wasn't doing it already. My HD6870 is dead silent when I am at the desktop/in 2D mode. You only hear it spin up when I am playing a game.

Mayday · April 2012

Yeah, it WAS generally quiet enough, and it did self-regulate its speed (although I was under the impression that the fans were getting louder lately... might be they're getting old already?).
So this was mostly an experiment in its influence on the power supply temperature, but I'm also getting a bit OCD here and trying to absolutely eliminate all unnecessary noise.

Next in line- opening the subwoofer, which is constantly making a faint buzzing sound when plugged in (now that the PC is so silent I can actually hear it).

Synthesis · April 2012

Mayday wrote: »

Well, for now I've switched over to a cheapo radeon x300 (cost me about $8 heh :P ).
I'll probably compare the power supply fan intervals at some point between this and the 275 (currently its about 45s every 7 minutes) but right now I'm enjoying the almost complete silence of my PC way too much to bother.

Shit, man, talk about a blast from the past. The second oldest Radeon I ever bought was a Sapphire X800Pro (the one before that was some Diamond thing that was around before they switched to that numbering system, several years earlier).

I'm shocked you can even find software for it. Or that it works with your OS.

Donovan Puppyfucker · April 2012

Mayday wrote: »

Yeah, it WAS generally quiet enough, and it did self-regulate its speed (although I was under the impression that the fans were getting louder lately... might be they're getting old already?).
So this was mostly an experiment in its influence on the power supply temperature, but I'm also getting a bit OCD here and trying to absolutely eliminate all unnecessary noise.

Next in line- opening the subwoofer, which is constantly making a faint buzzing sound when plugged it (now that the PC is so silent I can actually hear it).

That may not be the fault of the subwoofer. Look up 'ground loop'...

Mayday · April 2012

GnomeTank wrote: »

Oh, this was about fan noise? I could have told you how to adjust the fan RPM down when in 2D/low power mode. I am surprised it wasn't doing it already. My HD6870 is dead silent when I am at the desktop/in 2D mode. You only hear it spin up when I am playing a game.

Okay, I've brought my gtx275 back and I've spend a few DAYS trying to get things to work automatically. NO DEAL.

1.Speedfan has proven as useless as always, it couldn't control my CPU fan, it can't control my GPU fans.
2.Rivatuner only allows me to set one of the three fanspeeds (2D and low3d are blocked).
3.Nvidia Control panel with nvidia system tools: this is even more interesting.

Automatic control keeps the fans at 1230RPM, which is definitely not silent.
Switching to manual lets me bring it down to 30% (about 985RPM) - and this is apparently the absolute minimal speed of my fans.
Using "device rules" I was able to set up a progressive chart, although it still wouldn't go lower than 985RPM, even when told to go 0%. I managed to get it to speed up when playing BUT... the device rules saving is extremely erratic. Sometimes the rule will disappear when saving the profile. Sometimes it will disappear when I turn off the control panel and turn it back on. The rules NEVER get saved when rebooting (which is infuriating).

HULK SMASH FANS!

Also, my grievances with the CPU fan... the mobo is gigabyte 770t-usb3, and a 3-pin CPU fan. So far the only way for me to directly control the CPU fan is Gigabyte's easytune6. Unfortunately, it produces a skipping noise on every voltage scan (when listening to music, for example), and the scan interval doesn't get saved on reboot (or rather, the interval is saved, but you have to manually click "set' every time you reboot, or it stays at the default 3s).
What's even weirder is that if I don't set easytune to autorun, the fanspeed upon windows startup will sometimes be what I set in easytune (which is about 1000rpm for 40C) and sometimes it will be something needlessly fast (1700 at 40C).

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