Underclocking – will it reduce the power-use

[Stevie Blaze]

In September I’m moving to uni and to a room where I have to watch the amount of power I use as excessive use can result in you picking up the bill.

My question is how much will underclocking my 260 gtx reduce the power it uses? And is it safe for the graphics card. And does any one else have any tips for saving power?

I already disable the overclocking on my Q6600 when I don’t need it.

Any ones thoughts or advice would be appreciated

Many Thanks

[Atomic Rooster]

I don't think underclocking the card will make any noticeable difference in power consumption. The best you can do is to make sure the computer is only on when you need it. Otherwise, shut it down when not in use.

[Stevie Blaze]

True. Thanks anyway

[RamonGTP]

Today's cards are pretty smart, they automatically underclock themselves in 2d mode when the power isn't needed. Like AR said, turning the computer off when not in use is the best way to save power. If you have a laptop, use that for your general usage and the desktop for your gaming or more power hungry needs.

[Stevie Blaze]

I use N tune to overclock the card and i have two profiles saved. One for gaming and one for desktop use. The desktop profile uses the stock speeds but has the fan running a bit higher than stock, do you think that this could affect the card going into 2d mode?

[ShyguyXPC]

if you mean, affect it by preventing it, no, the card automatically detects when it should go into 2D mode, basically when your using regular apps or surfing web or just running the PC with the OS's Desktop, etc... as soon as it detects the need for 3D it should go to 3D mode, basically accessing & using OpenGL or DirectX/Direct3D, running Games, or if a Program calls for usage of 3D with in itself... etc.

only thing the fan will do is use a bit more power to run beyond stock speeds, but the extra power being used is negligible anyways, so might as well just leave it as is.

[SoopahMan]

Some Lenovo laptops use a dual-graphics approach to accomplish what you're trying to do, because graphics card manufacturers are yet to meet this demand.

* Get a motherboard with a built-in high-efficiency low-end GPU like an Intel or nForce board
* Get your high-end graphics card
* Get a VGA Y splitter and hook your monitor up to both VGA outs
* When you're just using Windows, go into Device Manager and disable your high-end graphics card to power it down
* When it's time to play a game, enable the card and play

Lenovo has software that automates this process on some of their computers; there may be generic software that can do this for you on your custom built machine. Unfortunately this is the only viable way to do what you're asking for now until the graphics card manufacturers think about something other than "Mine's the fastest even if it fills a room and heats a house with its waste."

If you could find software that watched what program was starting up and switched this situation for you automatically in the background, I could see it being just fine, but otherwise I'd personally be too annoyed.

The other possibility is to just focus on getting a very power-efficient card, especially at idle, and live with its idle draw. To give you an idea of the compromise, you can get a built-in Intel chip that draws less than 5 watts. You can find serious 3D cards that draw 40 watts at idle. You can also find ones that draw 100w.

I try to just buy efficient cards. The 2 best picks right now are the GeForce 8800 GT and the ATI Radeon HD 3870. If you're looking to spend $300+ instead of the $150 range, the GeForce 260 isn't bad although its 3D power usage is a little irresponsible.

Power Consumption Chart at bit-tech