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MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD Geforce 8800GTX PCI Express Videocard Review
MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD Geforce 8800GTX PCI Express Videocard Review - PCSTATS
The MSI Computer NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD is the companies' flagship nVIDIA-GPU based videocard. This massive slab of chips and thermal solution is built around an equally large nVidia 'G80' GForce 8800GTX core.
 89% Rating:   
Filed under: Video Cards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: MSI Feb 12 2007   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Video Cards > MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD

Videocard Power Consumption Measurements

While Intel and AMD have moved aggressively towards reducing the amount of power their processors consume, nVIDIA and ATi have largely neglected this issue. In fact under load it's possible for videocard GPUs to suck up more power than the CPU draws. With the nVidia G80 core built on TSMC's 90nm technology, you know the graphics card will use up a lot of power.

To get an idea at how much power the NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD may consume, the PCI Express x16 slot provides up to 75W, and each additional six pin VGA power connector can provide an additional 75W of power. That means the MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD has the potential to draw 225W of power!

While we have no way of measuring directly how much power the NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD uses, we will measure total system power draw and compare the same basic installation with a couple different videocards to get a rough idea of how power consumption fluctuates for each specific videocard.

The test system will consist of an AMD Athlon64 FX-62, Asus M2-CROSSHAIR motherboard, a reference Athlon64 FX-62 cooler, 2GB of Corsair Twin2X2048-6400C3 memory, a 74GB WD Raptor hard drive, an 8x Gigabyte DVD writer and a floppy drive. The pPower supply used here is the APFC compliant Seasonic S12-600W.

The videocards that will be tested against the MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD will come from both the nVIDIA and ATi camps. Representing nVIDIA will be MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE (GeForce 7950GX2), a MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E (GeForce 7900GTX) and a Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH (GeForce 7600GT) videocard. Representing ATi will an Asus X1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A (Radeon X1900 XTX) and an Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A (Radeon X1950 Pro) videocard.

videocardPCSTATS Benchmark ReportPower Consumption on Total System Power Draw Tests
Idle: Watts* Ranking
MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE 183
MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E 165
Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH 140
Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A 160
Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A 150
MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD 196
MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD (Overclocked to 665/1066) 200
Load: Watts* Ranking
MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE 315
MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E 277
Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH 213
Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A 333
Asus EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A 252
MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD 345
MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD (Overclocked to 665/1066) 360

[ *This figure represents total system power consumption in Watts, either with the system at idle, or the peak value recorded while running 3DMark06. ]

It should come as no surprise that that the MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD draws the most power at idle, although the dual GPU MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE doesn't trail by too much. The Asus EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A is rather energy efficient at idle, but it is the Geforce 7600GT card which earns the lowest power consumption prize at idle.

Under load, the power values definitely increase by dramatic amounts. The MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD based system consumes a peak of 345watts, and when overclocked that value increases by 15W. We're surprised at how much power the ATi EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A uses while under load (333Watts), it's higher than the dual GPU MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE videocard based system (315Watts)!

One thing is clear, neither ATi or nVIDIA is a saint when it comes to power usage of their modern graphics cards. Videocards definitely gobble up a lot of power a total computer system uses!

nVIDIA is usually the pioneer of new videocard technologies so we look forward in seeing how it will work to addresses the power issues that affect modern videocards. Videocards have started to move towards parallel computing like processors, is that the way of the future? In any case it will certainly be interesting to see what nVIDIA and ATi end up doing, because power consumption cannot continue unabated.... no, we want to start seeing flagship videocard power consumption drop.

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Contents of Article: MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD
 Pg 1.  MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E-HD Geforce 8800GTX PCI Express Videocard Review
 Pg 2.  Getting a Feel for the Geforce 8800GTX
 Pg 3.  The nVIDIA G80 Graphics Core
 Pg 4.  — Videocard Power Consumption Measurements
 Pg 5.  nVIDIA PureVideo and High Definition Content
 Pg 6.  Overclocking the GeForce 8800GTX
 Pg 7.  Videocard Benchmarks: 3DMark05, 3DMark06
 Pg 8.  Videocard Benchmarks: FarCry
 Pg 9.  Videocard Benchmarks: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
 Pg 10.  Videocard Benchmarks: Doom 3
 Pg 11.  Videocard Benchmarks: Quake 4
 Pg 12.  Videocard Benchmarks: FEAR
 Pg 13.  Advanced Videocard Benchmarks: FarCry, Doom 3, FEAR
 Pg 14.  Dawn of the DX10 Era?

 
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