Power Consumption

While idle power is roughly the same as the GTX 260, load power does increase a little bit. Keep in mind that we did underclock an EVGA Superclocked Edition of this card for these tests. If EVGA set voltages higher on this part than they would on stock clocked hardware, we might be seeing an increase in power consumption due to this.

What we can say is that we think this is a good picture of worst case power consumption increase from a GTX 260 to a GTX 260 core 216. This is not a bad thing, as the GTX 260 core 216 does draw less power than the Radeon 4870 under load and at idle.

Idle Power

Load Power

Assassin's Creed & The Witcher Final Words
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  • helldrell666 - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    At 1920x1200 res. the 4870 beats the new 260gtx in all the tested games.the 4870 has only 512MB of ram so it's not fair to taste at 2560x1600 res.
  • MrSpadge - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    And if AMD put only 128 MB on that card people should only test it at 1024x768, because anything else is not fair?

    Come on, the lower resolutions are included in the detailed charts and the conclusion clearly says currently the 4870 is better.

    MrS
  • helldrell666 - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    Well,It's not fair to put the results at 2560res. on the top.They could've put the results at 1920 res. on the top.
    I think it's intentional,to show the 4870 in a worse case.
    I know anandtech.they are AMD fanatics.simply, they don't like AMD.
    Anyways, im waiting for the review of this card on techreport.com.
  • theoflow - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    BUT CAN WE PLEASE GET A SYSTEM BUILDER GUIDE NOW???

    Thank you.

    =)
  • JarredWalton - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    I'll see about addressing that as soon as I finish my current article. I've been meaning to do one for months, but you know what they say about good intentions....
  • Chaotic42 - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    I would love to see one too, but if you're really going to do a new one, and I hope you do, please start doing them regularly. Maybe once per season or fiscal quarter? Monthly might be a bit much, but those system guides are fantastic.
  • theoflow - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    Cool thanks man. I'm itching to build a new rig, but been too busy to keep up with all the changes over the past year or so.
  • MrSpadge - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    Hi guys,

    I read somewhere that the first batches of 48x0 cards had a bug in their bios which prevented power play from working properly. This is supposed to be fixed since some time now and idle power draw should be decreased significantly.

    I'd say contact AMD or a card manufacturer. If it's true they should be more than happy to assist you in obtaining updated numbers. The current numbers are just plain horrible and may keep people from buying the Radeons.

    Regards, MrS
  • Mr Roboto - Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - link

    Powerplay works fine on my reference VisionTek 4870 512MB.
  • MrSpadge - Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - link

    That's nice for you, but it still looks like it's not working on ATs card.

    Derek, did you hear me?

    MrS

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