Galax GeForce RTX 4070 EX Gamer White

[W1zzard]

With the GeForce RTX 4070 EX Gamer White, Galax has released an eye-catching graphics card that will look great in any case. While the card is priced at NVIDIA MSRP of $600, you still get a factory overclock and higher power limits, as well as a powerful triple-slot, triple-fan cooling solution.

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[Catz111]

This is card is pretty good overall. I have the KFA² 4070 EX Gamer which i heard shoul be the exact same one. But for some reason i get different idle watt power then on the review.

@

W1zzard​

Can you maybe clarify how was the GPU power measured ? Is it the same as in GPU-Z the "Board Power Draw" which i have 33 watt there (in the review is 17 watt) or is the idle power measurment in the review referring to "Gpu Chip Power Draw" ? thx...

 

[W1zzard]

I am using real test equipment to measure the power draw of the whole card by tapping into the PCIe slot and the power cables

33 W does seem quite high, what monitor/resolution?

Maybe this?

RTX 4060 - strange idle power readings

The card was tested by @W1zzard and has considerably less idle power consumption: 10 W. I believe it's software / VBIOS related. Just wanted to point it out.

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Catz111]

It's only 1080p and 144hz. When playing a game in 1080p the card seems to be very efficient.. Most games run at those settings with around 100-120 watt. Card is slightly undervoltet to 990 mili volt and fps are restricted to max 144fps.
There are even games at 1080p that pull only 70-90 watt but the GPU usage is mostly under 50% in those cases so that should explain the extremely good tdp.

For the high idle tough i really hope it is Vbios missread.

But i have the feeling it is not Vbios missread because the "zero fan mode" looks to not really work. Fans just aways spin, then with this high idle or so i think are the temps not good enough for the Fans to fully stop (idle temp is 32c) both undervolt and stock setting and the ~ 30-33watt awso persist in both settings

HWiNFO shows me as well around 30 watt GPU Power and OCCT tool.

Is there anything else i could do to either lower this wattage or confirm somehow that this is only a missread ?

On the link from above it state that the user is using a driver version GeForce GRD 536.99 but i am using 531.79 so maybe this one as well reads those false ?

I rechecked another review but directly about the KFA² Card and not the Galax modell which as far as i know are the exact same ones. The review pretty much is confirming this and they awso have
the exact same numbers for the idle Power as the review here 17.27 watt..

 

[W1zzard]

HWiNFO shows me as well around 30 watt GPU Power and OCCT tool.

They are all reading from the same API, which is provided by the NVIDIA driver and which is supposed to report the power measurement of the card's Total Board Power sensor.

On the link from above it state that the user is using a driver version GeForce GRD 536.99 but i am using 531.79 so maybe this one as well reads those false ?

Try opening a ticket with NVIDIA to get some confirmation on whether you are affected by that bug

 

[Catz111]

I just found out the issue and fixed it

The card wasn't clocking down at idle and it stay at around 2500mhz gpu.

I then switched in the nvidia control panel "Power Managment mode" which i aways set to "Prefer maximum performance" but now i switch it to "normal".
This seems to fix the issue.

Wierd enough now my card idle power draw is even less then in the review- My card is now pulling between 7-9 watt in idle
Video playback is @ 10-12 watt hmm... This looks really efficient now and i hope it is not a missread anymore xD

Thx for the help

 

[W1zzard]

My card is now pulling between 7-9 watt in idle

Yeah, that sensor isn't very accurate, which is the reason why I'm using dedicated hardware that's specialized for that task and that can't be fooled. It's close enough for general consumer usage though, especially since it comes without additional cost/bulk/setup complexity

 

[Catz111]

The card is awso slightly undervoltet to 990 mili volt- can the undervolt have any impact on the idle power draw ? Maybe thats awso a factor why the card is now under the 17 watt. I can imagine that this undervolt wouldnt do that much of a difference on idle. If i would guess i would think that it may lower the idle by 2-3 watt so from 17 to around 15 with the undervolt. Or is there a case where undervolt can awso lower idle power by lets say 50%?