Where can I find GPUs idle power consumption specification? (my country electricity cost is one of the highest)

[iulil]

I searched for datasheets with Gpu power consumption at idle and I haven't found anything. How is it possible? I think that is an important data to know. Where should I look to have an official source or very reliable for this data? For example for the Rtx 2080 Ti or Rtx 3060 Ti.

Thank you

 

[docnorth]

Officially I don’t think so, but TPU’s reviews are very enlightening.

 

[QuietBob]

 

[londiste]

Lets start with what is idle?
Monitors off? Monitors on? Which monitors? 1080p probably works no matter what. Multiple monitors or something like 2160p at 120hz might need higher clocks to properly show the picture. Run 3 high resolution monitors at different frequencies and you will get higher clocks and consumption.
Apps open? Browser open? Something moves on the monitors? Do you have video playback somewhere? Depending on what does playback even in background may matter plus browsers tend to use a bunch of resources. There are other applications with hardware acceleration that are or have raised GPU clocks. Skype comes to mind, some older version of iCUE did, monitoring software often as well.
Plus, settings for both GPU and other bits. For example there are power settings where you can set to to High Performance and it will naturally keep clocks higher.

Basically there is no idle specification and probably cannot really be.
Best bet as previous posters say is rely on reviews with similar scenarios as yours being tested. Even then it is worth noting that manufacturers sometimes/often enough do fix some of the excessive power usage at idle if possible.

 

[Macro Device]

TL;DR usually the best GPU in this regard is the lowest tier current gen NVIDIA card. Today it's 4060/Ti. Tomorrow, must be 5060/Ti. AMD GPUs aren't far behind but that still might prove a couple kW annual difference. Intel GPUs are currently to avoid. Might become better with Celestial, who knows.

I wouldn't bother anyway. Idle and light load power consumption is so miniscule it's easy to compensate for it by working a couple additional days this year. That is if one kW is about $1 expensive and you work shit job that pays 6 dollars an hour after taxes.

Worst case scenario: 40 W difference, PC turned on 24/7, 350 kWh annual difference. Noticeable but usually the difference is about five to seven times less pronounced.

 

[londiste]

My 4070TI Super has a power consumption of about 3.5 watts when monitors are turned off.
The ~30W at idle from 7800X3D absolutely eclipses that

 

[kapone32]

The absolute best DGPU I have seen at idle would be the 6500XT. 3 Watts at idle. I am not kidding. Not that it is a GPU for anything more than 1080P Gaming though. Before you jump remember it blows away the 8700G in Gaming so you could get away with it. I would not pay more than $100 for one of those though.

 

[Macro Device]

6500XT

Kinda odd to recommend that to a person already looking at the likes of 2080 Ti and 3070, doncha think so? 6500 XT is furiously bad at PCI-e 3.0 and is even worse if the OP rocks a non-pedestrian resolution display and wants to have positive framerates. If we REALLY insist on going AMD then plain RX 7600 is the most reasonable thing. Alas, 4060 is a tad faster, supports DLSS and has better efficiency under load. All that for just a couple dozen USD premium.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Kinda odd to recommend that to a person already looking at the likes of 2080 Ti and 3070, doncha think so? 6500 XT is furiously bad at PCI-e 3.0 and is even worse if the OP rocks a non-pedestrian resolution display and wants to have positive framerates. If we REALLY insist on going AMD then plain RX 7600 is the most reasonable thing. Alas, 4060 is a tad faster, supports DLSS and has better efficiency under load. All that for just a couple dozen USD premium.

It's kinda odd to be worried about the idle power draw on a $400+ GPU in the first place, so /shrug

 

[Macro Device]

$400+

Not every1 is as lucky as us seven-centers. In some countries, it's cheaper to go more perf/W than it is to go more perf/$. Imagine paying a dollar for a kW. This translates into, say, if we have 20 W difference on average, 175 annual dollars savings on electricity alone (PC runs non-stop). Since number a people use GPUs for several years it makes to own a 3080 almost a thousand dollars more expensive than it is to own a 4070 despite it being 100ish dollars cheaper on the used market.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Not every1 is as lucky as us seven-centers. In some countries, it's cheaper to go more perf/W than it is to go more perf/$. Imagine paying a dollar for a kW. This translates into, say, if we have 20 W difference on average, 175 annual dollars savings on electricity alone (PC runs non-stop). Since number a people use GPUs for several years it makes to own a 3080 almost a thousand dollars more expensive than it is to own a 4070 despite it being 100ish dollars cheaper on the used market.

If you leave your PC on 24/7, and you are not making money with it, you are stupid. No if ands or buts about it. Seriously, WHY would you do that? Especially if you have such expensive electricity.....

And if $175 is a lot of money to you, you cant afford a $400 GPU. Period. If it's that much of an issue, you buy an APU and use that. If you're making money from it, then the electric usage shouldnt be a problem.

Also, it wont be $175. The highest rate for electricity int he world is Bermuda, at $0.458 per kWh

Cost of Electricity by Country 2024

worldpopulationreview.com

So that's $80.24 per year, if you idle it for 24 hours a day.

If $80 per year is a dealbreaker, you should not be buying $400 GPUs and leaving them on 24/7 for no reason. The "muh power use" argument has frankly NEVER made sense.

If you're worried about power use, go work one(1) extra shift ac McDonalds per year. There you go, cost covered.

 

[N/A]

If you're in possession of said cards why not run Gpuz or hwinfo.

But with a 15 W GPU you're still looking at 50 W at the wall with 50% PSU efficiency, lost as heat.

 

[Zach_01]

I searched for datasheets with Gpu power consumption at idle and I haven't found anything. How is it possible? I think that is an important data to know. Where should I look to have an official source or very reliable for this data? For example for the Rtx 2080 Ti or Rtx 3060 Ti.

Thank you

No way for any GPU maker/designer to able to get that on a datasheet.
Every system will work differently depending on the monitor, how many monitors, what is loaded on the background, what quality settings windows are using, refresh rates and sync functions, what settings apps using and so on and on...
No one will test a vast variety of configurations just to measure idle/low load power and tell you that this is it with this configuration, only for a user later to find that his GPU is not "idling" at 20W but at 30W for example because the settings are 2% different.

But with a 15 W GPU you're still looking at 50 W at the wall with 50% PSU efficiency, lost as heat.

A modern PSU even at 8~10% load "start" its efficiency at no less than 85%
So a 750W Gold PSU at 70~80W output will be well above 80% efficiency, close to 85% actually.

If CPU+GPU+rest of system are consuming about 70W then at the wall will be around 85W (70+20% heat)

For example