Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Power consumption - few myths from this forums busted

MalaboogaMalabooga Member UncommonPosts: 2,977
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msi-afterburner-undervolt-radeon-r9-fury,4425.html

1. Fury is really more efficient than GTX980. And faster.

2. Frequency has minimal effect on power consumption, major contributor is voltage.

3. You should always undervolt your hardware as much as you can. Unfortunately, on NVidia GPUs undervolting means automatic lower performance. But CPUs (both brands) and AMD GPUs - just do it.
«13

Comments

  • GdemamiGdemami Member EpicPosts: 12,342
    Ah, this is one your posts where you take an article and regardless of the article content outcome you call AMD winner...I see :)
  • MalaboogaMalabooga Member UncommonPosts: 2,977
    edited February 2016
    Considering they cost about the same....its not even a brainer.

    Also one other note:

    4. This also works for r9 380 and R9 390. Considering that you can undervolt them quite a bit, and you have to OC GTX960/970 to get same performance, efficiency really isnt any kind of argument since differences are much smaller than (certain) people are saying.

    Of course, thats if you have a vague idea of what youre doing, if youre a dummy...well youll always pay much more than you should. or believe other dummies.
  • PhryPhry Member LegendaryPosts: 11,004
    didn't think voltage was really all that relevant when it comes to power useage, amps on the other hand is probably a bit more indicative.
  • GdemamiGdemami Member EpicPosts: 12,342
    Phry said:
    didn't think voltage was really all that relevant when it comes to power useage, amps on the other hand is probably a bit more indicative.
    Elementary school physics...

    P = I * V

    P - power
    I - current
    V - voltage
  • PhryPhry Member LegendaryPosts: 11,004
    Gdemami said:
    Phry said:
    didn't think voltage was really all that relevant when it comes to power useage, amps on the other hand is probably a bit more indicative.
    Elementary school physics...

    P = I * V

    P - power
    I - current
    V - voltage
    true, kind of interesting that even though the R9 was undervoltaged, it didnt approach the efficiency of the Nvidia card, which despite being undervolted, had no change in the wattage.
  • GdemamiGdemami Member EpicPosts: 12,342
    edited February 2016
    Phry said:
    true, kind of interesting that even though the R9 was undervoltaged, it didnt approach the efficiency of the Nvidia card, which despite being undervolted, had no change in the wattage.
    It did approach the efficiency of GTX 980 and power consumption drop was large(relatively since the power curve won't be as flat as GTX 980), check the graphs again.

    Nvidia cards are already optimized, they are new tech unlike AMD that is using old technology and needs to squeeze every little bit of performance out of it, thus you end up with massive overclocks and overvoltages.

    Somewhat bitter-sweet results...
    Post edited by Gdemami on
  • MalaboogaMalabooga Member UncommonPosts: 2,977
    edited February 2016
    To put it this way:

    not long ago there was discussion about this where certain people claimed that frequency is as important as voltage. While frequency certainly has some effect on power consumption its not relevant enough (when we speak about small changes like 5-10-15% increases). Its also notable that to get higher OC you will have to raise voltage, which will again be major contributor, while raising frequency without touching voltage will not result in very notable increase in power consumption.

    For scope of these forums you dont need theory at all since there is so many actual data/tests around that theory is superficial in this case. Even you can do your own tests.

    Effects of these are:

    You either want to raise frequency as much as you can without touching voltage for better performance and very small power consumption increase OR undervolt as much as you can without changing frequency for very notable power consumption/heat/noise effects (AMD GPUs only)

    Thing with NVidia GPUs is that they are already tweaked and any lowering of voltage will result in lower performanace.

    This is useful for both - those who already own GPUs and for those who intend to buy new as there is lot of missinformations floating around.

    Gdemani - fact that AMD GPUs are overvolted (means they could have clocked them much higher on stock voltage) is actually opposite of what you claim.

    You could argue that they should have tested more and get better statistical values and set actual stock settings better, but thats irrelevant since you have more or less full control over GPUs and can tweak them as you wish.
  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,505
    It's conversations like this where I just say, "hey Quizzical, what should I buy?"


    "True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde 

    "I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant

    Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm

    Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

    Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™

    "This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon






  • GdemamiGdemami Member EpicPosts: 12,342
    Kyleran said:
    It's conversations like this where I just say, "hey Quizzical, what should I buy?"

    Yup, you would be getting a monologue void of any touch with reality :)
  • BloodaxesBloodaxes Member EpicPosts: 4,662
    edited February 2016
    It's not like your biased opinion on nvidia cards are the only good cards helps anyway.

    Unlike you, Quizzical gives a fair analogy from both sides.
    Post edited by Bloodaxes on

  • GdemamiGdemami Member EpicPosts: 12,342
    edited February 2016
    Malabooga said:
    To put it this way:

    not long ago there was discussion about this where certain people claimed that frequency is as important as voltage. While frequency certainly has some effect on power consumption its not relevant enough (when we speak about small changes like 5-10-15% increases). Its also notable that to get higher OC you will have to raise voltage, which will again be major contributor, while raising frequency without touching voltage will not result in very notable increase in power consumption.

    For scope of these forums you dont need theory at all since there is so many actual data/tests around that theory is superficial in this case. Even you can do your own tests.

    Effects of these are:

    You either want to raise frequency as much as you can without touching voltage for better performance and very small power consumption increase OR undervolt as much as you can without changing frequency for very notable power consumption/heat/noise effects (AMD GPUs only)

    Thing with NVidia GPUs is that they are already tweaked and any lowering of voltage will result in lower performanace.

    This is useful for both - those who already own GPUs and for those who intend to buy new as there is lot of missinformations floating around.

    Gdemani - fact that AMD GPUs are overvolted (means they could have clocked them much higher on stock voltage) is actually opposite of what you claim.

    You could argue that they should have tested more and get better statistical values and set actual stock settings better, but thats irrelevant since you have more or less full control over GPUs and can tweak them as you wish.
    Oh dear...get your head out of your ***(how to say it politely, anyone?) and read that damn article ffs

    AMD cards NEED high voltages so they can keep their wafer yields, the chips wouldn't be stable otherwise. They use high voltage and power consumption to supplement the deficiency in technology. 

    Because you can go lower with voltage on already overvoltaged card does not make it any better card. Good business? Likely so.

    It is not how high you can OC that matters but how low you can go with your power consumption. Increasing power consumption is easy, keeping it low is the difficult stuff.



    Pointless debates about HW as always...
  • maple2maple2 Member UncommonPosts: 161
    Malabooga said:
    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msi-afterburner-undervolt-radeon-r9-fury,4425.html

    1. Fury is really more efficient than GTX980. And faster.

    2. Frequency has minimal effect on power consumption, major contributor is voltage.

    3. You should always undervolt your hardware as much as you can. Unfortunately, on NVidia GPUs undervolting means automatic lower performance. But CPUs (both brands) and AMD GPUs - just do it.

  • maple2maple2 Member UncommonPosts: 161
    edited February 2016
    [mod edit]? 230 vs 190? how is that more efficient? gtx 980 is far more powerful at a lower power con and far lower temps around 60-70 even some cards 55. not watercooled while fury regardless of cooler reaches almost 100 so forget it [mod edit]
    Amd is just bad to high power con and to high temps and buggy software.

    and no u should never undervolt as it makes your hardware unstable [mod edit]

    Malabooga said:
    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/msi-afterburner-undervolt-radeon-r9-fury,4425.html

    1. Fury is really more efficient than GTX980. And faster.

    2. Frequency has minimal effect on power consumption, major contributor is voltage.

    3. You should always undervolt your hardware as much as you can. Unfortunately, on NVidia GPUs undervolting means automatic lower performance. But CPUs (both brands) and AMD GPUs - just do it.








    Post edited by Vaross on
  • MalaboogaMalabooga Member UncommonPosts: 2,977
    edited February 2016
    Gdemami said:
    Malabooga said:
    To put it this way:

    not long ago there was discussion about this where certain people claimed that frequency is as important as voltage. While frequency certainly has some effect on power consumption its not relevant enough (when we speak about small changes like 5-10-15% increases). Its also notable that to get higher OC you will have to raise voltage, which will again be major contributor, while raising frequency without touching voltage will not result in very notable increase in power consumption.

    For scope of these forums you dont need theory at all since there is so many actual data/tests around that theory is superficial in this case. Even you can do your own tests.

    Effects of these are:

    You either want to raise frequency as much as you can without touching voltage for better performance and very small power consumption increase OR undervolt as much as you can without changing frequency for very notable power consumption/heat/noise effects (AMD GPUs only)

    Thing with NVidia GPUs is that they are already tweaked and any lowering of voltage will result in lower performanace.

    This is useful for both - those who already own GPUs and for those who intend to buy new as there is lot of missinformations floating around.

    Gdemani - fact that AMD GPUs are overvolted (means they could have clocked them much higher on stock voltage) is actually opposite of what you claim.

    You could argue that they should have tested more and get better statistical values and set actual stock settings better, but thats irrelevant since you have more or less full control over GPUs and can tweak them as you wish.
    Oh dear...get your head out of your ***(how to say it politely, anyone?) and read that damn article ffs

    AMD cards NEED high voltages so they can keep their wafer yields, the chips wouldn't be stable otherwise. They use high voltage and power consumption to supplement the deficiency in technology. 

    Because you can go lower with voltage on already overvoltaged card does not make it any better card. Good business? Likely so.

    It is not how high you can OC that matters but how low you can go with your power consumption. Increasing power consumption is easy, keeping it low is the difficult stuff.



    Pointless debates about HW as always...
    Lack of understanding as always.

    No, increasing power consumption isnt easy. In fact Its in hard locked. You can come back when you figure out why.

    And try not to contradict yourself in your posts because they dont make much sense that way. Just in this one posts you contradicted yourself 3 times. I get the picture how it could feel "pointless" to you.
    Post edited by Vaross on
  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,888
    edited February 2016
    Malabooga said:
    The article you linked says that GTX 980 is more efficient than Fury.
     
  • Thomas2006Thomas2006 Member RarePosts: 1,152
    I could care less what is more efficient to be honest. As long as it does the job and does the job really well then that is all that ultiamtely matters.

    As far as AMD and Nvidia goes. I will never go back to using a AMD graphics card ever. I have done so two times over the last 10 years (AMD/ATI) and between the crappy / buggy control panel software, piss poor crossfire support (frame stuttering) and lackluster performance of the hardware, I can honestly say nothing short of Nvidia going out of business would I ever switch back to AMD/ATI. Even then I would consider some 3rd option before switching back to AMD/ATI.
  • HulluckHulluck Member UncommonPosts: 839
    Bloodaxes said:
    It's not like your biased opinion on nvidia cards are the only good cards helps anyway.

    Unlike you, Quizzical gives a fair analogy from both sides.
    This right here. He's never pushed one thing over the other without reason.  Which was generally because of a persons budget.  His reasoning is often sound in builds. I trust him and he's helped me a few times. Even when I was like an old woman window shopping.

    I recall at one point a few years back he had like 3, 4, 5, or more  help me build threads a day. One by one he took the time to write out his thoughts and reasoning in detail. Ask and answer questions to each person in great detail. We all know how long and his posts can be. He did a lot for this forum and community. There are certainly others who are just as helpful that I trust as well, without question.  But Quizzical, I am sure it seemed like another job back when this section was really busy. That's been awhile ago. That to me is why he stands out.

    Not on his dick. He  did a lot for this community. It's not saying other people don't know just as much. The difference is he took the time to help people with sound unbiased advice.  Stuck to their budgets and even pointed them to other options that might suit their needs better.  HE TOOK THE TIME.  Then people who have done very little if anything for the community come in and try to shit on him for it?  Doesn't seem to bother him. Just funny.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,355
    The general rule of thumb is that power consumption is proportional to voltage squared times frequency.  Both matter.  The reason companies set voltages higher is that a higher voltage allows the chip to be stable at a higher frequency.  A lot of chips could reduce both and thus get something like 80% of the performance for 60% of the power.

    One of the problems with attempting to under-volt hardware is that vendors increasingly have the voltage change as the frequency does.  Intel and AMD have both done this in CPUs for a long time, and Nvidia does this with their "GPU boost".

    Another problem with undervolting is that if you undervolt the chip too far, you make it unstable.  How far you can go varies a lot by chip.  It also depends some on your temperature and power supply.  If decreasing my power consumption by 10% makes my computer crash once per hour, I'm not interested.

    Now, you usually can undervolt (or overclock) to some degree with pretty good stability, but there's a considerable question of how far you're willing to push it and how much risk you're willing to accept.  Vendors are usually pretty conservative about how they'll set voltages, as if 1% of the cards you send out are unstable because you set the voltage too low, you get a bad reputation--even if they would have been stable in a better cooled case with a better power supply.

    Still, unless you're willing to consider the Fury Nano as AMD's entry (which does reduce voltage more aggressively to bring power consumption down) and compare it to a pure desktop version for Nvidia, Nvidia Maxwell GPUs typically offer better energy efficiency in most games than AMD GCN cards.  The question isn't so much whether that's the case, but whether you should care.

    In a desktop, usually the answer to that is, not very much.  But if you do really, really care about energy efficiency, then the real solution is not to buy Nvidia today.  It's to wait a few more months for 14/16 nm GPUs to come out which will be massively more efficient than what you can get today, and then get one of those.  I'm not saying everyone should wait; if all you care about is price and performance, the next generation may take a while to beat the current on performance per dollar.  But if energy efficiency is the goal (e.g., if you're getting a laptop), the next generation is close enough that I'd wait.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,355
    Vrika said:
    Malabooga said:
    The article you linked says that GTX 980 is more efficient than Fury.
    Actually, it says that the undervolted Fury X uses somewhat more power than a stock GTX 980, but the Fury X is a much faster card, making it on net more efficient when undervolted.  Until it crashes because it was undervolted too far.
  • GdemamiGdemami Member EpicPosts: 12,342
    Quizzical said:
    Vrika said:
    Malabooga said:
    The article you linked says that GTX 980 is more efficient than Fury.
    Actually, it says that the undervolted Fury X uses somewhat more power than a stock GTX 980, but the Fury X is a much faster card, making it on net more efficient when undervolted.  Until it crashes because it was undervolted too far.
    Just priceless, quoted for future reference.
  • GdemamiGdemami Member EpicPosts: 12,342
    edited February 2016

    Hulluck said:
    Bloodaxes said:
    It's not like your biased opinion on nvidia cards are the only good cards helps anyway.

    Unlike you, Quizzical gives a fair analogy from both sides.
    This right here. He's never pushed one thing over the other without reason.  Which was generally because of a persons budget.  His reasoning is often sound in builds. I trust him and he's helped me a few times. Even when I was like an old woman window shopping.

    I recall at one point a few years back he had like 3, 4, 5, or more  help me build threads a day. One by one he took the time to write out his thoughts and reasoning in detail. Ask and answer questions to each person in great detail. We all know how long and his posts can be. He did a lot for this forum and community. There are certainly others who are just as helpful that I trust as well, without question.  But Quizzical, I am sure it seemed like another job back when this section was really busy. That's been awhile ago. That to me is why he stands out.

    Not on his dick. He  did a lot for this community. It's not saying other people don't know just as much. The difference is he took the time to help people with sound unbiased advice.  Stuck to their budgets and even pointed them to other options that might suit their needs better.  HE TOOK THE TIME.  Then people who have done very little if anything for the community come in and try to shit on him for it?  Doesn't seem to bother him. Just funny.
    That is a lot of bootlicking considering advices you received and praise are notoriously lacking any support in actual data and reason, ignoring evidence at face value and in the end very likely resulted in unoptimized builds and lost money.

    The proof being this very thread :D
  • BloodaxesBloodaxes Member EpicPosts: 4,662
    edited February 2016
    I wouldn't call it bootlicking, I'd call it a good reputation on his shoulders.

    Let's make a small comparison:

    We have a guy that helps people on a daily bases, always gentle, with tons of information and even to the point of searching for deals for people with nothing in return. Then we have people like you that always talk sarcastic, vague, mocking people, "LOLing" all posts that say anything that you don't agree with and something I noticed on a daily bases not really trying to help people but just trying to sound superior and thus trolling them.

    I don't know what Quizz has done to you that you have to always go after him and his opinions, but I'm sure most people on this forum would rather take his word than yours.

    Sorry if I sound harsh, but it's the truth.

  • GdemamiGdemami Member EpicPosts: 12,342
    edited February 2016
    Bloodaxes said:
    I don't know what Quizz has done to you that you have to always go after him and his opinions
    To me? Nothing, I do not let him talk into my builds :)

    And why I am "going after him"? Because he is dead wrong, in better case just off, most of the time...

    Just look above:

    1) There is no word in the article about Fury X
    2) He makes an argument that Fury X, that isn't even being the topic, is much faster than GTX 980 and that the speed difference will make up for power consumption difference.

    It does not bother him that Fury X also cost almost 50% more of GTX 980, completely uncomparable cards and silly argument he is making.

    3) The problem is that actual "undervoltaging" isn't as much undervoltaging nor as much actual power/heat saved, because for that he would need to read the article in the first place but he never reads nor provide anything...

    The list can go on and on...

    Yup, I am not nice and I could not care less but when I say something, you can bet it will be well founded, unlike when Quizzical is posting something.

    I am not here to compete with him or trying to persuade you about anything. It is up to you what information you pick up and how you process it. 
  • HulluckHulluck Member UncommonPosts: 839
    Gdemami said:

    Hulluck said:
    Bloodaxes said:
    It's not like your biased opinion on nvidia cards are the only good cards helps anyway.

    Unlike you, Quizzical gives a fair analogy from both sides.
    This right here. He's never pushed one thing over the other without reason.  Which was generally because of a persons budget.  His reasoning is often sound in builds. I trust him and he's helped me a few times. Even when I was like an old woman window shopping.

    I recall at one point a few years back he had like 3, 4, 5, or more  help me build threads a day. One by one he took the time to write out his thoughts and reasoning in detail. Ask and answer questions to each person in great detail. We all know how long and his posts can be. He did a lot for this forum and community. There are certainly others who are just as helpful that I trust as well, without question.  But Quizzical, I am sure it seemed like another job back when this section was really busy. That's been awhile ago. That to me is why he stands out.

    Not on his dick. He  did a lot for this community. It's not saying other people don't know just as much. The difference is he took the time to help people with sound unbiased advice.  Stuck to their budgets and even pointed them to other options that might suit their needs better.  HE TOOK THE TIME.  Then people who have done very little if anything for the community come in and try to shit on him for it?  Doesn't seem to bother him. Just funny.
    That is a lot of bootlicking considering advices you received and praise are notoriously lacking any support in actual data and reason, ignoring evidence at face value and in the end very likely resulted in unoptimized builds and lost money.

    The proof being this very thread :D
      You mostly troll.  I've literally seen you tell people to only get one stick of ram in a build.  I've seen you tell people to buy a lower quality I5 to save what $30 than the top one? I've seen you push an I3 over an AMD option even if it's likely worse. It's funny you are one of the ones who responded.   You want to know why no one follows your advice or thanks you? You definitely are knowledgeable but it's like you get a kick out of giving bad advice.  You got no room to talk about unoptimized builds. You intentionally tell people bad builds. INTENTIONALLY!
  • SirAgravaineSirAgravaine Member RarePosts: 520
    edited February 2016
    Gdemami said:
    Bloodaxes said:
    I don't know what Quizz has done to you that you have to always go after him and his opinions
    To me? Nothing, I do not let him talk into my builds :)

    And why I am "going after him"? Because he is dead wrong, in better case just off, most of the time...

    Just look above:

    1) There is no word in the article about Fury X
    2) He makes an argument that Fury X, that isn't even being the topic, is much faster than GTX 980 and that the speed difference will make up for power consumption difference.

    It does not bother him that Fury X also cost almost 50% more of GTX 980, completely uncomparable cards and silly argument he is making.

    3) The problem is that actual "undervoltaging" isn't as much undervoltaging nor as much actual power/heat saved, because for that he would need to read the article in the first place but he never reads nor provide anything...

    The list can go on and on...

    Yup, I am not nice and I could not care less but when I say something, you can bet it will be well founded, unlike when Quizzical is posting something.

    I am not here to compete with him or trying to persuade you about anything. It is up to you what information you pick up and how you process it. 
    Eh, if I'm not mistaken he meant Fury X as in the AMD architecture, not Sapphire's proprietary product which uses the R9 Series Fury X chipset.

    Also, when talking about power consumption, especially for a build the also requires performance you have to look at power consumption in relation to performance...that is a no-brainer.

    It is irrelevant as to whether or not someone is bothered by price-performance, when the article is talking about performance-power consumption ratio. This is a matter of priorities, and price is not exactly a factor in the discussion (yet).

    You seem like the type of person that tries to convince others by being the loudest person in the room. I would reconsider this strategy, especially because you seem to be motivated by a pseudo-innocuous attempt to persuade people, but you're kind of failing at it.
Sign In or Register to comment.