Question for the gearheads --- Power consumption

Hi folks, due to a recent GPU upgrade for my xp gaming machine, I have a spare Radeon 9800 Pro (128MB, AGP) that's gathering dust, so I was thinking of putting it into my main Linux machine. However my main concern with the Linux box is both low noise and low power consumption as it's running 24x7. Hardly any 3d stuff is done on it, maybe a game of TuxRacer by little Hannah once in a while, a bit of flightgear and trying to wrap my mind around the Monster That Is Blender every couple of weeks. Question: Does anybody now how much more power the Radeon consumes while idling away in the box, compared to a GeForce 2 MX that's currently in there? Will it produce enough heat so that its fan will be constantly on, adding to the total noise output of the machine? It's probably a bit off topic, but I was unable to find anything in the techspecs on the ATI site. Thanks in advance for your help, Uwe -- GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

> Question: Does anybody now how much more power the Radeon consumes while > idling away in the box, compared to a GeForce 2 MX that's currently in > there? Try Tom's Hardware Guide to see if there's an article there. http://www.tomshardware.com I have a system with a P4EE3.4GHZ cpu, Radeon X850XTPE, and 5 hard drives, and it ends up quieter if I leave the side door off to keep the system cooler.

"Uwe Sch�rkamp" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Hi folks, > > due to a recent GPU upgrade for my xp gaming machine, I have a spare > Radeon 9800 Pro (128MB, AGP) that's gathering dust, so I was thinking of > putting it into my main Linux machine. However my main concern with the > Linux box is both low noise and low power consumption as it's running > 24x7. Hardly any 3d stuff is done on it, maybe a game of TuxRacer by > little Hannah once in a while, a bit of flightgear and trying to wrap my > mind around the Monster That Is Blender every couple of weeks. > > Question: Does anybody now how much more power the Radeon consumes while > idling away in the box, compared to a GeForce 2 MX that's currently in > there? Will it produce enough heat so that its fan will be constantly > on, adding to the total noise output of the machine? > > It's probably a bit off topic, but I was unable to find anything in the > techspecs on the ATI site. > > Thanks in advance for your help, > > Uwe

If you want total silence (and have some euro's to spare...) check out http://www.hushtechnologies.com/. I have two of their Mini-ITX's (the current model name is B1) running in my living room, one runs winxp for game serving and the other runs linux to serve as router with advanced quality of service. Bart

On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:24:16 +0100, Bart Westra wrote: > > If you want total silence (and have some euro's to spare...) check out > http://www.hushtechnologies.com/. I have two of their Mini-ITX's (the current > model name is B1) running in my living room, one runs winxp for game serving > and the other runs linux to serve as router with advanced quality of service. Hi Bart, thanks for the link! Total silence isn't a necessity, and I recently invested some euros into a nice black miditower which lots of room for airflow (I have my DVB-C card in there too which creates quite a bit of heat) and quiet cooling fans, too. My main concern is the additional power consumption of the Radeon compared to the GF2, and wether the cooler will ever stop again after a game of tuxracer ;) These cases / systems sure look nice, though. Cheers, uwe -- GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

Uwe Schürkamp wrote:

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> Hi folks, > > due to a recent GPU upgrade for my xp gaming machine, I have a spare > Radeon 9800 Pro (128MB, AGP) that's gathering dust, so I was thinking of > putting it into my main Linux machine. However my main concern with the > Linux box is both low noise and low power consumption as it's running > 24x7. Hardly any 3d stuff is done on it, maybe a game of TuxRacer by > little Hannah once in a while, a bit of flightgear and trying to wrap my > mind around the Monster That Is Blender every couple of weeks. > > Question: Does anybody now how much more power the Radeon consumes while > idling away in the box, compared to a GeForce 2 MX that's currently in > there? Will it produce enough heat so that its fan will be constantly > on, adding to the total noise output of the machine? > > It's probably a bit off topic, but I was unable to find anything in the > techspecs on the ATI site. > > Thanks in advance for your help, > > Uwe > >

Hi Uwe, The major problem you may have with it in a linux box is getting the ATI drivers installed. I have an X850 PCI-E and dual boot SUSE 10 and can not for the life of me get the ATI drivers installed (and working). ATI at this point is not as linux friendly as Nvidia is. The card works fine in 2d apps. Ed

On Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:58:43 GMT, Ed Medlin wrote:

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> Hi Uwe, > > The major problem you may have with it in a linux box is getting the ATI > drivers installed. I have an X850 PCI-E and dual boot SUSE 10 and can not > for the life of me get the ATI drivers installed (and working). ATI at this > point is not as linux friendly as Nvidia is. The card works fine in 2d > apps. > > Ed

Hi Ed, thanks for your reply. The Radeon 9800 seems well supported with Gentoo Linux, who knows, maybe following URL might be helpful even for a Suse user: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_ATI_Drivers Thing is, before I start hacking away, I'd like to know how much more power the 9800 will suck up. If I had one of these metering thingies that measure pc power throughput, I'd be probably be hacking already ;) Cheers & bye for now, uwe -- GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

Don't know about power consumption, but Zalman has fanless coolers that will at least take care of the noise issue: http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=138&code=013 HTH, Kendt

Uwe, for the power consumption of a 9800 pro in idle have a look at this (German) hardwaresite: http://www.hardwareluxx.de/cms/artikel.php?action=show&id=159&seite=3 They´re comparing the power consumption of complete testsystem there but you will get a good impression of the different gfx cards at this site. Looks like the 9800 pro doesn´t do too well in idle mode though! ;) Frank

On 31 Dec 2005 11:18:04 -0800, Frank Steinbach wrote:

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> Uwe, for the power consumption of a 9800 pro in idle have a look at > this (German) hardwaresite: > http://www.hardwareluxx.de/cms/artikel.php?action=show&id=159&seite=3 > Theyï¿œre comparing the power consumption of complete testsystem there > but you will get a good impression of the different gfx cards at this > site. > Looks like the 9800 pro doesnï¿œt do too well in idle mode though! ;) >

Thanks for the link, Frank. I have decided to stick with the Geforce2 for now after reading the article. A tuxracer session every couple of weeks just doesn't justify the extra waste of energy for the 9800 pro. Too bad about the DVI out, though 8-P All the best, Uwe -- GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61