Power consumption is a big issue these days. A poor PSU can blow up under excessive load, taking an entire system with it. Or, a SFF PSU finds it can't handle the startup load with all that high-spec hardware it's powering. One of the big power consumers is the graphics card. X-Bit Labs have measured the power consumption of various nVidia and ATi cards.

Graphics cards on ATI’s GPUs generally require less power than their counterparts from NVIDIA’s line-up. However, I don’t think this difference is so great as to be of more importance at shopping than cost or speed factors. The only problem with graphics cards on new NVIDIA GPUs is their high load on the +12v power rail, which may be too much for your PSU.

On the other hand, top-end expensive graphics cards like NVIDIA GeForce 6800/GT/Ultra or ATI RADEON X800 XT/Pro are usually bought for a ragingly-fast gaming station where they won’t be the only power consumer. For example, modern top-end processors, even non-overclocked, have the same power consumption as those graphics cards or even higher. So, it is probable that your other system components will demand a new PSU earlier than the graphics card does.

Full story...


Source : X-Bit Labs