GPU power consumption question

[Vanguardas]

Let's say I'm AFK in a game. I turn off my monitor, but I leave my game running. The GPU should consume power close to its idle power consumption right? 

[be_x]

Just now, Vanguardas said:

Let's say I'm AFK in a game. I turn off my monitor, but I leave my game running. The GPU should consume power close to its idle power consumption right? 

Regardless if your screen is turned on or not, your gpu (usually a big power hog) and your cpu (also big power hog) are still rendering the game. So no it wouldnt really be any less than if the screen was on

[Godlygamer23]

The GPU does not power the monitor, and it still needs to render to the display even if it's not on, so power draw would remain the same.

[Mira Yurizaki]

4 minutes ago, Vanguardas said:

Let's say I'm AFK in a game. I turn off my monitor, but I leave my game running. The GPU should consume power close to its idle power consumption right? 

The GPU will be rendering the game regardless if the display is on or not.

 

If you want to save power by leaving the game on but going AFK, it may do so if you alt+tab out of it because it won't render as much.

[Princess Luna]

2 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

The GPU will be rendering the game regardless if the display is on or not.

 

If you want to save power by leaving the game on but going AFK, it may do so if you alt+tab out of it because it won't render as much.

some games like GTA V gives you the option to pause it completely when focus lost on their options too right?

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

some games like GTA V gives you the option to pause it completely when focus lost on their options too right?

Depending on what the game is doing, it may still run the GPU at full power.

 

A game I'm thinking of with the option I was talking about is Final Fantasy XIV, where if you Alt + Tab out, it'll render half or quarter of the frames.

[Princess Luna]

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

Depending on what the game is doing, it may still run the GPU at full power.

 

A game I'm thinking of with the option I was talking about is Final Fantasy XIV, where if you Alt + Tab out, it'll render half or quarter of the frames.

Oh I see, well I understand OP's struggle, it is a pain in the butt games that don't just allow you to save anytime, I would think nowadays that could already be "normal"... I was playing Bioshock Infinite the other day and it only has check point saves, bothers me that whenever I load the save files I get 20ish minutes back in gameplay and leaving it on seems like the only alternative in a sudden need to leave.

[Mira Yurizaki]

5 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Oh I see, well I understand OP's struggle, it is a pain in the butt games that don't just allow you to save anytime, I would think nowadays that could already be "normal"... I was playing Bioshock Infinite the other day and it only has check point saves, bothers me that whenever I load the save files I get 20ish minutes back in gameplay and leaving it on seems like the only alternative in a sudden need to leave.

Well, from a game play standpoint, saving any time, any where incredibly decreases the difficulty.

[mariushm]

There's no reliable way to detect if the monitor is on or off in the first place.

User may have a hdmi splitter or something sending the signal to multiple monitors in which case, the splitter won't report that a monitor was turned off or on.

User may have a big TV connected as second display (and mirror/clone of first display) and may turn off first display when they're playing on tv

 

etc

 

Some games lower their framerate to 25/30/60 fps when in menus, others go bonkers when in menus, going to maximum fps as they have very little to render in menus. Depends on the game.

 

AMD has some technology which detects that user is idling or the game is showing the same stuff over and over again with minor variations, and drops the fps to a lower value (60fps or something like that) in order to save power.  It's called Chill  (gaming > global wattman >Chill ) and right now it works only with whitelisted games (by AMD). See http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-radeon-chill-ocat-relive,4846.html

 

[Guest]

to lower power draw while afking, lock your fps to very low amounts(in minecraft i lock it to 5, the lowest it lets me)

[Vanguardas]

Thanks everyone! 

[Hiebly]

Turning off the monitor will only reduce the consumption used by the monitor (usually about 20-40W). Some games will cease rendering when tabbed out (as long as it is running in exclusive fullscreen mode and not windowed/borderless), so you can alt-tab while AFK.