NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 Debut: ZOTAC, EVGA
Total System Power Consumption
Before bringing this article to a close, we'd like to cover a few final data points--namely power consumption and noise. Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we monitored how much power our test system was consuming using a power meter. Our goal was to give you all an idea as to how much power each configuration used while idling and while under a heavy workload. Please keep in mind that we were testing total system power consumption at the outlet here, not just the power being drawn by the graphics cards alone.
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The new GeForce GTX 460 cards put up relatively good power consumption numbers. While idling, the cards were amongst the most power friendly, consuming about the same power as the Radoen HD 5830. Under load, the GeForce GTX 460s consumed somewhat more power than the Radeon HD 5830, but a bit less than the 5850--which is in-line with their performance.
As you probably expect looking at the relatively manageable power consumption scores here, the GeForce GTX 460 runs relatively cool and quiet. In fact, throughout testing, the cooling fans on the GeForce GTX 460 cards we tested never spun up to levels taht were audible over the rest of our system components. If you're looking for an affordable, relatively quiete DX11-class graphics card, the GeForce GTX 460 should fit the bill.
