Before we bring this article to a close, we'd like to cover a few final data points. Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we monitored how much power our test systems were 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 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 motherboards alone.
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Total System Power Consumption |
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Tested at the Outlet | |
Looking at these power consumption numbers, one thing is clear - if you're going to slap three or four GPUs into a single system, its going to sap some serious power. The dual ASUS EN9800GX2 powered quad-SLI rig consumed over 300 watts while idling at the Windows desktop (with Aero enabled) and over 550 watts when running with a full 3D rendering workload, which is about 40 and 135 more watts, respectively, than the GeFroce 8800 GTS 512 SLI configuration while idling and under load. Quad-SLI's power profile doesn't look so daunting next to CrossFireX, however. The Radeon-powered CrossFireX configurations consumed less power while idling, but under load the three GPU configurations consumption shot up to 511 watts, and the four GPU configuration to 648 watts.
