PowerColor Liquid Cooled Radeon HD 4890 LCS
Power Consumption and Noise
We'd like to cover a few final data points before bringing this article to a close. 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 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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PowerColor's LCS consumed the least amount of power under load, beating the Zotac Infinity GTX 285 by 32 watts. But in an idle state, the 285 actually sipped less juice from the socket by using 280 watts compared to the 4890's 316 watts.
Since this is a watercooled videocard, noise is a non-factor. The absence of high RPM fans on the card makes it an appealing choice to those who seek silence. Of course, fans are normally placed on the radiator within the liquid cooling loop but these tend to be large, quiet, low speed models.
