On Wed, 26 Dec 2007 23:51:19 GMT, Robert Redelmeier
<redelm@ev1.net.invalid> wrote:

>In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips kony <spam@spam.com> wrote in part:
>> Even a low end 25W video card is easily double the performance
>> of integrated video. Yes a high powered gaming video card can
>> consume 75W, but remember that even those that consume a lot,
>> consume significantly less when not gaming.
>
>Sure, but remember these numbers are for the card alone, and
>have to be multiplied by a factor reflecting the PSU inefficiency.

True, but if we're going to be THAT technically correct,
anyone using a faster system will get their work done sooner
and turn off the system sooner, leave the room sooner
turning off the lights sooner, etc.


>
>It may be that a low end vidcard has better video performance
>than integrated graphics. That might matter for gaming and
>3D activities where the GPU functions shine. But it makes no
>detectable difference at 2D like desktop or websurfing.

It doesn't have to. All it has to do is be such a small
difference in power consumption that it is a bad place to
focus. However modern generation cards do make a difference
in video decoding, offloading as much of the power used by
the CPU as they use themselves, if a lower end card is
chosen.


>
>I used to be very concerned about integrated graphics spoiling
>desktop performance by stealing bandwidth. Then I tested my
>new Xmas present: 2.44 GB/s increases to 2.50 with a separate
>vidcard. Round-trip latency goes from 82 to 81ns. I'm very
>underwhelmed and doubt I'll buy a vidcard for it.

I'm not trying to pimp video cards, just saying that taking
the great modern advances in PCs and castrating the whole
thing one piece at a time is kinda wasteful, we might as
well have just kept an older system because if we had, there
wouldn't be the higher numbers for power consumption being
listed.

So it goes for other parts as well, that each one could be
discounted if we only limited our uses to those which didn't
need more performance, but that's a bit counter to the idea
of a PC, it's strength being it's versatility.