Uhm, every bit of power helps, especially with $500+ cards. Furthermore, *personally*, the reason why I'd care about this isn't power: it's noise. I tend to be a fanatic of low-noise systems (not strictly fanless, but damn near).

The problem is that high-end GPUs would make massively more noise at idle than the rest of my system at load. So HybridPower clearly solves that problem and makes it much more appealing (plus, 8800GTX in a hot room in the summer doesn't really help make it any cooler).

Yeah, the 780Gs could do it I think, although you'd need to add some circuitry to the GPU's PCB (which is why some G92 SKUs and G94 don't support HybridPower) so none of their current products would benefit most likely. As for the 790FX, obviously it doesn't have an integrated GPU so that doesn't work. I think the best short-term strategy for AMD to counter this might be to completely disable all but one of the GPUs in CrossFire at idle. I'm not completely sure that'd be doable on current SKUs, but it'd be a nice step in the right direction if so.

Considering I'm running a high end SLI setup. And a 780A with a Phenom atm. The difference in room tempature after an hour of browsing the web is astronomical. This feature alone was enough to make me give up Intel until theres intel support.

My room in the summer can be absolutely unbearable. And just upping the AC isnt a viable alternative. My room tempature goes down about 5C during web browsing/chatting using this feature. And even further down with CnQ enabled.

And its dead silent with a good CPU HSF. Silence has never been something I've been able to brag about on an SLI system till now. Now only hear the fans when gaming.

Chris

Hmm.. it would be reasonable on a noise perspective, but not power, considering the savings HP brings are partially countered by the 780a chipset still taking more power at the end. Discrete enhanced air cooling is still cheaper, works for both idle + load, and for single cards, definitely preferred. For multi-card this is a very interesting prospect indeed, but I'll be okay with my 19 inch monitor for another 5 years.Post RV630 everything's been throttled pretty heavy so I don't think heat's a really big issue here (nVidia should definitely go for even lower clock domains than the current 2D, and there are some people that have pretty satisfying results with G80s)Plus, since it's done through the SMBus, it really shouldn't be that hard. I'm guessing some stuff needs to be changed on the PCB, but this solution has existed for quite some time, if I remember circa-G965 + discrete.Any idea when Intel systems would be getting a MCP that does the same? So far no more numbers to use, lest 795i. :grin:

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that HybridPower is limited to 780a motherboards, the GF8200/8300 look quite interesting for several applications.There's no real excuse for a reasonably configured PC to pull more than 30W DC at idle if its configured properly. That sort of power output can be dealt with with just the fan in the power supply. These levels aren't hard to achieve with an IGP-only setup, but an add-in graphics card of any stature will blow you right out of the water. Hopefully HybridPower will change that situation.

Depends what review you look at: http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/NVIDIA_nForce_780a_SLI_Motherboard_RoundUp_Asus_MSI/?page=13

Now obviously their 790FX takes substantially more power than most as they point out. But what's interesting is to look at their Asus M3N-HT vs MSI K9N2 Diamond numbers, and consider that means the idle numbers at The Tech Report should go down by 6W with the MSI. That's still higher, but already more reasonable.

Furthermore, one of the big problems in terms of power consumption is the bridge chip for PCI Express which takes a fair bit of power, so I suspect the 750a will be very competitive power-wise, just like the 8200 is very competitive too against the 780G according to Anandtech (the 750a is really just a 8200 with 2x8 PCI Express instead of 1x16). In a direct comparison with the 790GX (which apparently is also only 2x8), the 750a should be competitive.

I really don't think we have the same standards in terms of noise. My current PC only has 2 fans, one from my PSU which is a Corsair VX450, 21dBA according to Silent PC Review at all wattages

It's more than disppointing that it only works with high end cards. People with midrange or lower arguably do less gaming than people with enthusiat class cards. So the energy savings for them would still be substantial considering how much their discrete graphics card is at idle.

Regards,
SB

Well yeah, it obviously doesn't make a lot of sense with say, G86/G98, but the 9500GT/9600GT part of the market might clearly benefit. In the laptop market, I'm sure they'll support it for a lot more SKUs though.

There would still be a fairly significant savings with g86/g98. Granted the savings isn't as dramatic as a midrange/enthusiast class card. But even if they only drew 30-50 watts of power, that's still a fair chunk of electricity.

Regards,
Croaker

PS - If you couldn't tell I'm the type that pathologically goes around the house turning off lights noone is using. :P

Does Hybridpower work with Windows XP ? I know ATI`s pendant doesnt :cry:

I`d think it should be possible to agree on a vendor-neutral way to pass the framebuffer between GPUs / IGPs. Would be one step towards my dream off having Hybridpower working with a NV GPU, ATI IGP and Windows XP

@Arun: nice setup.. pretty much in the same boat. The only thing audible are the "suspension mounted" harddrives in my Antec Solo :grin:

No it does not work with Windows XP.Chris