Under full load, a 7600GT consumes 37W while a 6800ULTRA consumes 75W. Which of these two cards is faster? The 7600GT or 6800ULTRA? A 8800GTS consumes 110W but is of course a lot faster than the 7600GT. Do you think that when a next Geforce series comes (9), that the 9600## could be faster than an 8800GTS or 8800GTX, and consume also something less than 50W power?

Quote:Original post by Michalson
The 7600GT is somewhat faster, but then you've completely ignored the 7900GT, which consumes 48w at peak and 22w at idle (the 7600GT is 35w/14w), and obviously outperforms both by a good margin as it isn't designed as a budget card like the 7600 series. However if you are also looking at noise, keep in mind that the 7600GT and 7900GT have small, and thus higher pitched fans, though both are available in fanless configurations (look to Asus for the special 7900GT fanless model, which has a funky rotatable heatpipe/sink thing on top)

My 7600GT is passively cooled with heatpipes and a huge block of aluminium right in the airflow of the case (the Asus card with the rotatable heatpipe/sink indeed, but then the 7600GT version) :)

The reason that I asked about the future cards however is this:

I bought a mid-segment card on purpose with the reasoning: it's better to buy a cheaper card every 2 years, than to buy an expensive card every 4 years. Both for the price and the power consumption. I think the 7600GT will perfectly last for 2 years.

I am drooling at the 8800GTX however, and I'm wondering if there ever will be a card for desktop PCs that is as good but has much smaller power consumption.

I'm sure there will be a card with performance/features similar to 8800GTX, but at less than quarter the power. It may take three to five years, though.