GPU consumes electricity when idle?

[shinkairi]

Hey guys,

Does the GPU, when idle pump electricity from wall or only when active (playing games for example)?

Also, when active, does it take more from plug the harder it works or it always takes the same amount of energy?

Thanks!

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Yes they still use a small amount of power at idle, its much less than when under load though.

Heres a good example of the amount of power different types of cards use under different loads.

MSI Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio Review

The MSI Radeon RX 6800 XT Gaming X Trio has the best cooler out of all RX 6800 XT cards we've reviewed so far. With just 67°C, this triple-slot, triple-fan design runs extremely cool, yet stays very quiet at the same time. As expected, idle fan stop is included, too.

www.techpowerup.com

 

[Lutfij]

It draws power on both occasions(idle and load) but the degree of power drawn vastly varies between the two. If the GPU is pulling the same amount of power in idle as does when in load, then the drivers are either not installed or they're corrupt.

The GPU will only pull power from the PSU as is needed but it has a ceiling as to how much it can draw. Also, the power you see used is by the entire system, not just the GPU.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

No personal experience with mining. Assuming youre mining Ether I found a quick reference on Reddit saying that sometimes GPU usage doesnt appear in task manager with some mining software even though its working. Did you check in any 3rd party monitoring software like GPUZ or HWINFO?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Nice , I still recommend you check with GPUZ considering I just repeated somethign I read on Reddit to you

But I imagine if you are getting the same hashrate as others with the same GPU and the fans are spinning up its probably working.