Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 SOC Super Overclock 1536MB Graphics Card Review

Power ConsumptionTo test power consumption, we monitor the overall power of the system through a plug-in electricity usage monitor at an idle and load state. This allows us to show the fluctuation between how much power draw the graphics card takes at idle and at load. By monitoring the overall usage of the whole system, it gives an easy comparison if you wish to do the same yourself as opposed to buying very expensive individual testing equipment.

Looking at a few of the single GPU cards from AMD including the top 6970 card from HIS, the GTX 580 SOC is pretty much on par based on the performance. Obviously some cards use a lot less power but also don’t have anywhere near the same potential in terms of performance.