Stress Test Power Consumption

Since the power targets and voltages are well above where they were on the older models, it’s to be expected these cards post much higher consumption results than their predecessors under extreme conditions. Still, we were surprised by just how much power they drew according to our measurements.

MSI R9 390X Gaming 8G

Registering 368W, we left the reasonable range far behind. A whopping 53W more than our comparable reference graphics card with a hybrid cooler running at the same clock rate is just too much. It’s surprising that MSI’s cooler is still effective, even though it does get pretty loud in this scenario. The trend we saw for a gaming load continues here.

Minimum Maximum Average PCI-E Total 58.56 W 421.20 W 324.78 W Mainboard 3.3V 1.65 W 3.30 W 2.53 W Mainboard 12V 30.24 W 52.00 W 41.00 W VGA Card Total 93.76 W 468.04 W 368.32 W

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MSI R9 380X Gaming 2G

The R9 380 Gaming 2G comes in at 234W, which is 33W more than a comparable R9 285. That previous-gen board’s lower clock frequency isn’t low enough for this magnitude of difference in wattage. The 380’s GPU is simply pushed too hard and too far.

Minimum Maximum Average PCI-E Total: 65.52 W 218.40 W 173.19 W Mainboard 3.3V: 0.00 W 0.99 W 0.30 W Mainboard 12V: 36.60 W 75.60 W 60.78 W VGA Card Total: 106.50 W 294.46 W 234.27 W

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MSI R7 370 Gaming 2G

With age comes wisdom, apparently. The small Pitcairn-based graphics card manages to stay significantly under 150W. It’s nice that at least one of AMD’s new products leaves us with a positive impression.

Minimum Maximum Average PCI-E Total 19.52 W 85.68 W 67.91 W Mainboard 3.3V 2.64 W 3.96 W 3.31 W Mainboard 12V 17.08 W 93.80 W 76.13 W VGA Card Total 43.62 W 176.84 W 147.36 W

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