Graphics Cards Power Consumption
Published: (last update )
Real power consumption of various video cards in one article.
Introduction
This article is something different than the usual performance tests. Actual power consumption is mostly unknown teritory when it comes to early graphic cards.
Last year, I discovered this thread at Vogons forum. This great device designed by TeHSiGGi can do everything I need. AGP Power Monitor is compatible with all AGP cards - only limited by the motherboard used.
The great thing is this device is completely open-source. Therefore I decided to build one. The PCBs turned out great and assembly was reasonably easy as well. I only made a mistake by ordering wrong version of the processor with 32 kB instead of 64 kB flash memory. Unfortunate, but I managed to cut some non-essential parts of the program to fit smaller memory. :)
AGP Power Monitor measures voltage and current at all AGP slot rails (12V, 5V, 3.3V, VDDQ), as well as external power connectors. You can find more detailed info here at TeHSiGGi's Github page https://github.com/TeHSiGGi/agp-power-monitor/tree/main
Hopefully, this article will be updated in the future by adding more cards. Right now (April 2026) only the first part is ready. I took most of my graphics cards from the beggining of the AGP era and up to first DirectX 8 parts. Later AGP cards should definutely show up one day. Eventually I would like to measure PCI and PCI-E graphics too - if I can find (or design) appropriate device for these buses.