Any low powered Nvidia cards?

[valnar]

After looking at the xbitlabs charts, it appears there is no Nvidia based offering that is low powered when the computer is idle. I only occasionally play a video game, but I do leave my PC on 24/7. My last several video cards were all ATI (and it's coming back to me why!), but I wanted to try something different for a change.

Are there any low-powered Nvidia card out there, where performance is actually decent?

[jessekopelman]

You need to qualify what you mean by "low" power and "decent" performance. The lowest draws for any current generation graphics card seem to be in the 10-15W range. Almost everything but with lowest-end of the current cards will play any game at a decent frame-rate at 1024X768 resolution and medium settings. It's when you need higher resolutions and/or settings that things get trickier.

[valnar]

As much as I wanted to try an nvidia card, I couldn't pass up the 8.7 watt idle power of a 4670. I just bought one of those instead. If the nvidia 9600GT used less power at idle, it would have been a good choice, but oh well.

[Shamgar]

The lowest power discrete Nvidia card currently is probably the GeForce 8400 GS, however, this is largely a discontinued line. It idles at between 10-15W. Not the best, especially when compared to ATI's recent offerings like the Radeon HD 4670 you just bought which performs much better in just about everything. Granted, not a fair comparison, but even one that is--being the HD 4350,--would prove the same.

I know what you mean by wanting to try something different; I've been using ATI for years with overall good results. I've been wanting to try Nvidia to see the difference for myself. Apart from the curiosity factor, I don't see a worthwhile reason to join the other team when the one you are on is doing okay and ranked at or near the top of the table.

[valnar]

Agreed.

Thanks.