Is the idle power of 130-160W typical for your setup (7950 X3D + X670-E + 7900 XT)?
Is the idle power of 130-160W typical for your setup (7950 X3D + X670-E + 7900 XT)?
I've assembled a fresh build and am pleased with its performance. However, I've observed it consuming a significant amount of power when idle—130W when nothing is on. Browsing or playing YouTube raises it to 160W. Compared to my previous Intel system that used 60-90W, this is quite high.
Could there be ways to lower the energy use? I've already enabled Windows Power Saver and turned off the built-in audio and iGPU. Usually, I wouldn't be concerned, but I spend long hours on Excel and browsing for 12 hours daily. In California, that would cost over $200 a year just for gaming tasks. At this rate, it might make sense to use a dedicated low-power PC for those activities, keeping the gaming PC solely for gaming.
CPU: AMD 7950 X3D
Motherboard: MSI X670-E Tomahawk Wifi
GPU: 7900 XT
RAM: 2x16GB G.Skill 6000 Mhz
Do you have several monitors? A frequent issue with the 7000 series GPUs is that they remain boosted even when multiple displays are connected. It might be wiser to switch the iGPU off and use as many monitors as possible, allowing your discrete GPU to operate on a single screen.
Ryzen CPUs also require maintaining at least two chiplets active continuously, including the I/O die and a CCD, which significantly increases idle power consumption compared to Intel's monolithic designs.
The number of fans, pumps, and drives also plays a role in determining what is considered normal usage.
Another way to save power is by using a 220V outlet for your desktop. Higher voltage improves PSU efficiency. You could also consider a PSU rated for 80+ Titanium to achieve further savings.
It resembles my 7950X setup, yet I have 64GB RAM, three M.2 NVMe drives, one SATA SSD, five hard disks, and an RTX 3060. Once the process is complete, I'll check the idle power usage during a nine-hour video conversion. I'm charged about $0.37 per kWhr for a 240V AC 50Hz connection. It's unclear if this rate is higher or lower than California's electricity costs. My previous system was an old Pentium G3258 dual-core machine used in the morning for browsing, which consumed much less power. You might find an affordable old Dell or HP office PC with minimal cost. I purchased a compact Dell unit with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse for $25. A low-power NUC would be quicker and use even less energy, though it would be more expensive.
I have several monitors and I’m planning to test the iGPU option—especially since I usually play on just one screen. Would you know whether to keep hybrid graphics enabled or turned off for this setup?
Yes, I understand the chiplet architecture now. It looks like most of the performance comes from the motherboard. The CPU draws around 15-20W, the package is at 50W, and the GPU uses about 33-45W.
The cooling system was reused from my previous build, and it’s already fairly passive when idle. I’m going to remove a few SSDs to see how that affects things.
Unfortunately, I don’t have access to a 220V power source—I rent one. I’m using an 80+ Gold PSU, and the estimates suggest I’d only save about 5W ($7–20 per year) for a system costing over $200.
Hybrid should be turned off, you just need the iGPU to function alone.
I'll be glad of that. If yours is lower, there might be a motherboard board setting I can experiment with.
Currently, I'm paying roughly the same per kWhr. I already have an old Dell SSF running as a proxmox server next to me, and it's idling at 10-20W. I could end up getting another one at this rate.
That's a common challenge for many people. The expense of getting it done professionally probably won't be covered again. I've considered handling it at home, but it would require a lot of effort. A secondary system is my usual approach. I'm using an i3-12100F and an Intel A380—though if I really needed to save money, I could just use a CPU with the integrated GPU instead. Maybe next time.
For those curious about what matters,
I experimented and checked how various configurations influence power use:
Setting
Idle power consumption (W)
Video Player power consumption (W)
EXPO on
+5
+25
Global C State
Negligible
Negligible
PBO
Negligible
Negligible
iGPU / dGPU port
Negligible
Negligible
Hybrid Graphics
Negligible
Negligible
iGPU enable
Negligible
Negligible
HD Audio Enable
Negligible
+5
That was mostly just minor adjustments. The key factor was adjusting graphics settings and instructing Windows to use the iGPU for Chrome or videos, which saved 15W without affecting performance much. I’d recommend moving any non-gaming tasks to the iGPU if possible.
Unfortunately it seems this is the default setup. I might consider a DisplayLink Adapter so everything runs smoothly on my laptop outside of gaming.
I've just powered on the 7950X and allowed it to stabilize. It's currently drawing around 138W while the web browser is active. The peak during startup reached 250W briefly when the Windows desktop loaded.
I own five hard drives—two WD Purple 4TB, one WD Purple 6TB, two Toshiba 8TB, three 1TB M.2 NVMe cards, a single SATA SSD, and a Blu-ray drive—plus an RTX 3060 graphics card. The two 8TB Toshiba models are idle at 5.6W each, the two WD 6TB drives run at 4.9W each, and the one WD 4TB also operates at 4.3W, totaling roughly 25W for the drives alone.
If I add a few watts to two of the three M.2 NVMe cards, we could likely reduce the overall consumption by about 30W from the 138W baseline. That would bring the idle power down to around 100W, assuming all other components stay unchanged. A small amount would go to the optical drive and a bit more to the SATA SSD.
It seems your more powerful 7900XT model is likely responsible for the higher usage of the system. The CPUID report from HWMonitor lists the RTX3060's idle draw as 13.3W for GPU, 6.78W for power supply, 2.02W for PCIe 12V, and 11.93W for the 8-pin #0 connector. These numbers might overlap a bit, especially when running video transcodes—sometimes the GPU hits 170W. During intensive tasks, the iGPU can spike to around 45W.
If you're willing to temporarily remove the 7900XT, you should notice a noticeable drop of 30W or more. My 3600 model is already deep inside the case with an NH-D15, making it hard to access the front release slot.
You might end up settling for 130 to 160W when idle, especially if you invest in solar panels, batteries, and inverters—something some neighbors have done.
Addendum: I just began a new video transcoding session. The PC's power draw has risen to 399W over the next eight hours.