Power Consumption & Temperatures

The ASUS GeForce 9800 GX2 consumes 24% more power at idle when compared to the Radeon HD 3870 X2, but it was also slightly more conservative than the GeForce 8800 GT SLI configuration. When testing with Crysis (that means LOAD) the GeForce 9800 GX2 used 3% more power than the Radeon HD 3870 X2, which rates as OK in our book.

The operating temperature of the GeForce 9800 GX2 was quite high and although the stress temp of 74 degrees does seem reasonable when compared to the GeForce 8800 GT and Radeon HD 3870 graphics cards, keep in mind that it runs almost constantly at this temperature. The GeForce 9800 GX2 is certainly going to bake a few cases!