GTX970 or R9 390 for running Dolphin?

[AnyOldName3]

(12-22-2015, 06:49 PM)sulblazer Wrote: I typically stick with Nvidia for no other reason than because I leave my computers on 24/7.  The TDP for Nvidia cards tend to be lower...and over a course of a year, that could $100-$150 dollars difference in electric bill.  Probably wouldn't matter which card you get for dolphin if you turn your PCs off when not being used.

Ignoring the fact that a computer being on all the time doesn't imply that it's under full load all the time, I'm going to calculate exactly what the cost in power is for each card over a year, as that figure looks very, very high to me.

There are 24*365 = 8760 hours in a year. The R9 390 has a TDP (absolute maximum power under worst-case conditions) of 275 W, and the GTX 970 of 148 W, so the 390 can't use more than 2,409 kWh in a year, and the 970, 1,296.5 kWh. I found a figure saying electricity in the US costs on average 12¢ per kWh, so, based on this figure, the 390 would cost at most $289.08, and the 970, $155.58. This gives a difference of $133.50, which is pretty consistent with the original figure.

Remember that this is only applicable in the (extremely unlikely) case that the system is under full load at all times. An hour a day, which I'd say was still reasonably larger than what I'd expect, would be more like $6.