Does a graphics card use electricity if it's installed but not being used?

Question

I unattached my monitors from my PCI-E video card and attached them to the onboard video card. I'm not using the PCI-E card anymore. Is it using any electricity? Should I uninstall it? Will I save money if I remove it from my system?

Answer 1

Yes, it does use electricity (if it were not, then it wouldn't be detected by whatever OS you are running). Have a look at this idle power consumption graph (similar figures here). Your numbers for the listed cards most likely will be smaller, as you do not even have a monitor plugged into the card - but power consumption will not be zero.

To convert Watts into $/year, you may want to read http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-radeon-power,2122-3.html

In the extreme case of a voltage spike all the electrically connected components of your PC are at risk of being damaged by that spike. Taking graphics card out will keep it safe (but do not forget that computer components are sensitive to static electricity).

Answer 2

Keep some basic math in mind when figuring out what it is costing you.

Power is billed in kilowatt hours used. At it's most expensive power costs about $0.40 per kilowatt hours. If your computer has a 700w power supply it uses up to .7 kilowatts per hour. That's 16.8 kilowatt hours per day. At $0.40 per hour that's $6.72 per day for the entire computer.

An inactive video card can't use any more than about 10 watts of power (assuming a 5 watt PCIx buss and a second 5 watt power connector). That's 240 watt hours per day, or just under 1 kilowatt hour per 4 days. This is $0.40 every four days or $3.10 per month.

Answer 3

They usually have a fan on them. That is using electricity, but probably not much. Even if it is using electricity, it wont be much. I would just leave it in there.

Answer 4

Yes, the GPU and associated circuitry will draw an idle load and the fan will draw a small amount power, but this is unlikely to be significant. In any case, if the card is not being used, you should remove it from the computer.