[mackswift Posted Jun 7th 2006 12:55PM]

Ah, finally, the comments have returned.

I went and read the various new articles pertaining to both ATI's Crossfire Physics solution and the Two Way-Dual Core CPU and Quad-GPU chipset solution.

While everyone argues the merits, pros, and cons of all this physics and oodles of core goodness, my question is this (no one asked this) -

Where in the world are we gonna get the power to get juice to all this stuff??!!

Given are current energy, oil, and fuel price issues; I'm suprised that no one thought enough to ask this question.

Power supplies are 850W and growing; we're almost to a KiloWatt of juice to power a desktop computer to play a video game or a movie to squeeze out the most possible frames or resolution! Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't this getting a little stupid??

[Matthew Boyd (Unverified) Posted Sep 27th 2006 5:47PM]

Well, for comparison...

5000 watts - Electric oven
5000 watts - Clothes dryer (electric)
3800 watts - Water heater (electric)
3500 watts - Central Air Conditioner (2.5 tons)
1500 watts - Microwave oven
1500 watts - Toaster (four-slot)
900 watts - Coffee maker
800 watts - Range burner
500-1440 watts - Window unit air conditioner

In the U.S., heating and AC consume far, far more energy overall than electrical appliances. In fact, the aveage home uses 44% of its energy just on space conditioning.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you want to play Half Life on your enormous rig for four hours, turn off your central AC for one hour.

Or, since one horsepower is 746 watts, plug your computer into a horse!