yesterday I wen't out an bought a watt meter cause I was curious as well as a few other members here how much power usage the AMD R9 270 (Non x) really pulled.
 
PSU is a Coolermaster Silent Pro Gold 1000w 80+ with a 92% efficency.
 
This is with my system idle with everything at 0% load. 2500K chip in power save mode at 1.6Ghz, single hardrive, no dvd drive, 2 sticks of ram, 5 case fans, single R9 270 (non x) in idle mode.
 
57.9 watts from the wall
 

 
This is with my AMD R9 270 at 100% load mining overclocked from 955 core / 1400 memory to 1125 core / 1500 memory, power tune at 0%
2500K is still in idle mode
 
211 watt from the wall.
 

 
so thats 153.1 watts that The AMD R9 270 (non x) alone is pulling just like I expected (75w from the PCI-E slot, 75 watt from the single 6 pin plug)
 
and thats with the card pulling 475 - 480 KH/s so it's an extremely effeicent card for mining on if anyone here is wanting to run several of them together.
 
DO NOT GET THE 270X version, it has 2 x 6 pin and will take more power usage for the same hashrate that the Non X version does when overclocked.
 
edit: The Gigabyte version of the R9 270 (non x) is 2 x 6 pin as well, so avoid that one too.
 
I recommend the MSI R9 270 or Saphire R9 270, both of them are single 6 pin.
 

 
Thanks for doing that. It should help some people understand about the wattage.       =)

I just did a power usage comparison on my GTX 570 on a older Core 2 Duo E2160 system with a Antec 750w Bronze PSU, and it was pulling 131w when idle, and 340w when at load, This a great example of why running more effecienct PSU's and components will greatly save on the power bill. It's a good thing I won't be mining on this computer soon, working on getting the funds for my second amd card now and it wiill eventually replace this.
 

 

What PSU do you have though? The thing you forgot to factor in I believe is PSU efficiency. It's quite possible the card is pulling more like 135W, while the other ~18W is lost through PSU efficiency. Not sure if you can get an exact figure on the efficiency though, but I'd say 10-15% is lost due to inefficiency of the PSU.
 
Either way, it's still very interesting. 

Instead of spending more money on watts, I can spend more money on efficiency :) Two cards should easily use less than 400watts while mining.

killerkanadian
Instead of spending more money on watts, I can spend more money on efficiency :) Two cards should easily use less than 400watts while mining.

Yep still working on getting my second card I will have it soon, 2 of them together will only be 350w from the wall.
 

BF3PRO
Where'd you buy the watt meter? How much?

 
they are on amazon for $20
 
http://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4400-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU

One thing I want to point out with these kill a watt meters guys, use them for short testing purposes only, I seen reports of them going out or only lasting a limited number of weaks so don't leave them on the computers 24/7.

Hockyman

_Nite_
One thing I want to point out with these kill a watt meters guys, use them for short testing purposes only, I seen reports of them going out or only lasting a limited number of weaks so don't leave them on the computers 24/7.

Yeah I had one fry my system somehow. My meter looks burned and still works but I don't trust it. It maybe was my fault it died but I do not know.

how much power was the system pulling? I seen these meters get fried with Air Conditioners but not computers.

ahh it was 2 high power usage computers, that explains it, Yea anything over 1000w I would not use these meters on just to play it safe.
 
should have just tested 1 computer at a time.

Got my collection of Sapphire Dual-x's coming, paired with EVGA's 500w Bronze PSUs. Yes I know I was being a little cheap but my power bill is about $20 on average 

killerkanadian
Got my collection of Sapphire Dual-x's coming, paired with EVGA's 500w Bronze PSUs. Yes I know I was being a little cheap but my power bill is about $20 on average 

How many PSU's per GPU and how many GPUs per computer? Are you connecting your PSUs together with ADD2PSU?

2 cards, each have a single 6 pin port on the sapphire brand cards. 500w+ PSUs for the most part all come for "sli" or 2 pcie connections.
 
I could run 3 off my 550w modular antec PSU

_Nite_

killerkanadian
2 cards, each have a single 6 pin port on the sapphire brand cards. 500w+ PSUs for the most part all come for "sli" or 2 pcie connections.
 
I could run 3 off my 550w modular antec PSU

3 would be cutting it too close, thats 450w just for the GPU's and figure in 50 - 75w for the rest of the components, I personally wouldn't do more then 2 per PSU like you said.
 
I wouldn't run 2 on the evga 500w bronze though it can barely handle one its a horrible unit you will see.

I guess if they burn up, that's what they're gonna do lol. Maybe I will swap one out into my main desktop since it's a single card.

killerkanadian

_Nite_

killerkanadian
2 cards, each have a single 6 pin port on the sapphire brand cards. 500w+ PSUs for the most part all come for "sli" or 2 pcie connections.
 
I could run 3 off my 550w modular antec PSU

3 would be cutting it too close, thats 450w just for the GPU's and figure in 50 - 75w for the rest of the components, I personally wouldn't do more then 2 per PSU like you said.
 
I wouldn't run 2 on the evga 500w bronze though it can barely handle one its a horrible unit you will see.

I guess if they burn up, that's what they're gonna do lol. Maybe I will swap one out into my main desktop since it's a single card.

lol they won't burn up, the most that will happen is the computer will automaticly restart itself, thats the warning sign that the psu can't handle the load of the system.

duboisi
Cooler Master HAF XB could be a good and relatively cheap case as mining rig. Can use as a test bench also.

Never thought about that... good idea, good way to keep the heat off the top card while still having it in a case.
 
I noticed in the picture though the top fan is setup for intake, I would flip it and make it an exaust if I used that.