Scaling and power-consumption issues

[RONX GT]

Hello to all the STARS of TPU. I'm new in this place & have some questions in my mind. For some you might find them annoying(sorry for that).

Here r the issues:

1)Is scaling affects power consumption. I mean we all know that it sure boosts the performance due to bandwidth factor(from going x8 electrical to x16 for example), but will it also increase the overall power draw?

2)In general we know that driver optimization increases the performance, (again)will it also affects the power draw?

3)Are system memory Gpu ram combination is important for stable computing or gaming?
What if the system ram is less then the Gpu ram(1 GB system ram/ 2 GB Gpu ram) or equal..

I guess its all kinda pointless but i m still curious for the facts.

 

[Fourstaff]

Questions 1 and 2, I think it affects power draw, but I would not think it is significant (maybe 10%?) W1zzard, if you are reading this, can you do us a favour and compare power consumptions of a card when used with different bandwidth and drivers? Thanks in advance, but not necessary if you find it a useless test.

3 I have never come across that before, but my suspicion is that your computer would not run properly, DX9's requirement is that the GPU memory is mirrored to the Ram, but I am not too sure about DX10/11

 

[RONX GT]

Thanks. I also assumes that it (scaling) will lead the power-usage at not significant but in minor numbers.

 

[W1zzard]

3) is no problem at all. otherwise 4x gtx 480 sli wouldn't work as you claim