I just got a new PC with an i7-4790 and a GTX 760, and I'm looking for a way to manage power consumption based on the time of day. My electricity rates are pretty high, so I'd like to use the GTX 760 in the morning when my solar power can support it, and then switch to the iGPU at night to save energy. I've noticed that the GTX 760 uses about 90W even when idle, which feels excessive. I was thinking of manually disconnecting the dGPU and connecting my monitor to the iGPU, but doing this every day isn't practical. Is there a way to set this up in the BIOS to disable the GTX 760 and switch to the iGPU without physically unplugging anything?
1 Answer
You might run into trouble trying to switch from your dGPU to iGPU on an older system like that. Most likely, your setup won't allow you to use both cards at once. If it does, the easiest way is to just change your monitor's input and possibly disconnect the DisplayPort. However, you’d need to check if the dGPU still draws power when not in use. The BIOS might give you an option to toggle between "onboard" and "add-in" graphics, but I can’t guarantee it will cut off all power to your GTX 760. That 90W idle seems way off too—are you sure that’s just the GPU?
I wondered the same about the idle power draw! If the GTX 760 indeed draws that much, I’d be shocked. What BIOS settings would I look for to find the onboard vs add-in options?