The new graphics driver Arc & Iris Graphics 31.0.101.4146 partially solved the problem of high idle power consumption of discrete Intel graphics cards when using multiple monitors. About it informed one of the Intel software developers on the company page in the GitHub repository.
Image source: Intel
Reviewers and owners of Intel Arc A750 and Arc A770 discrete graphics cards noted that graphics accelerators had high idle power consumption (41 W) from the start. This is higher than competitors. The company later released a manual that described how to reduce the idle power consumption of the GPU to 10 watts or less. However, this did not solve the problem when using a configuration with multiple monitors attached to the accelerator. In this case, Intel graphics cards consumed 40-50 watts even when the graphics subsystem was not loaded.
It should be noted that the higher power consumption of the graphics card is quite natural when using multiple monitors. In addition, the screen resolution and refresh rate also affect the power consumption setting. The higher these numbers, the higher the power consumption. However, when using two monitors with a resolution of 1080p or 1440p, one would not expect significantly higher power consumption from a graphics accelerator. However, this particular issue has been observed with Intel graphics cards.
Ever since the Alchemist series graphics cards went on sale, the company has been working on optimizing the power consumption of its accelerators. The manufacturer presented a partial solution with the release of a new driver version 31.0.101.4091. Partly because it still requires changes to the motherboard BIOS settings, as well as the Windows power plan that Intel used to recommend. In the event that the user has already changed these settings according to Intel’s instructions, but this has not led to positive changes, the new driver is unlikely to improve the situation with high power consumption of graphics cards in idle mode when using multiple monitors.
However, some GitHub users have reported that the idle power consumption of their Intel graphics cards has decreased after installing the latest driver. If with driver version 31.0.101.4091 when using a single monitor with a resolution of 2560×1080 an Arc A7 series card needs 11W when idle and when using two monitors with a resolution of 2560×1080 and 1600×900, It consumed 38-40 W, and after installing the driver version 31.0.101.4146, power consumption dropped to 7-8 W in the first case, and to 8-9 W in the second.
Image source: GitHub
However, as an Intel engineer explained, when using more than two monitors, the problem of high power consumption of Intel graphics cards remains. This is a question of further optimization.
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