Power consumption of idle GPU

Hardware Hub GPU
1

I have a computer made of spare bits and pieces that I am running as a home server to store media and do simple tasks on. It is always turned on. At the moment, there is no graphics card and it is just running from on board graphics.

Now I want to add a couple of TV receivers and using MythTV record TV shows directly onto the hard drive so I then have immediate access on my other computers. To do this, I need to beef up the system a bit with a spare GPU.

My question is, will this dramatically increase the power consumption when 'idling' and not recording? Power consumption concerns me as it is always on.

If it matters, I will be using my old GTX 460 and it is running Debian.

2

well, short story, yes it will increase power consumption; however 99% of all gfx cards scale down to very low clocks when idling, and if your desktop "sleeps" while you aren't using it i believe pci devices will be all but turned off. 

I actually had issues with the wifi on my laptop running ubuntu, when my laptop went to "sleep" the driver would not start back up on resume. I'm assuming, besides the not starting back up (that was a driver issue), the same deal works with gfx cards.(don't quote me on this though)

I don't think you have much to worry about. You could always just throw the gtx 460 in and wait for your next power bill to see if it makes any real difference.