Here's how this videocard stacks up in real life against a various other videocards for power draw. PCSTATS measures total system power draw and compares that in 3D loaded (max value recorded in 3DMark06) and idle states (at Windows desktop). The power supply used in each test is an A-PFC compliant PC Power and Cooling 750W model.

Videocard Power Consumption (Total System Power Draw) Idle at Desktop Watts Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 177 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 153 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 222 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 165 Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD 109 ASUS EAH5850 DirectCu Top/2DIS/1GD5 93 ASUS EAH4890 HTDI/1GD5/A (rev.A) 138 ASUS EAH4890 HTDI/1GD5/A 137 ASUS EAH4850 HTDI/512M 120 MSI R4830 T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 108 Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512HB 135 Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512HB Crossfire 180 ASUS EAH4770 FML/DI/512MD5/A 105 ASUS EAH4770 HTDI/512MD5/A 101 Gigabyte GV-R435OC-512I 79 Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT CrossFire 195 ASUS EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A 160 ASUS EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A 150 ASUS ENGTX480 2DI/1536MD5 144 Gigabyte GV-N285OC-2G1 113 Gigabyte GV-N26SO-896I 105 ASUS ENGTX260 MT/HTDI/896MD3-A 135 Gigabyte GV-N26OC896H-GA 112 Sparkle GTX260 Core 216 140 ASUS ENGTS250 DK 120 ASUS ENGTS250 DK in SLI 170 ASUS EN9600GT DI/512MD3/A 86 Gigabyte GV-N96TSL-1GI 96 nVidia Geforce 9600GTs in SLI 166 ASUS EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M 152 Palit Geforce 9600GT 512 151 ASUS EN9400GT DI/1GLP 85 MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E 196 MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE 183 MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E 165 Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH 140 3D Loaded: Watts Ranking Palit HD4870 X2 2GB 421 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A 390 ASUS EAH3870 X2 1GB TOP/G/3DHTI/1G/A (Crossfire) 610 MSI R3870X2-T2D1G-OC 330 Gigabyte GV-R587SO-1GD 217 ASUS EAH5850 DirectCu Top/2DIS/1GD5 197 ASUS EAH4890 HTDI/1GD5/A (rev.A) 244 ASUS EAH4890 HTDI/1GD5/A 225 ASUS EAH4850 HTDI/512M 202 MSI R4830 T2D512-OC (Radeon 4830) 177 Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512HB 186 Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512HB Crossfire 279 ASUS EAH4770 FML/DI/512MD5/A 158 ASUS EAH4770 HTDI/512MD5/A 153.3 Gigabyte GV-R435OC-512I 109 Diamond Viper Radeon HD 2900XT CrossFire 549 ASUS EAX1900XTX 2DHTV/512M/A 333 ASUS EAX1950PRO/HTDP/256M/A 252 ASUS ENGTX480 2DI/1536MD5 297 Gigabyte GV-N285OC-2G1 277 Gigabyte GV-N26SO-896I 230 ASUS ENGTX260 MT/HTDI/896MD3-A 277 Gigabyte GV-N26OC896H-GA 215 Sparkle GTX260 Core 216 262 ASUS ENGTS250 DK 214 ASUS ENGTS250 DK in SLI 316 ASUS EN9600GT DI/512MD3/A 148 Gigabyte GV-N96TSL-1GI 160 nVidia Geforce 9600GTs in SLI 313 ASUS EN9600GT Top/HTDI/512M 220 Palit Geforce 9600GT 512 221 ASUS EN9400GT DI/1GLP 109 MSI NX8800GTX-T2D768E 345 MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE 315 MSI NX7900GTX-T2D512E 277 Gigabyte GV-NX76T256D-RH 213

Under load the ASUS ENGTX480-2D1-1536 system doesn't draw the most power of the single-GPU videocard configurations tested here (that distinction goes to the original 90nm Geforce 8800GTX) it's still significantly more than any of the other videocards in the Radeon HD 5000-series of videocards or previous Geforce 200-series videocards.