Columns Performance per what?

portions of the chip may "shut down" but the clocks don't drop from what I've seen.

 

might have to experiment with our own hardware using Riva tuner and its profiles menu then. My card may only be a 6800 but i play with the fan speeds all the time so i might as well see how low i can underclock it and still get decent enough 2D performance.

 

Ok The Geforce 8800, has some form a power saving, basically what Tim said is correct.
All the special power saving features were placed for the mainstream models of the 8000 series.

 

do you (or anyone else) know if it does this automatically ?

whats the best way to conserve power with a 8800 when your just surfing the web / watching a video ?

I was wondering because i bought an 8800GTX but it constantly seems to be pushing out very hot air, and that screams to me that the thing is running a full whack all the time ....

Thanks for any info on this

 

I suspect the answer is "tough".

It's basic stuff really, go to STMicroelectronics, Microchip, Atmel (less so), TI, heck, even Intel and they are loaded with power saving modes. The STR9 has no less than four CPU power saving modes and you can turn off/clock down each peripheral (or even a full bus!) when it's not needed.

The fact you get on/off for graphics cards smacks of laziness if you ask me.