My coworker wants me to build him a "green" PC, but I'm having trouble when it comes to the video card. It needs to run the games Neverwinter Nights 2 and Oblivion.
Kitrax, via the PCWorld.com forums
Senior Editor Narasu Rebbapragada responds: Get a board that meets the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), which forbids the use of six toxic materials. Measuring energy efficiency is trickier, however, as Energy Star does not rate graphics subcomponents. When researching wattage specs, ask which state the board was in (idle or otherwise) when energy consumption was measured.
For the mentioned games, nVidia recommends a GeForce 8800 GTS-based card with 320MB of on-board RAM; compared with more powerful cards, it uses less on-board frame buffer memory (thereby reducing power consumption).
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