10 was probably the last truly inefficient, but you shouldn't be having problems with a 40.

Shame you don't have it around anymore, because I'd say set your desktop to like, native res, 60hz, only have one monitor installed, 8 bit SDR not 10 bit SDR, and see if the power usage goes away.

Like, on a 9800x3D /w 7900XTX with my 4th monitor unplugged (to get under the maximum super-idle load for the GPU), I'm sub-50W idle.

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daneel_w 2 days ago | parent [-]

I run at 1080p60 in 32-bit true color mode, aka 8-bit SDR in Windows' various settings panels. My plan is to revisit the RTX series in the future when there might be a decently performing model at or below 100 watts TDP.

	▲	DiabloD3 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		Wonder whats going on in your system. Hard to give any more suggestions without having it in front of me, but as much as I shit on Nvidia, you should absolutely not be drawing that much at idle. There are settings in the BIOS that can effect this, and sometimes certain manufacturers (Asus, mainly) screw with them because they're morons, so I wonder if you might be effected by it.