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Firmly I'm looking for cards I noticed a disturbing question reported, the cards are not idle, when two monitors connected. Not only that, but they say the crisis is also there in the old Nvidia and ATI cards in. I decided to try my system with a GTX 260 with a power meter, and of course when I have my second monitor connected to the use of energy is ~ 30 W more than one monitor connected.
I had someone make a similar question back in November about the 58xx series and the ways that also run in a state of greater performance with multiple monitors connected to my knowledge the GTX 480 series is affected by the same problems 58xx series is, so the technique is the same explanation. Ultimately there is no "fix" because this is not an error. In any case it is a limitation of technology TDMS. FTR I think the issue can be fixed with Display Port, as it uses a common clock, but I have a few DP monitors on hand to check that right now.
My own testing (which reached over and turned off 2 monitors) was recorded on the card to 400/1200. It may work differently, with a TV, and they behave another way than the monitors, just check your watch with the TV off. I think you have to get into the driver settings and disable the monitor for the clock down while the TV is off, you can easily set up a profile w / keys to do this. Winkey + P has also worked for me.
I'm pretty sure it's only the second monitor by pulling the additional 30 W unless you have the PC connected monitor in different outlets. I read about harms with the line dual monitor 58xx (downclock PowerPlay is too low to drive double) and online GTX 4XX (RAM stays at 3D clocks), but nothing about the line GTX 2XX. I advise using the GPU-Z, but to see the existing practice and if the clocks VDDC will really change from single to dual monitor with GTX 260. The GTX 260 also uses DDR3 memory. The 58xx line and GTX 4XX use GDDR5 RAM, and RAM GDDR5 is the reason for the 480 high-energy uses at rest.
Sounds like a problem that could, potentially at least is fixed in hardware in the future if Nvidia / ATI to put some effort for him. Perhaps even the GPU could be "underclocked" and the memory intact, I guess I could save some power. Personally I want to upgrade to a GTX470 in the near future, but as they require a power supply and low reasonably quiet at idle is too risky to buy one without knowing the power of dual monitor expecting their first use, and no one seems to have proven that.
Interestingly, it seems that Nvidia has done something in the new 257.21 drivers, my GTX 260 is now properly reduces the clocks of inactivity it to use two monitors as it does with a single monitor. I have not measured the power consumption, but the current intensity of the voltage regulator is shown with Rivatuner falls to same level as well! That only seems to work when two monitors are using the same display mode though.
I am using here 257.21 when I have two monitors (each with its own card), both of my GTX 480 is the clock down to a crawl in the core, shader and memory, when I add a subsequent monitor to any of the cards core clock only that the card will be redirected to 50%, but the other clocks remain 100%. The card with the second monitor is reporting 8 amps and 10 watts more than the second card.