Maximum PC

When I read an article about a graphics cards in Maximum PC and they show benchmarks about power@idle and power@full throttle. Are they just talking about how much the graphics card consume only or are they talking about the overall system including the graphic card.

Of all the articles I've read, they refer to just the draw of the GPU itself.

Weird because when I read tom's hardware, it's total system including graphics card. And the power draws are par with what Maximum PC post up.

Looking into it, it would be easier to measure the total draw an not figure out the the individual draw. Honestly, I've always been thinking it was the individual draw since they seem a little low especially when the recommended PSU is almost twice as much sometimes. Yeah, so MaxPC does measure total draw.

I was thinking the same thing too about needing such a high psu if the system power draw isn't that high. But maybe it's because you want to ensure you have enough headroom so you do fry your system.

Bottom line is that you need a 500W power supply at minimum if your getting even a mid tier ati/nvidia card.
If the card takes up two slots because it's big and needs one to for ventilation purposes, then odds are you need atleast 500 W.
I still don't see the concern about power draw sometimes. Unless a card is pulling 30% more power than a similarly performing card, it's no big deal. You either need 500 W., 700-750W., or a 1000W. PSU. Usually when you're jumping to the next "threshold" of power draw, it's safe to say your going to jump 200W. in your PSU purchase.

And yes the purpose of their power draw readings (whether GPU only or entire system) is to give you an accurate idea of how much headroom you should have. PSUs can degrade up to 5% of their performance per year unless you spend the bucks on the premium brands and their premium models. Even out of the box they often do not output at their full marketed numbers, if you want that then you need to start looking for silver/gold ratings on the PSU.
Safe bet to have more power and not need it then to have too little power and need it.

I wanted to know what the power draw as more of a concern of how much money I will be spending electricity per year.

Let's assume you're always drawing 100% of your given wattage for 8 hours a day, which you are, the cost difference between a 500w and a 750w on a monthly basis is probably around 10 bucks depending on how much juice costs in your area.