I run the cards at the +/- best efficiency (MH per watt), I'm not after highest possible speed regardless of the power consumption.
Profitability today is 10s times more than electricity cost (at least in most of the areas).
Mine 1070 run at 56-57Mh/s without no tweaking more than juast move the slider in Afterburner and no overheating. The difference covers all additional costs. So what's the point of that?
How many watts does the 1070 draw at that speed according to the miner?
56-57 = 150W
53-54 = 135W
also depends on the card. i currently have three different model cards that i mine with. they all seem to be tuned differently in terms of tdp right from the factory. for example the asus and msi cards i have both have wacky tdp, with msi running 20 watts higher right off the bat, and asus running about 10 watt lower then a "standard" founders edition cards. my evga cards are a completely different story. they most reflect the power settings of the fe cards, and have the best power management out of all of them.
in other words, it doesn't just depend on the model, but also how the maker tunes the cards at the factory, and they all have their own sweet spot.
for example.
msi 1070 - 135w at 65 tdp, if i go any lower the hash drops about 20 percent instantly.
asus 170 - 125w at 75 tdp, any lower and the hash drops by about 20 percent.
evga 1070ftw - 110w at 60 tdp - can go lower on wattage (down to 50%tdp) while dropping the hash proportionally, after 50 the hash drops significantly.
all produce about the same hash rate at these power settings - 53-54 on dnr, with asus lagging behind at about 50.
i found the evga cards to be much better in adjusting power, and overall most flexible. msi to be a bit faster closer full tdp, and asus pretty much terrible at everything. the only saving grace for the asus is that it only requires a single 8 port pin, which would make it easier to deploy at scale. the evga requires a dual 8 pin power plug, which is a pain in the ass to find cables/adapters for, especially when you need to run 6-8 of them on a single rig etc.. i got the msi and asus cards first, then i got the evga's... i've been getting nothing but evga since.