Here is a screen shot of GPU-Z. As you can see I have both a readout of GPU load, and of Power Consumption. The latter is what I mean. That should read about 5% to 6%, not over 8%. It goes up with usage, but comes down at idle, as it should. But with a 3% offset. It now bottoms out 3% higher than normal.
It seems like a small difference. Only a few watts. But that is enough for the card to eventually heat up over 10 degrees C more. The room is very cold right now, about 12C, so idle temps are reasonable. But with the room at a normal temperature the card now idles at over 50C. That is sufficiently close to the point where the fan will kick in, that any light activity that uses the card, such as Google Maps in my browser for instance, will now result in fan noise. Where if the power draw is normal, there is enough headroom that it doesn’t.
I hope this clarifies things a bit 
