No, it doesn't. It helps reduce (almost imperceptible, though, unless you open and close your apps thousands of times a day) battery consumption since you're effectively using the processor for less time for animations but it doesn't cause battery drain if you leave it 'as is', and the amount of battery time you save by setting it to 0.5 or 0 is almost negligible for normal users.
I tried but AC forum app froze. So after I turned Gpu off the battery was draining way faster than anytime so I had to reboot. Don't know but I'm afraid for me it wasn't working out too good.