News - Energy use of US games consoles to require four full power stations

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Report shows that next gen Sony and Microsoft systems are relatively power thirsty.

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Read more.

This is odd. Modern hardware is meant to be energy efficient. Look at the TDP if the new Intel chips, for instance

"Connected Standby" it's what's using the big chunk of juice over a year. My PS4 goes off at the wall switch when it's off so you can reduce that cost/waste easily.

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Originally Posted by OilSheikh

This is odd. Modern hardware is meant to be energy efficient.

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It is - as the article says:

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Originally Posted by Hexus

the NRDC historical chart shows that previous generation Sony and Microsoft launch consoles used considerably more juice than the next gen launch consoles.

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So it looks like standby uses a large proportion of the energy consumed. The new Xbox One is particularly bad for sucking up electricity when in standby, as it's waiting to hear the magic words 'Xbox On'.

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I still can't see the big deal over switching an XB on with voice only - how much effort does it really take if they put a touch-sensitive power button on the top of the Kinect? Heck, even add a stroke gesture - go left-to-right to switch on, right-to-left to switch off if you want something "futuristic".

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Also consider that if you want to use your new console to watch a film, then it will be using "30 to 45 times more power to stream a movie than a dedicated Apple TV or Google Chromecast".

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Ouch! Be interesting to hear how these addon boxes compare to whatever's built in to a "smart tv".


What I'd find interesting would be if someone could do a similar "power budget" for the move from feature phones to smartphones. Don't know about anyone else, but I always seem to have at least one uUSB charger plugged in charging something - if it's not the phone, then it's a bluetooth device, or a tablet, or a portable media player, or a backup battery pack, or ...

The power consumption is well under 150W at full load when gaming:

http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2014...a4445e39d2.png

http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2014...a4445e39d2.png

Compare that to many gaming PCs,and you are still looking at lower power consumption.

My SB Xeon E3 1220(which has a lower power draw than a typical SB Core i5) and a GTX660 in a mini-ITX based system still draws upto 200W at the wall when gaming.

I don't see how you can blame voice activation for standby usage when Google phones can respond to "OK Google" at considerably less than the 15W that the graph seems to imply.

Wii-U is currently my platform of choice for Netflix, so nice to see those lowish numbers. OFC, the low navigation usage does mean it takes ages to get the app running.

Interesting to see the Wii-U has lower standby than the Wii.

Standby modes have always annoyed me - when I press off I mean off. This includes TVs, consoles, laptops, anything that doesn't have a very good reason to default to standby when not in use (digibox recorders for example). It should be an option sure but not the default.

Even so, going by the historical comparison chart I'd say it's a fairly safe assumption that the various iterations of Microsoft's and Sony's consoles will bring the power consumption down quite considerably. The Kinect-less XBO has probably taken a step on the way there already.


Also...
Netflix and navigation power useage - how can they be -that- close? Netflix is actually drawing less power than the menu for the WiiU! :o

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Originally Posted by Frankenfurter

Also...
Netflix and navigation power useage - how can they be -that- close? Netflix is actually drawing less power than the menu for the WiiU! :o

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Startup menu has lots of little Mii people running around the screen with speech bubbles in some pointless attempt at a social network thing on top of drawing the actual menu icons on the tablet screen.

I wonder for the Wii-U if they include the power the tablet is consuming.

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Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

Compare that to many gaming PCs,and you are still looking at lower power consumption.

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Would agree with Cat here, I have an Intel i5 o/c to 4Ghz, ATI290, 8GB RAM, 2xSSDs and a single HDD. When I am running at full load playing BF4 for instance, i pull 300-350 Watt.

LOL at sensasional title "Energy use of US games consoles to require four full power stations", that would mean all serious PC gamers would need 4 full power stations each also!

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Originally Posted by realstock

Would agree with Cat here, I have an Intel i5 o/c to 4Ghz, ATI290, 8GB RAM, 2xSSDs and a single HDD. When I am running at full load playing BF4 for instance, i pull 300-350 Watt.

LOL at sensasional title "Energy use of US games consoles to require four full power stations", that would mean all serious PC gamers would need 4 full power stations each also!

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I would argue the fact that most people who have a games console will also still require a computer ( or a laptop ). So you could deduct the energy usage of an "average" computer from the power draw of your system and not feel guilty :p

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Originally Posted by realstock

Would agree with Cat here, I have an Intel i5 o/c to 4Ghz, ATI290, 8GB RAM, 2xSSDs and a single HDD. When I am running at full load playing BF4 for instance, i pull 300-350 Watt.

LOL at sensasional title "Energy use of US games consoles to require four full power stations", that would mean all serious PC gamers would need 4 full power stations each also!

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since the average R9 290 uses 250w when gaimg , your saying the rest of your pc uses less than 100watts? nah that's BS

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Originally Posted by DanceswithUnix

Startup menu has lots of little Mii people running around the screen with speech bubbles in some pointless attempt at a social network thing on top of drawing the actual menu icons on the tablet screen.

I wonder for the Wii-U if they include the power the tablet is consuming.

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Aah OK. So it's less "good job Netflix" and more "WTH Nintendo!?" then. :P
Interesting point on the tablet too. If it was included looks like Wii U does a pretty good job of staying 'eco'(ish). I guess that's the advantage of hitting for last-gen graphics with new-gen hardware. Haha.

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Originally Posted by HalloweenJack

since the average R9 290 uses 250w when gaimg

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It doesn't use anything like that much when gaming.

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Originally Posted by HalloweenJack

since the average R9 290 uses 250w when gaimg , your saying the rest of your pc uses less than 100watts? nah that's BS

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Since the average could include wattage numbers varying from 200 to 300 (for example), it is entirely plausible.

Why use apple tv or chromecast as media examples when media streaming boxes have been around much longer than those - WDTV, popcorn player to name 2 big ones

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Originally Posted by OilSheikh

This is odd. Modern hardware is meant to be energy efficient. Look at the TDP if the new Intel chips, for instance

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Power/Watt improves, but manufacturers will push to maximise the amount of power they can put into a box before cooling it becomes a problem. The fun thing is that new hardware can be extremely efficient at doing things that are a few years old, for example: the chip on my Galaxy Nexus is good enough to play GTA3 and it doesn't take more than 2W.

The cool thing is that in a decade or so you'll probably be able to play PS4 quality games on a handheld (in fact you can already play 360/PS3 quality games on tablets).

This is becoming particularly interesting with desktop computing as the power requirements for average users has plateaued (most people just browse and email). So excluding gamers, people should find that a new computer will draw significantly less power than one built even 3 years ago. With Nvidia's Maxwell architecture and the upcoming push for 20nm things get a lot more interesting. The 750Ti draws 60W under load and can play plenty of otherwise demanding games at good framerates. Haswell Refresh has i7 chips that go down to 35W which is crazy - you're looking at a system that can capably play Crysis 3 at 30fps at 1080p and only draw 100W at full load (assuming it's not a CPU limited game).

I bought a new XBox 360 "E" (2013 model) to replace my horribly noisy Elite 360 (2007) model and it's virtually silent in comparison, even when gaming. It's good to see that I'm saving about 50w when playing too.

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Originally Posted by OilSheikh

This is odd. Modern hardware is meant to be energy efficient. Look at the TDP if the new Intel chips, for instance

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Neither modern hardware nor Intel chips apply to these... ...and yes, I'm being a sarcastic troll ~_^