Gaming system power consumption testing

[Doctor Setebos]

The industrious folks over at HardCoreWare decided to test the electrical suckage of the Xbox360, PS3, Wii, and a PC in various tests, including game playing, movie playback, and idle/standby. Are the results surprising? You be the judge (http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-356-1.htm).

* In video games, both the PS3 and XBOX 360 were relatively low compared to a mid-to-high range PC.
* The Wii is amazingly efficient, using no more than 18 Watts in any of our tests
* Both consoles are power hogs when it comes to playing movies.
* XBOX 360's Dashboard console is power-hungry (and slow). PS3's is slick and uses a lot of power, but no more than playing a DVD.

Neither the XBOX 360 nor PS3 really came out as a winner or loser when it comes to power consumption levels. The PS3 requires a bit more all around, but not much to write home about for now. Things may certainly change with future firmware updates (especially if either console adds DVD upsamplig to the mix).There's a lot of graphs on the site depicting the results of their various tests. So, how does your favored gaming system match up?

Via digg (http://digg.com/hardware/XBOX_PS3_and_Wii_Power_Consumption_Report)

[Klade]

Color me unsurprised that a 600watt power supply on my PC sucks more juice then a console.

[Slack3r78]

CPU: Intel Core 2 X6800 (Reviewed Here)
Video Card: Foxconn GeForce 7950GT (Reviewed Here)
Motherboard: Intel DX975XBX
Audio: Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty (Reviewed Here)
Memory: 4GB DDR2 6400

So a PC with roughly twice the graphical processing power and a top of the line CPU sucks down more juice than a less powerful console?

I am shocked and awed by these results!

If anything, it makes the 360 and PS3 look like relative power hogs given that the much more powerful PC uses only marginally more power than either of the console systems.

[flinxz]

If anything, it makes the 360 and PS3 look like relative power hogs given that the much more powerful PC uses only marginally more power than either of the console systems.
I agree, I honestly didn't think it would even be close either.

[Slack3r78]

Yeah, the more I look at these graphs the more it occurs to me that whoever wrote it is a fucking idiot.

This 'conclusion' is just a gem:
In video games, both the PS3 and XBOX 360 were relatively low compared to a mid-to-high range PC.
All well and fine until you look at the actual data and realize that the overall difference in consumption between the lowest powered of the next gen consoles and the PC isn't even 10%. The way it's written makes it sound like a blowout.

There's also almost no mention of the fact that both the consoles are relatively horribly inefficient at idle compared to the PC. The 360 drops 20 watts from peak, the PS3 drops a measly 10 watts from peak to idle, while the PC drops over 60 watts with no mention.

All this without mention of the fact that the PC used in this test is a considerably more powerful system.

The 'analysis' done in this article is a complete joke.

[Mr.Green]

There's also almost no mention of the fact that both the consoles are relatively horribly inefficient at idle compared to the PC.
And why the $&?@ would you run a gaming console at idle? I don't know about you, but when I fire up my 360 it's to play a game, not to warm up the room.

[civil_dead]

And why the $&?@ would you run a gaming console at idle? I don't know about you, but when I fire up my 360 it's to play a game, not to warm up the room.
Buy a PS3 for that, my man.

Though it's incredibly silent compared to my 360, holy crap does that thing give off heat.

[Slack3r78]

And why the $&?@ would you run a gaming console at idle? I don't know about you, but when I fire up my 360 it's to play a game, not to warm up the room.
It means that the system has no form of clock scaling included in the CPU or GPU. Not every element of a game is going to push a system to peak power consumption.

[Mr.Green]

It means that the system has no form of clock scaling included in the CPU or GPU. Not every element of a game is going to push a system to peak power consumption.
Well, IT SHOULD!

[spuppy]

CPU: Intel Core 2 X6800 (Reviewed Here)
Video Card: Foxconn GeForce 7950GT (Reviewed Here)
Motherboard: Intel DX975XBX
Audio: Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty (Reviewed Here)
Memory: 4GB DDR2 6400

So a PC with roughly twice the graphical processing power and a top of the line CPU sucks down more juice than a less powerful console?

I am shocked and awed by these results!

If anything, it makes the 360 and PS3 look like relative power hogs given that the much more powerful PC uses only marginally more power than either of the console systems.
Umm

The 7950 GT is pretty close to what is in the PS3. Both are based on G70 from nvidia, and share the same clock speeds (although with not as much ROPs)

And the Xenos in the 360 is more powerful than either of the two.

Computational power, I don't know for sure. Probably a tossup.

The PC use in the review is actually pretty close to both consoles. If you can't see that, there is no helping you.

[Slack3r78]

Well, IT SHOULD!
Menus and loading screens are worthy of a saturated processing pipeline?

[Wraith]

Despite the text of the article, the numbers are still interesting.

I'm guessing most of the people who use a 360 or PS3 for playing movies don't think about the amount of juice their console's using compared to a standalone DVD player.

And the Wii - no one would be surprised that it consumes much less power, but 18 watts max? Compared to the numbers in another article (http://www.dxgaming.com/?p=6&page=4), that's even less than the PS2, GameCube, and Dreamcast.

[Slack3r78]

The 7950 GT is pretty close to what is in the PS3. Both are based on G70 from nvidia, and share the same clock speeds (although with not as much ROPs)
I missed that it was a GT and not a GTX, my bad.

Computational power, I don't know for sure. Probably a tossup.
Depends on the type of computation you're talking about. The Core 2 Duo is a far better general purpose processor than either the Xenon or the Cell. Both of them can be leveraged in ways that they'll perform quite well relative to their cost, but it requires quite a bit more effort on the part of the developer.

The PC use in the review is actually pretty close to both consoles. If you can't see that, there is no helping you.
Given that you pointed out the GPU is a GT and not the dual GTX, you're right that they are fairly close closer than I thought (while I'll still maintain the PC is the more powerful system). No need for the snarkiness, though -- the original article's analysis is still fucking awful.

[spuppy]

I missed that it was a GT and not a GTX, my bad.


Depends on the type of computation you're talking about. The Core 2 Duo is a far better general purpose processor than either the Xenon or the Cell. Both of them can be leveraged in ways that they'll perform quite well relative to their cost, but it requires quite a bit more effort on the part of the developer.


Given that you pointed out the GPU is a GT and not the dual GTX, you're right that they are fairly close closer than I thought (while I'll still maintain the PC is the more powerful system). No need for the snarkiness, though -- the original article's analysis is still fucking awful.
The analysis is spot on. Look at it through unbiased eyes (in other words, don't try to be defensive if the PC looks bad, or the PS3 looks bad, etc). The article is being mentioned on blogs all over the place, and EA is the only site where anyone has said anything negative about it (except for a couple morons on Digg, but Digg is Digg ;)).

[Slack3r78]

The analysis is spot on. Look at it through unbiased eyes (in other words, don't try to be defensive if the PC looks bad, or the PS3 looks bad, etc). The article is being mentioned on blogs all over the place, and EA is the only site where anyone has said anything negative about it (except for a couple morons on Digg, but Digg is Digg ;)).
I really don't care which one comes out the 'winner'. My point was that the way the analysis was framed made the 360 and PS3 come out sounding far better than they actually are. That has nothing to do with 'wanting' to defend the PC - I honestly though its consumption would be nowhere near as low as the specialized consoles.

The fact that the margin is in the range of 10% suggests more about the relative inefficiency on this generation's consoles to me than anything.

[spuppy]

I really don't care which one comes out the 'winner'. My point was that the way the analysis was framed made the 360 and PS3 come out sounding far better than they actually are. That has nothing to do with 'wanting' to defend the PC - I honestly though its consumption would be nowhere near as low as the specialized consoles.

The fact that the margin is in the range of 10% suggests more about the relative inefficiency on this generation's consoles to me than anything.I just think you put too much weight in the term "relatively low". ;)

Peace :cool:

[Mr.Green]

Menus and loading screens are worthy of a saturated processing pipeline?
I was kidding, pal. But anyway, do you spend a lot of time playing menus and loading screens?

[Slack3r78]

I just think you put too much weight in the term "relatively low". ;)

Peace :cool:
I just think the 'analysis' provided offered nothing that a quick glance over the graphs couldn't give you while completely glossing over things that would have been completely valid and interesting questions.

Yes, I've been harping on one section of it, but the entire thing is a fluff piece. We'd be better served if they had just provided the raw data rather than make a lame attempt at 'explaining' it.

[Slack3r78]

I was kidding, pal. But anyway, do you spend a lot of time playing menus and loading screens?
Not particularly, but they were easy to grab examples. :)

The relatively high power consumption during DVD playback on the PS3 shows exactly why idle power consumption and clock scaling are something worth considering.

[webrunner]

The 360 already upsamples DVDs using it's fancy scaler hardware doesn't it?

[Mr.Green]

The 360 already upsamples DVDs using it's fancy scaler hardware doesn't it?
Yes... if you use the VGA cable. Only 480p via component. At least, as far as the HD-DVD player goes.

Source. (http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/09/21/xbox-360-hd-dvd-playback-maximum-1080i-via-component-1080p-vga/)

[Craigtheplague]

Once again, Nintendo is shown to have some very highly qualified and talented engineers working for them. Granted, their hardware isn't as powerful as their competitors', but they even manage to slightly trump previous generation offerings as shown by an older article mentioned above. I can't wait for the abuse tests. I don't see the wii being as durable as gamecube because the shell doesn't seem thick or feel hard. However, I see the wii taking the crown over their current generation competitors.

[miah]

I would like to see power stats on a PS3 vs PS2 vs PSX playing the same PSX game, or even PS3 vs PS2 playing the same PS2 game.

[TrackZero]

"XBOX 360's Dashboard console is power-hungry (and slow). PS3's is slick and uses a lot of power, but no more than playing a DVD."

The hell does that mean, slow and slick? I thought they were checking power consumption, nor their ability to judge interfaces.

[Slack3r78]

I would like to see power stats on a PS3 vs PS2 vs PSX playing the same PSX game, or even PS3 vs PS2 playing the same PS2 game.
I don't remember the numbers for the other systems, but I do know that the Xbox had the highest power draw last generation by a good margin and it pulled about 65W at load.

[Slack3r78]

"XBOX 360's Dashboard console is power-hungry (and slow). PS3's is slick and uses a lot of power, but no more than playing a DVD."

The hell does that mean, slow and slick? I thought they were checking power consumption, nor their ability to judge interfaces.
There's a reason I keep saying the analysis done in the article is terrible. Seriously, the raw data is interesting, but they did a very poor job of interpreting it.

[KingGorilla]

Color me unsurprised that a 600watt power supply on my PC sucks more juice then a console.
Color me surprised that it is by a very narrow margin. I mean no shock that a modern video card draws huge power compared to the ancient ones in the consoles. But I was astonished at the idle power draw from those consoles. Also keep in mind, however, that you are running a PC and a Monitor, with a console you are running a Television and the console- and a TV draws a lot of wattage independent of the console.

[bitwise]

Wow. The thing about playing HD content on the PS3 and 360 is bullshit. I think he's making a bad comparison because the PS3 is having to spin an optical drive and the 360 isn't in his tests. I expect that if he had the HD-DVD add-on for the 360 those numbers would be much closer. He could have at least compared power consumption between a video playing off the 360's hard drive to a video playing off of the PS3's.

Also, 18.4 Watts? Damn that is some nice engineering. A big lol to everyone claiming the Wii isn't a modern piece of hardware.

The thing that shocked me the most was the comparison while playing DVD's. According to his numbers, a proper DVD player uses an order of magnitude less power. I feel kind of stupid for not having one now. The thing would probably pay for itself after a year. Also, as the author pointed out, the 360 is quite noisy and makes watching DVD's on it kind of a pain.

[flinxz]

I think this is somewhat related. Is anyone else’s Wii pretty damn warm even in standby? If I take out the SD card or a game disc while it is off they come out pretty warm to the touch.

[Citizen Philip]

I just think the 'analysis' provided offered nothing that a quick glance over the graphs couldn't give you while completely glossing over things that would have been completely valid and interesting questions.

Yes, I've been harping on one section of it, but the entire thing is a fluff piece. We'd be better served if they had just provided the raw data rather than make a lame attempt at 'explaining' it.

The unwashed masses are not qualified to review raw data regarding a subject. The information is required to be flossed, glossed and presented by someone who either wants to be, or is already being paid to offer their opinion. Naturally, the biggest possible teat for the money suckling is whom the article is suppose to impress.

[Royal Fool]

Nintendo Wii: The Console of Choice for Developing Countries

[Slack3r78]

The unwashed masses are not qualified to review raw data regarding a subject. The information is required to be flossed, glossed and presented by someone who either wants to be, or is already being paid to offer their opinion. Naturally, the biggest possible teat for the money suckling is whom the article is suppose to impress.
You're right. I'm expecting far too much of people to be able to interpret the idea that "THIS NUMBER IS BIGGER" all on their lonesome. The author of the article is pretty well proof positive of that.

[TrackZero]

I think this is somewhat related. Is anyone else’s Wii pretty damn warm even in standby? If I take out the SD card or a game disc while it is off they come out pretty warm to the touch.

Well, it could be worse. What if the SD card came out and it was cold?

[score]

Once again, Nintendo is shown to have some very highly qualified and talented engineers working for them. Granted, their hardware isn't as powerful as their competitors', but they even manage to slightly trump previous generation offerings as shown by an older article mentioned above. I can't wait for the abuse tests. I don't see the wii being as durable as gamecube because the shell doesn't seem thick or feel hard. However, I see the wii taking the crown over their current generation competitors.

There's some interview type stuff on the Nintendo site about this (Iwata asks or something). One of the primary stated goals was to create a console that was really power efficiant. Looks like they nailed it :)

[flinxz]

Well, it could be worse. What if the SD card came out and it was cold?
That would be great, then I could drop it in my drink!

[Barrapa]

Why didn't they let the PC use any of the CPU level power management available to it - PC's can Idle much lower if you use it.