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The Next-Gen Consoles and Power Consumption

Posted by Zonk on from the whirring-living-room-friends dept.

Ant writes "This HardCOREware review reports that the current video game console war takes an interesting twist as the power consumption levels of each of the three new consoles (Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 3 (PS3), and Microsoft Xbox 360) were explored. Video game playback, DVD playback, and other console functions were tested. One of the most interesting stats were the console idle power usage: 'Wii - 1.3 watts, Wii (Connect 24 On) - 9.6 watts, Xbox 360 - 2.5 watts, PlayStation 3 - 1.9 watts. Nothing significant here; you're looking at spending about $0.20 USD a month to keep the PS3 plugged in, which isn't much. The Wii requires 10 Watts to run Connect24 (which will connect to Nintendo's online service and notify you of system updates) racking up a cost of about $1 a month which is nothing too significant, but still about 5X more than if it were just turned off. Turn Connect24 off, and it's back down to normal.'"

14 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. While in use... by wframe9109 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Odd summary... You point out the part that admits it's not nearly as interesting as usage stats... Wii: 18 Watts XBox 360: 185 Watts PS3: 193 Watts PC: 198 Watts Who wants to take bets on which console Gore is backing!

    1. Re:While in use... by UbuntuDupe · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, now that you mention it...

      Why not ban the PS3? After all, it's wasteful, since (like with incandescents) human enjoyment of PS3s either:

      a) counts for nothing
      b) can be outright denied (mindmelds FTW)
      c) does not currently replace some other, more wasteful energy use, or
      d) has such a high environmental impact not even a huge tax could outweight the SEVERE HARMS of using it.

      Right? Is that right out of the "ban incandescents" playbook?

      --
      Apology to Ubuntu forum.
  2. Two things by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Informative

    One of the most interesting stats were the console idle power usage: 'Wii - 1.3 watts, Wii (Connect 24 On) - 9.6 watts, Xbox 360 - 2.5 watts, PlayStation 3 - 1.9 watts. Nothing significant here; you're looking at spending about $0.20 USD a month to keep the PS3 plugged in, which isn't much. The Wii requires 10 Watts to run Connect24 (which will connect to Nintendo's online service and notify you of system updates) racking up a cost of about $1 a month which is nothing too significant, but still about 5X more than if it were just turned off. Turn Connect24 off, and it's back down to normal.

    There are two things that consumers need to be aware of about these items:

    1. The Wii's power usage when turned on is only a few watts more. So if you play your consoles, the cost of using WiiConnect24 is going to be significantly less than the cost of regularly using your PS3.

    2. If you really don't want the Wii to standby, you can do a full shutdown at any time by holding down the power button. If you hold it down for long enough, the light should turn red. That means that the Wii is full off. This also works for the rare circumstances in which the Wii crashes. (Most commonly seen in the beta of the Opera Web Browser.)
    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    1. Re:Two things by AKAImBatman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Do you consider your television to be "off" when you press the power switch? That's the exact same state as the Wii is in. It barely trickles power in that state. If you want your electronics to be in a powerless mode (fairly unnatural for modern electronics) you need to either find the cutoff switch (like on the PS2 or the power supply of most PCs) or pull the plug.

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  3. Re:Power drain by AKAImBatman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why does the WII require so much bloody power for network?

    So much bloody power? 10 watts is nothing. It's the power usage of some incandescent night lights. So take your pick: Leave the Wii on, or keep the bad monsters away. :P
    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  4. USB Power? by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How much of the Xbox idle power consumption is keeping the USB ports powered to charge Play&Charge wireless controllers? Could you reduce the power by unplugging the USB cable of your controllers when done, or would that have no impact? Anybody know?

    --
    Comment of the year
  5. According to my Kill-O-Watt meter by maynard · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My Xbox 360 consumes:

    ~2 watts while turned off

    ~130 watts while idle at the xbox live dashboard

    ~165 watts while playing Gears of War

    These meter readings do not include the display device (obviously)

  6. Next-Gen?? by Cornflake917 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Aren't those consoles (Wii, PS3, 360) the current-gen consoles.

    If they are the next-gen consoles, wouldn't we be calling the next iteration of consoles the next-next-gen?

    --
    Abaddon: An Xbox 360 Indie game
  7. And in other news... by rehtonAesoohC · · Score: 4, Funny

    Power companies are reporting that PS3 usage accounts for only 0.1% of total power consumed, while usage of Wii's and XBox360's account for 5% of power consumed.


    Disclaimer: Figures are total baloney.

  8. Re:Power drain by AKAImBatman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    10W x 1 person isn't much. 10W x several million is.

    5,000,000 Wiis * 10W = 50 megawatts

    From this link (sorry, the only one I could find for power output rather than watt/hour consumption):

    It is estimated that the present rate of US energy consumption - for ALL purposes - is about 3.345 Terawatts.

    By those estimates, 50 megawatts is only 0.0015% of the national power output. (And I'm counting consoles that aren't in the United States.) If we assume that the Wii will become as popular as the PS2 was (37.1 million units in the United States alone), we come up with 371 Megawatts, or about 0.011% of national power capacity.

    Now let me throw some other figures back at you. The PS2 slurps about 45W to play games and DVDs (x37.1 million), the GameCube drinks about 40 watts (x12.7 million), and the XBox is estimated to gulp about 100 watts to play (x24 million). Standby power* for the XBox is 6 watts, 2 watts for the PS2, and 0.4 watts for the GameCube. During gameplay, the last generation of consoles were using:

    (37,100,000 * 45W) + (12,700,000 * 40W) + (24,000,000 * 100W) = 4,577.5 megawatts
    during playtime, and:

    (37,100,000 * 2W) + (12,700,000 * 0.4W) + (24,000,000 * 6W) = 223.28 megawatts
    If you were to take the average gameplay and DVD watching time of each console and work out the figures, do you think that replacing all of the existing consoles with Wiis would increase the overall power usage, or decrease the overall power usage? Some back-of-the-envelope figures of my own suggest that using nothing but Wiis would save power over the current situation. So I repeat, 10 watts is nothing.

    * Based on web searches. Actual values may vary.
    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  9. Why is wiiconnect24 required? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why has Nintendo made it MANDATORY to keep wiiconnect24 turned on if you want to use features like the news or weather channel? Is it so hard for them to let you download the data immediately when you access it?

    And why does wiiconnect24 have to draw so much power? The thing will connect to the internet every 3 minutes or so! Why can't it just check for updates about once an hour, then go into full standby the rest of the time?

    It looks like the Wii is shaping up to be the most popular console of this generation. It's a shame that there will be so many millions of Wiis constantly sucking down about 10x as much power as they really need to. I think it's great and all that it uses such low power when in actual use, but the amount used on standby is inexcusable in my opinion.

    1. Re:Why is wiiconnect24 required? by fhage · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why worry about 9 watts. I don't turn off my wireless router at night. The specs say it uses 15 watts. I also don't turn off the 40 watt porch light or unplug the carbon monoxide detector either. The joy of the blinking blue light is well worth the 8 watts of electricity.

    2. Re:Why is wiiconnect24 required? by DaSH+Alpha · · Score: 2, Interesting

      More importantly, why is the Weather info often 5 hours or more old? I think they should find a better provider... Also very annoying, is that even with WiiConnect 24 on, there have been a few times when I access the weather or news channels and it says it needs to update. Um, if it's supposed to be on all the time, won't it always have the latest info assuming I don't have internet connection issues? Plus, why is the Wii Shop channel dirt slow? It's really annoying. Oh well.

  10. Re: PS3's use the least amount of power! by trdrstv · · Score: 4, Funny
    Odd summary... You point out the part that admits it's not nearly as interesting as usage stats... Wii: 18 Watts XBox 360: 185 Watts PS3: 193 Watts PC: 198 Watts

    Yes, but PS3's are the most efficient overall since the ones sitting on store shelves consume NO POWER.