Power Consumption of a Typical PC While Gaming

Posted by timothy on Wednesday June 25, 2008 @06:27AM from the slurping-it-up dept.

cliffski writes "How much does your PC really draw in terms of power when idle, when in sleep, and when playing a demanding game? I don't trust everything the manufacturers of hardware say, so I thought I'd get myself a watt measuring device and run a few tests on some of the gear I leave on all the time, and the gear I go to the trouble of turning off. The Linksys router drew 8 watts, the monitor drew a fairly noticeable 30-31, but what surprised me was how little power the base unit drew, even when playing Company of Heroes. Also, the variance of power draw for Vista seemed minimal, regardless of what you got the machine to do."

1 of 211 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

What about my A/C kicking into overdrive? by CambodiaSam · 2008-06-25 06:33 · Score: 5, Insightful

What about the thermal impact? I live in a hot climate, so leaving a PC on seems to have a big impact on the temperature of the room. Sure, I might use a couple hundred Watts to run the gear, but what about the electricity required for the A/C to cool the room back down?

Hey, when it's 100 deg F outside, I notice the difference.