Gaming Computers Offer Huge, Untapped Energy Savings Potential

Required Snark writes: According to Phys.org, a study by Evan Mills at Berkeley Lab shows that "gamers can achieve energy savings of more than 75 percent by changing some settings and swapping out some components, while also improving reliability and performance" because "your average gaming computer is like three refrigerators." Gaming computers represent only 2.5 percent of the global installed personal computer (PC) base but account for 20 percent of the energy use. Mills estimated that gaming computers consumed 75 TWh of electricity globally in 2012, or $10 billion, and projects that will double by 2020 given current sales rates and without efficiency improvements. Potential estimated savings of $18 billion per year globally by 2020, or 120 terawatt hours (TWh) are possible. Mills started the site GreeningtheBeast.org. You can read the full paper as a PDF.

Comments

And?

[4pins]

So I should swap out my video card to save a little power, drop a few frames and die a virtual death? I think they have their priorities backwards.

Re:And?

[bobbied]

So, what you're saying is that dropping from 1000 frames per second, to 950 FPS is all it takes to die?

My dad had a saying, I think it applies here: "A poor workman blames his tools"

To channel a story from yesterday... IF the tool is Python, the blame is well placed... ;)

Fuck Off

[Tokolosh]

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

H. L. Mencken