Study: Xbox One, PS4 consume ridiculous amounts of unnecessary power

[DeltaXray]

The ARM chip in my cellphone from 2004 could handle a data connection robust enough to tether to my PC via bluetooth to play WoW. There's no way in hell that a chip 10 years newer can't do the same [download data].

 

Maybe so but they haven't got it to work yet. They said themselves the arm chip wasn't up to the task (at launch) and I don't know how much optimisation they can do as the OS isn't exactly huge to begin with.

[MightyJordan]

Do we know if this is comparing this gens hardware and the latest hardware versions of last-gen consoles or the original versions?

 

More simply: are they comparing a PS4 with the original "phat" PS3 or the latest slim version?

In the headlines, no, they're not; they're comparing the PS4 and Xbox One with the refined and slimmed down PS3 and Xbox 360s. Here's the full chart, which can be found in page 8 of the report...

 

It's not so bad when you compare with the original PS3 and 360; the PS4's consuming less than the first two PS3 models (fat and slim), and the Xbox One's consuming less than the first three 360s (Xenon, Zephyr and Falcon; Zephyr isn't in the chart as it has the same power consumption as Xenon).

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

That's probably a better view of the power consumption story. I'm sure as the this gen's consoles go through both software and hardware revisions we'll see the same pattern of reduced power consumption.

 

I used to have my One on stand-by but realised that I didn't mind waiting for a while to save some money on my electricity bill. 

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

In the headlines, no, they're not; they're comparing the PS4 and Xbox One with the refined and slimmed down PS3 and Xbox 360s. Here's the full chart, which can be found in page 8 of the report...

Energy.PNG

 

It's not so bad when you compare with the original PS3 and 360; the PS4's consuming less than the first two PS3 models (fat and slim), and the Xbox One's consuming less than the first three 360s (Xenon, Zephyr and Falcon; Zephyr isn't in the chart as it has the same power consumption as Xenon).

 

The original PS3 was like a mini nuclear processing plant in your house!

[MightyJordan]

The original PS3 was like a mini nuclear processing plant in your house!

Yep, my replacement fat PS3 still is! If I didn't care about backwards compatibility and looks I would have gone with the slim. :P

[Hum]

If your energy bill has been out of control lately, it might be time to rethink the way you use your video game console.

A new report by the Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that the latest generation game consoles could cost Americans up to $1 billion annually in utility bills ? $400 million of which is due to energy wasted while the machines aren?t even being used.

The NRDC analyzed energy consumption of the three most popular game consoles ? Microsoft?s Xbox One, Sony?s PlayStation 4, and Nintendo?s Wii U ? and found that if every household were to replace their old consoles with the new models, they would consume nearly 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.

When so many of our household appliances -- from our light bulbs to our washing machines ? seem to only get more energy efficient ? why is it that game manufacturers are heading in the opposite direction?

Part of the reason is that these consoles aren?t just being used for marathon video game sessions anymore. They also double as streaming devices, becoming the kind of household appliance that is constantly ?plugged in? even when not in use.

The Xbox One and PS4 actually consume two to three times more energy per year than their predecessors, due to inefficient energy use while in standby mode.

The average Xbox One user will spend up to $180 on energy costs over the lifetime of the console, compared to the $50 its predecessor, the Xbox 360, cost. The PS4 would cost an extra $135 in utility charges over its lifetime, three times as much as the PS3, which cost $50. The Wii U was the only console that didn?t increase energy consumption. It costs users about the same as Nintendo?s previous model, the Wii, at around $30.

 

Tips:

 

1. When you get a new console, don?t stick with the default settings. They are almost always set up to consume the most energy.

 

2. Enable the ?Auto Power Down? feature, which allows the machine to turn off if you?ve left it idle for a specified amount of time. You can also achieve this by disabling the ?Standby mode.?

 

3. If you have a designated video streaming device like an Apple TV or Roku, use it instead of defaulting to your gaming console.

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[Nick H. Supervisor]

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