The evolution of video game console energy efficiency
A refrigerator in the 1970’s and 1980’s uses 1400 kWh/yr. A refrigerator in the 1990’s uses about 700 kWh/yr; an energy star refrigerator today uses 425kWh/yr. My point is that refrigerators, as boring as they might be, use less than 1/3 of the energy it used to 30 years ago. You think that all new technologies are more efficient? Think again…. This is a table extracted from Noah Horowiz’s Improving the Energy Efficiency of Video Game Consoles article published in November 2008.
| Console and Year Released | Off (W) | Idle (W) | Active (W) |
| Microsoft Xbox 360 (2007) |
3.1 |
117.5 |
118.8 |
| Microsoft Xbox 360 (Launch 2005) |
2.2 |
162 |
172 |
| Microsoft Xbox (2001) |
1.7 |
59.9 |
64 |
| Sony PlayStation 3 (2007) |
1.1 |
152.9 |
150.1 |
| Sony PlayStation 3 (Launch 2006) |
1.1 |
181 |
188.6 |
| Sony PlayStation 2 (2000) |
1.7 |
24.2 |
24.2 |
| Sony PlayStation (1994) |
1.4 |
6.5 |
8 |
| Nintendo Wii (2006) |
1.9 |
10.5 |
16.4 |
| Nintendo GameCube (2000) |
0.7 |
22.7 |
23 |
| Nintendo 64 (1996) |
1.1 |
7.8 |
7.3 |
| Nintendo Super Nintendo (1991) |
1.5 |
5.4 |
7.3 |
WOW… other than Nintendo Wii which has a power rating lower than previous Nintendo consoles, the power rating for XBox and PlayStaions are just - crazy. For Xbox, the first generation of Xbox360 uses about 3 times as much power. The newer generation Xbox360 has been improved and uses slightly less power, but still, the newest version of Xbox360 uses almost twice as much power as Xbox. The figures are way more rediculous for PlayStations. PlayStation 3, when it first came out, actually uses 23.6 times more power! I understand that new game consoles are like a computer and thus usese more power than old ones, but I’d like to think that there are energy efficiency opportunities in these game consoles! Also worth noting is that for Xbox360 and PS3, they draw just as much power when it’s idling!! The reason is that it’s like a computer is running as long as you have it on!
Tags: climate change, energy efficiency
Population and climate change | flo | 
April 23, 2009 1:00 am
2 Comments
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Subscribe
By Jay, April 23, 2009 @ 8:48 am
Interesting ..
Most hi-tech gadgets are all going this way - cell phones (with GPS, camera, PDA, mp3, you name it) in particular. And look at how big the fan/fins of video cards are nowadays. I recall somebody said if Microsoft could make their Windows OS more efficient, we might save a lot of energy?
By flo, April 23, 2009 @ 10:00 pm
Yeah, i do realize new gadgets uses more energy, but it’s surprising to see certain electronics, like PlayStation, to increase power consumption by 23x!!! I would love to see Microsoft making their OS more efficient! I’ll see what I can find out with current research/studies!