Ever wondered how much it costs to play your PS4 or Xbox One?

When you go and purchase the latest gaming system, the last thing you probably consider is how much it will add to your energy bill. However latest figures revealed have shown that the energy cost of gaming is four times more expensive than it used to be during the retro days.

[UltimateOne88]

No not really.

[Kratos1981]

If you're paying £300+ for a console, and £30+ per game, who gives a crap if you're paying 11p a day on electricity!!!

[Apollosupreme]

Simple, people who need something to write about care. Possibly people sitting on the can care or care to read while they... Wait, at least.

[Trolltroll]

There was another artical where they measured the "xbox one always on" and it added 150 bucks a year. So I turned the feature off. Yelling at my xbone to turn it on was not worth the 150 bucks it cost to keep it. That is three more games a year and I give a crap about that.

[Tzuno]

Well at least is still less than a PC, can't say the same for games.

[nitus10]

Depends on your PC. I have an Skylake i7 but I only use the on-board graphics card of my motherboard since I don't really play PC games. Most of the time my PC plus monitor draws less then 60W although if I do some serious number crunching I can draw around 100W.

[Srelhow]

Motherboards haven't had on board graphics for a long time its all on the cpu.

[Utalkin2me]

@nitus10

As you said you dont play Pc games. A gaming PC draws around 300 bucks a year without even being on. And around 300-700 with moderate use. Which is way less then half of any console i use.

[nitus10]

@Srelhow

The keyword was "Skylake" which are the newest processors from Intel. Mine is the 4 Core i7-6700 3.4GHz 8MB with a Gigabyte Z170M-D3H motherboard and 16GB of Kingston HyperX FURY 2133 DDR4.

I am well aware I could have gone for over-clocking such as the 4 Core i7-6700k (you need to buy a separate heat sink), an even better motherboard plus faster RAM, but my configuration works really well for what I use it for.

Look at the spec of the GX-Z170M-D3H and you will see it has an on board GPU, nothing flash mind you although if I really want to I could get a fairly powerful graphics card that would make my set-up into a higher end gaming rig.

A High end gaming rig is a bit of a misnomer since no matter how much money you throw at a gaming rig in a few months/weeks/days someone has probably got a better one.

Of course I would also have to ask the question "Why would I need a Microsoft operating system, when Fedora 23 (Linux) does everything I want and more?" :-)

As per my last post I actually did some measurements, my monitor draws about 20W and my PC 40W when idle or even just surfing the web. Playing a Youtube video or even playing a movie via VLC takes an additional 15~20W and if I really go all out with video translation my watt-meter hits 140W with my CPU's at over 80% while the program is running (about 2 minutes for a 25 minute show).

[RedDevils]

Might as well live on the street, if you have to calculate every pound it cost you to run the PS4 lol

[stuna1]

A refrigerator uses more energy, air conditioners, most Stereo systems.

[Utalkin2me]

Thats actually false.

PC
750 watt power supply max rated power usage.
10amps X 110. volts = 1,100 watts

1,000 x 24 hours/day = 26,400 watts
26,400 divided by 1000 = 26.4 Kwh
26.4 x 0.12 = $3.17/day
$3.17/day x 30 = $95.10/month

Actually a refrigerator uses less energy. And stereos due too. I mean this is basic average.

[stuna1]

Well in retrospect the article is talking about gaming consoles that 1 don't usually run 24 hours a day, 30 days out of a month, and also have sleep modes if their not completely turned off.

A refrigerator on the other hand runs 365 days a year, with no rest mode. Depending on the type of stereo you have, mines for example has a 1500 watt max which I use whenever I game, not to mention it's tied into my TV when I'm watching movies. Although it could be argued that my stereo doesn't run 365 days a year, ii does in fact have a rest mode also.

The fact that my stereo is synced with my TV means whenever my stereo comes on so does my TV, and vice-a-versa. That doesn't doesn't even call into play my 400 watt Klipsch sub woofer.

[nitus10]

Just because you have a 750 Watt power supply does not means you are drawing that much continually.

My PC has a 500 Watt PSU and when idle or just web surfing the PC draws just 40W and I have 4 Core i7-6700 (Skylake) which is the latest release from Intel. My LG 24" IPS monitor draws just 20W.

I have to mention that I actually use the GPU on my motherboard (GX-Z170M-D3H) which is nothing great but it does what I want.

A more powerful graphics card could probably add 100W or more to the mix especially when playing a graphically intensive game.

When I leave or go to bed I always put my monitor into sleep mode (less than 1W) and if I am not running any jobs on my PC I normally shut it down. Reboots take less than 30 seconds and within 20 seconds later I am running what I need.

Of course when you fire up a sound system then all bets are off but again you don't leave them on continuously and mine hibernates when not in use.

[Utalkin2me]

Doesnt matter, until you guys prove facts. Then your opinions means nothing plain and simple. Until you can break down facts of such and how it pulls more power, then opinions mean nothing. Your comparing stuff that runs 24/7 to PC stuff that run occasionally. And it false until you prove otherwise.

@stuna1

Im sorry you own a klipsch sub. Probably not the best thing to call out your crappy speaker equipment.

[franwex]

I thought it was an interesting article. Not sure why there's so many negative comments.

[Qrphe]

This, an actually entertaining article that's videogame related without baits.

[Nivekki]

Most people on here who comment on the articles never actually read the article they're commenting on. They just love to argue about the headline and fight the good fight for their console war.

[UnHoly_One]

Yeah I like learning things like this.

I thought it was a neat article.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

I don't know either. And so many agrees for the negative comments. Do you all live on someone else's money or do that many of you really just not pay any attention at all to your electric bill?

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

Fanboyism really. All this is, is informative.

[Dudebro90]

There is no way it costs more to run an Xbox than a refrigerator.

MAYBE, under load its higher, I would still find that hard to believe, but a refrigerator runs all day long where as a console has a stand by mode.

[BLAKHOODe]

I believe some people just enjoy hitting the disagree button. IDK. I guess it's funny to them.

[pyroxxx]

There is no way in hell desktop pc costs less,..that is just absurd,.. single half decent gpu eats more power as entire console systems ,.. whoever made this graph is a moron ,.. and even then it is not that much ,.. PC probably pulls about as much electricity me sufring this site as my console does at the peak of gaming ,.. would imagine 200wat max (if even that)

[JumpToGamer]

Blame British Gas :P haha You haven't tried their customer service yet....

[Qrphe]

Yep, specially with these new consoles that were made with lower power usage in mind.

[nitus10]

Sorry but a desktop PC can draw much less than a console under the right conditions. For instance I do have a very powerful machine (see my previous posts in this thread) and when running a SNES emulator I actually draw about 70W which also includes the 20W of my monitor.

Note: I am only using the inbuilt graphics card of my motherboard (GX-Z170M-D3H) which does the job I want it to do. Add a decent?? graphics card and my machine would be a high end gaming rig although there would always be ones that are better but much more expensive.

Of course if you have what is called a gaming rig with a very powerful graphics card and you are playing a game with all options maxed out then your PC may be drawing anything from 200W to a 1000W and more depending on what your graphics card(s) are and what they are driving.

I am not running down consoles by any means since I have a PS3 slim in my lounge and a FAT PS3 right next to my PC and I would much rather play games on my console than play games on my PC.

Very soon I will be getting a PS4 and it will get pride of place in my lounge room although I may shift it between lounge and PC office depending if my wife is watching TV or not. She has lately taken a liking to my Z623 THX 2.1 sound system which is nothing flash but it really can rock the house.

[sk8ofmnd]

Nope never.

[Hallow]

My 7 year old 50" Plasma is the biggest power consuming thing in my house and its pretty bad. My utility bill gets hit with that thing.

Unrelated: I haven't been on here in a while why do we all have so many bubbles?

[kma2k]

so basically less than $0.25 a day...yea im ok with that!

[Sly-Lupin]

Wow. That's impressive. I'd have thought that modern consoles would use a LOT more power than the old ones. A PS4 really only needs 400% the power of a SNES? That's incredible.

Of course, these days you can practically play SNES games on a pair of AAA batteries.

[assdan]

more than a fridge??? Are you kidding me? A fridge/freezer combo will use almost 3000kWh a day. If you run a ps4 at peak consumption for 12 hours a day, you'd be right, but that's not really how it works.

[icerob]

clearly the Xbox Won is therefor the most powerful.. case closed.

[MasterofMagnetism]

Interesting if true.

[hiawa23]

I play my consoles almost everyday when I get home from work, since launch 2013, both the X1 & PS4, and my electric bill is about the same as it was before they were released, so my electric bill I don't worry about when it comes to my consoles, it is about the same. The main items that run my electric bill up are if I wash and dry more than usual or the central heat and air runs more than usual, but the consoles are fine as far as affecting my overall bill every month.

[sAVAge_bEaST]

Go Solar.

[Artemidorus]

You have your priorities wrong if you panic about bills for using a console.

[MAULxx]

Hmmm, I wonder how much water I use a year by flushing the toilet.

Who cares.