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NRDC: The Latest-Generation Video Game Consoles - How Much Energy Do They Waste When You’re Not Playing? (PDF)
The Latest-Generation Video Game Consoles:
How Much Energy Do They Waste When You’re Not Playing?
N
R
DC
ISSUE BRIEF
MAY 2014
IB:14-05-B
The latest-generation game consoles are on track to gulp a massive amount of electricity—enough to power
all the homes in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, for a year—and cost consumers more than
$1 billion annually. Astoundingly, $400 million of that will be spent when the consoles are in “standby” (a.k.a.
sleep) mode and no one is using them. NRDC’s latest testing and analysis shows the recently introduced
Microsoft Xbox One is the biggest energy user, followed by the Sony PlayStation 4; their consumption is
two to three times higher than their predecessors.
1
In comparison, the Nintendo Wii U is an energy sipper.
For more information, go to our full report at www.nrdc.org/energy/game-consoles/default.asp
NRDC’s analysis shows that collectively these new consoles
will use roughly 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity
annually in the United States alone, enough electricity for all
of Houston's homes, once all previous-generation consoles
in use have been replaced by these newer ones.
2
Although the
new consoles have incorporated some energy-saving design
features, including better power scaling (drawing less power
when doing less work) and transitioning automatically to a
lower-power state after an extended period of user inactivity,
more improvements remain achievable and necessary.
PAGE 2
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The Latest-Generation Video Game Consoles: How Much Energy Do They Waste When You’re Not Playing?
PLAYING MORE THAN GAMES
With an estimated 110 million units sold in the United States
since 2005—enough to have one in almost every home in
America—game consoles use several power plants’ worth
of electricity annually. Over the past five years, they have
expanded to new functions such as playing Blu-ray movies
and streaming online video and music, resulting in longer
periods of use. The latest-generation consoles also draw
more power to play games, due to their significantly higher
processing and graphics capabilities. Some offer voice and
motion recognition, which can significantly increase energy
consumption if not implemented in the most efficient
manner.
As a follow-up to NRDC’s groundbreaking 2008 report on the
energy use of video game consoles,
3
we performed extensive
laboratory tests on the latest generation of the most popular
consoles—the Nintendo Wii U, Sony PlayStation 4, and
Microsoft Xbox One.
4
We measured their power draw in key
operating modes and compared them with their predecessors
(Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360), as shown in Figures 1 and 3.
The manufacturers have incorporated many energy
efficiency features into their designs. However, the overall
electricity consumption of the new consoles still increased
two- to threefold for the Xbox One and PS4, compared with
their predecessors. Our analysis shows most of the increase
in annual energy consumption is due to excessive power
draw in standby mode, as seen in Figure 2, and, for the Xbox
One, more time switched on due to its TV viewing feature
(represented as Media in Figure 2). Other contributing
factors, although to a lesser extent, are the higher “on mode”
power consumption for game play and video streaming
with the Xbox One and PS4. Meanwhile, the Wii U consumes
slightly less energy than its predecessor the Wii, despite
providing higher-definition graphics and faster processing
capabilities, in large part thanks to its very low power draw in
connected standby mode.
0 25 50 75 100 125 150
Game Play
Streaming (Netflix)
Navigation
Connected Standby
Off
Power (watts)
■ Wii U
■ PS4
■ Xbox One
(top to bottom)
Figure 1: Power demand in the most common operating modes
A Quick Look at the Most Popular Consoles
Nintendo Wii U: Consuming on average just 37 kilowatt-
hours (kWh) annually, the Wii U is the energy saver of
the group. Attracting buyers with interactive, community-
oriented game play rather than high-end graphics, the Wii
U takes far less energy to operate than its competitors. In
particular, it consumes very little energy when switched
off, even though it remains connected to the Internet and
checks for updates.
Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4): Targeted at enthusiastic
gamers, the PS4 draws the most power to play games
and watch videos. However, it manages to hold its overall
annual energy consumption to 181 kWh by limiting power
when in standby but connected to the Internet. It could still
reduce standby power to levels comparable with the Wii U,
which would reduce its energy consumption further.
Xbox One: Aimed both at serious gamers and at TV
viewers who want to control their television through their
console, the Xbox One draws less power than the PS4 to
play games and watch videos. However, its overall energy
consumption of nearly 300 kWh annually when using TV
mode is much higher than that of both its competitors,
due to its need to remain on all the time when TV is being
watched, and to its high power demand when listening for
a voice command 24/7, even when in standby.
Although the PS4 draws more power during game play and
streaming, when one considers the time spent in each mode
the Xbox One consumes more energy annually than its
competitors as shown in Figure 2. Almost half of that energy
is used in connected standby mode, in which the device
consumes 15 watts around-the-clock as it listens for a voice
command—even in the middle of the night or when no one
is home.
PAGE 3
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The Latest-Generation Video Game Consoles: How Much Energy Do They Waste When You’re Not Playing?
Figure 2: Annual energy consumption
Xbox One
PS4
Wii U
kWh/y
Watts
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
210
181
37
2
9.9
25
29
72
89
44%
32%
233*
*Depending on TV mode usage
289
0
20
40
60
80
100
Apple TV
HD Streaming
Dedicated
Blu-ray
Player
High-End
Gaming
Notebook
Wii U
Streaming
Xbox One
Streaming
PS4
Streaming
■ Off
■ Connected Standby
■ Navigation/Other
■ Media
■ Game Play
Other key findings:
n
The newest generation consoles, on average over the
course of a year, gobble up more energy when showing
videos and in standby mode than when playing games.
n
If left unchanged, Xbox One’s always-listening voice
command feature alone would be responsible for $400
million in annual electricity bills and consume the
equivalent annual output of a large, 750-megawatt power
plant, once all older Xbox 360 have been replaced by new
Xbox One consoles.
n
Almost one-third of PS4 energy consumption takes
place in standby mode, due in part to higher power than
necessary to keep USB ports always active in standby,
even when no peripheral is charging.
n
When set up for TV viewing, Xbox One uses an average
of 289 kWh/y. This is 79 kWh/y more than in traditional
non-TV viewing setup. 233 kWh/y represents a weighted
average. If all Xbox One owners in the United States used
their consoles for watching TV, this mode alone would
add an extra $300 million to their annual utility bills. The
3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity consumed would
be equal to the annual output of a large (500-megawatt)
power plant—enough to power all the households in
Boston for a year.
n
The PS4 and Xbox One draw 30 to 45 times more power
to stream a movie than dedicated media players such as
Apple TV, Google Chromecast, or Amazon Fire TV.
Figure 3: Newest vs. previous generation (annual energy consumption)
kWh/y
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
PS4
PS3
64
181
Wii U
Wii
40
37
Xbox One
Xbox 360
70
*Depending on TV mode usage
210 233* 289
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
There are many opportunities for game console
manufacturers to substantially reduce the energy
consumption of the newest-generation models right now.
They should do so as soon as possible to avoid locking in
higher than necessary utility bills for their owners for the life
of the consoles. While higher performance and new features
may require some additional power, this does not justify
wasting significant amounts of energy when providing little
or no function.
NRDC is making a series of improvement
recommendations to manufacturers that could reduce
electricity use by another 25 percent beyond natural trends
in increasing semiconductor efficiency. This would save
U.S. consumers an additional $250 million annually in
electricity bills and conserve enough energy to power all
the households in San Jose, the 10th-largest city in the
United States.
Some of these recommendations only require settings
or user interface changes; they can be implemented rapidly
on new products and even on existing products via software
updates. Others require hardware design changes and
will need more time, but work should begin on them
without delay.
We urge manufacturers to:
n
Allow users to opt out of Xbox One’s “instant-on”
and voice-command, and PS4’s standby features, in their
initial setup menus so these high energy-consumptive
modes are used only when chosen.
n
Reduce Xbox One power draw when in connected
standby with voice command enabled.
n
Reduce PS4 power draw in standby.
n
Reduce Xbox One TV-mode power, and give users the
option to watch TV when the console is off or in a very-
low-power state.
n
On both the Xbox One and PS4, reduce video-streaming
power to levels closer to that of a dedicated video player.
How to Save Energy in Your Own Home Immediately
While it is first and foremost the manufacturers’
responsibility to implement design best practices to
minimize energy waste, gamers can make some minor
changes to the settings of their new consoles to reduce
electricity consumption in the meantime. Here's how:
Set your console to auto-power down when inactive.
With the new Xbox One and PS4, go into the unit’s system
menu to ensure the automatic power-down feature is
enabled and set for one hour of inactivity or less.
Avoid instant-on and other connected standby
modes until manufacturers make them more efficient.
Even with automatic power-down enabled, Xbox One’s
“Instant on” and PS4’s standby modes are configured by
default to remain connected to the Internet and perform
various other functions, which can represent a third
to almost a half of their total energy consumption, so
consider disabling those features.
Beware of Xbox One’s high-energy TV mode.
Xbox One can be set up to allow TV control from the
console, including the use of voice command to change
channels, but that means the console has to be on
whenever you watch TV—adding 72 watts to TV viewing.
To put this into perspective, it’s more power use than
that of a new 42-inch TV.
Printed on recycled paper © Natural Resources Defense Council 2014 www.nrdc.org/energy
For more information contact
Pierre Delforge at [email protected]
Endnotes
1 Testing was performed on launch units with system updates up to mid-April 2014. The effects of any system updates and
hardware improvements released after that date are not reflected in this report.
2 This estimate also accounts for efficiency improvements likely to be achieved via advances in semiconductor design in the coming years.
3 Noah Horowitz, Lowering the Cost of Play: Improving the Energy Efficiency of Game Consoles, NRDC, November 2008,
www.nrdc.org/energy/consoles/files/consoles.pdf.
4 www.nrdc.org/energy/game-consoles/default.asp
The work to prepare this report was funded by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to NRDC.
The views and findings expressed herein are solely those of the authors and do not state or reflect those of the EPA.
