PS3 is the winner! For wattage use...

by Nick Doerr { Nov 30th 2006 at 5:45PM }

All right, so it may not be something to call home about, but we'll take whatever 1st place award we can get. The PS3 is the most powerful system this generation and as such, consumes the most wattage. Even the mightiest heroes cannot fight evil on an empty stomach -- bring on the feast! But first, the good news. When on standby, the PS3 is the winner on the least amount of watt usage: 0 to 1 watts are used while on standby. The Wii uses 8, and the 360 and PS2 use around 2. So, that's awesome.

What about when idle on the main menu (XMB, 360's Dashboard, the Wii's home menu)? The Wii is the clear winner, running around 15-20 watts. Second place goes to the 360, with about 145 watts. The PS3? It ranges from 185-205 watts. When running games, the numbers all go up, but the order stays the same. So there you have it -- keep the PS3 turned off if you're stepping away for a little while. Let the Wii stay on, and use your own discretion with the 360.

Tags: Microsoft, Nintendo, Playstation 3, Playstation3, PS3, Sony, Wii, XBox 360, Xbox360

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

bob sole @ Nov 30th 2006 6:01PM

If any one is haveing a hard time getting their hands on a ps3, lets just day you might want to check your local Gamestops tomarow. (Friday December 1st) this is just a little inside scoop from some one very high up in the Gamestop world. If you have any luck let me know.

reguy @ Nov 30th 2006 6:02PM

nick, i could rip your article apart, but im going to get straight to the point, how much power does the ps3 use when its actually playing games? how does that compare to the super weak 360?

oh thats right it uses twice the power

fanboy indeed

Andir2.0 @ Nov 30th 2006 6:03PM

Hmm, it tells me the power supply is pretty efficient if those numbers are accurate. In so much of a way that the PS3's power supply doesn't have a large overhead and most likely produces less heat per watt as well.

I think Sony has a stable design, and maybe they tried to "mass" market it to quick? I'll be getting one ASAP, but is there a good way to tell people that they don't "need" the system right away? That they should let early adopter's pay for it early on? (Kind of like when any new tech hits market?) Can they afford to do that in the console industry? Right now, I'm undecided, but I think the PS3 will do well enough in the long run. It won't be the "A.D.D. Wii want it NOW!" crowd, but those of us willing to wait may feel better rewarded?? More speculation brought to you by nobody important.

Tums @ Nov 30th 2006 7:10PM

WOW! So much playstation 3 news. What a busy couple of days! Now you know what to look forward to. Playstation Fanboy keep it coming. Go playstation 3!

Neil @ Nov 30th 2006 7:17PM

Yeah surprisingly so far there have been very little problems with overheating or bricking for the PS3.

Groggy @ Nov 30th 2006 9:39PM

Bob, I would forget GameStop. Just ck your local target. I think they had like 7 of them. me and 2 of my friends went and Picked up 3 20 gigs Tuesday.

James @ Dec 1st 2006 1:54AM

I never knew that the 360 had a standby mode. I always thought it was simply OFF.

epobirs @ Dec 1st 2006 5:15AM

#2

There is no way to give a simple number for that question.

Is the optical drive spinning? The hard drive? How many ports are active? How intensely does the game stress the chipset?

A single game's power usage can vary wildly, depending on how well the chipset is designed to avoid generating heat for low activity. One game can make the system work harder than another, regardless of the quality of the game to the player's perspective. A inefficent coded game can require the system to work a lot harder than would be needed by more efficient code for the exact same result.

All that can be said for sure is where the system can peak, based on the capacity of the power supply and assuming Sony left a bit of breathing space so that the power supply would never have to be at 100%. What a power supply can deliver maximally should never be required in real life if you want a reasonable margin of safety and durability.