Associate
- Joined
- 10 Dec 2010
- Posts
- 1,428
- Location
- Cumbria
I think consoles can learn from PC power saving features now that it's becoming a real issue
40% of next-gen console power consumption is from standby mode
- Thread starter SexyGreyFox
- Start date
How presumptuous of you. You have no idea what I do with my PC once I leave it running. So take you're 'irony' and gently place it where the sun don't shine.
Ok, enlighten me, what does *your* pc do for 'days at a time' whilst *your* accountant worries about it?
Last edited:
Ok, enlighten me, what does *your* pc do for 'days at a time' whilst *your* accountant worries about it?
Just had a quick chat with my lawyer and he has advised me not to divulge that information. If you have further queries you're welcome to contact my PR manager during office hours. You can find her number by making a quick prayer to the baby jebus.
You need a lot of power to be able to say 'Xbox On' and turn on the system.
Precisely.
If we let them learn then they may become self aware. Then we'd have a problem
You need a lot of power to be able to say 'Xbox On' and turn on the system.
Totally agree on that, I actually don't use stand by on my Xbox.
Saying that, why does the PS4 need as much power as it does in standby? Is it just for installing updates in the background? Does the WiiU have that feature?
From what I read, the PS4 SoC has to remain on for background tasks at the moment (inc the costly GDDR5. A firmware update should enable the low power chipset to take over these duties "soon", allowing the rest to sleep.
How true this is, I have no idea
How true this is, I have no idea
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 8,920
Less than a sky box which we all leave on 24 hours a day.
I know some of you hate the EU 
p) but I'm totally in favour of their drive to reduce power consumption.
There should be a maximum standby power that all devices have to meet to be sold in the EU. And it should be <1W ideally.
p) but I'm totally in favour of their drive to reduce power consumption.There should be a maximum standby power that all devices have to meet to be sold in the EU. And it should be <1W ideally.
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 8,920
I know some of you hate the EU
There should be a maximum standby power that all devices have to meet to be sold in the EU. And it should be <1W ideally.
Is that even possible? My dirty socks use more than that on standby.
I know some of you hate the EU
There should be a maximum standby power that all devices have to meet to be sold in the EU. And it should be <1W ideally.
No chance
I pretty sure it is. Lots of really big TVs are rated as <1W on standby.
There's very little reason why a games console shouldn't be forced to follow suit. After all, we don't need all the gimmicky things that use power in standby mode. Like being able to say "XBox on" to turn it on. How exactly is that better than pushing a button?
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
Yup, sky boxes are a joke in this day and age, cable boxes in general are.
They should have been amongst the first things to switch to higher power arm chips, not big chips.
My sky box is so god awful, and the latest software update is hilariously awful. Sky boxes should have been designed down into instant on, ultra responsive, less buggy and sub 5W idle using boxes 5+ years ago already.
As for the consoles, hopefully some power saving features to come but ultimately the reason the consoles and the Sky boxes don't bother with lowest possible idle power is.... no one makes them(yet). To get the absolute lowest idle power they would need to spend a little more on power circuitry, both higher quality parts for the most efficiency possible, parts with more voltage planes. On top of that you have the R&D cost from Sony/MS to make a chip work with more power planes, and maybe most importantly, when you start binning console chips for meeting certain power requirements you start throwing working chips away because they don't meet low targets. Throwing chips away for not meeting a power requirement when they otherwise work costs money.
Combination of rushing to the market, the costs involved and the unwillingness of companies to spend more than they are forced to by in this case environmental standards means these devices are rarely lowest power possible.
Mobile devices go for low power because that is their function, but a console won't work better if it uses 1W low and 50W high or 30W low, 300W high.
THe difference with the Wii U is, all the parts of the chip are basically heavily revised VERY old parts, so in terms of R&D they aren't really doing new architecture, just shrinking and making it power/size efficient. Nintendo hardware is anything but rushed to market.
ARchitecture wise, if you put XO/PS4 hardware through 2-3 process shrinks and 2-3 R&D cycles they'd be using very little power also.
You can have the console power down completely if you want to, or you can have it stay on standby so it'll automatically get game updates, download content etc. Why should I be forced to lose functionality because the EU says so?
If Sky weren't giving the boxes away effectively for free, perhaps they would have. As it is, they're made cheaply as possible so it's not really a surprise that they are what they are. That said, there are power saving options that reduce standby energy consumption so I'm not sure what the actual issue is here, although I don't know what the figures are.
Last edited:
I know some of you hate the EU
There should be a maximum standby power that all devices have to meet to be sold in the EU. And it should be <1W ideally.
Agreed.
Lots of stuff is 1watt or under in stand. Including humax freest boxes.
Last edited:
Because wasting power is bad?
0.01% of the time your console might have some background work to do, the other 99.99% it's just using electricity for no reason.
In future wasting power might be a liberty we can't afford. The EU are just being sensible. We waste far too much of everything and should start to reign this bad habit in.
Your quality of life will hardly be impacted to any meaningful extent.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 33,188
lol, there are loads of deals for free upgrades and the like but MANY people bought the hd boxes for £200, considering a very decent arm chip, WAY more than enough power for a skybox for £10-20. Sky subscription costs are insane. I mean lots of people are spending £60+ a month on sky. Someone has a box for 5 years and they've spent £3000 on sky, the what should now be £50 arm box is easily included in that cost.
The cost is a none issue, the fact that Sky get away with crap hardware, not updated it and not improving for years is why they haven't spent on the R&D to make a better box. They can't be bothered, nothing else. If forced they would and it wouldn't be too expensive.