How Much Power Does Your Gaming PC Use? STOP WASTING MONEY!

Feels confused and sicks now every releasing new vga card power consumption always increases and wastes electricity too, in the end just play consoles just dont care fps rate even upgrade too just have fun

My pc uses like 160 watts at idle. My i5 11600k is a powerhog. Even when sleeping it still uses 6-8 watts. However my pi 4 at peak is even lower then that. The difference is mind boggling

I use a modest gaming pc when gaming, and when working, browsing the web and doing other basic computing tasks I use an Intel NUC! I also leave the NUC powered on for roughly 12 hours per day as it has Sonarr and Radarr installed on it, as I want to ensure it downloads all the latest releases.

The NUC uses between 5-10 watts when idle and between 10-20 watts under load!

For comparison, my gaming pc uses roughly 150 watts under load when gaming and about 40 watts when idle.

If you are worried about a gaming PC power cost, you should have never bought one in the first place and have stuck to cheaper alternatives such as Console, or not considering either.

Thank you, you magnificent bastard!

I don't even have to look anywhere else, all the info is here!

God forbid you talk about efficiency with AMD CPU and the most expensive and power hungry Nvidia GPU, even if you pay several hundreds USD for power annually this is not an issue for you and the build is neither cost effective nor power optimized.

My pc pulls 600 watts on idle, i don’t know what to do about that.

I have a RTX 3080 from msi and a intel i5.

Please 🥺 i need help!

just get a mac silicon and forget about it

i do keep mine on 24/7 dual monitor 800w 12th gen

If im just gonna browse the internet using your phone is less than 50watts

Any Update? We need new calculations with new price for KWh. In Poland we have about $0,40/KWH and we are not a Island :-) And I can say more, companys witout private bills have to paid araound 0.80USD/1KWH

HOW MUCH IS NOW ?

Thank you very much!

Thanks to a little project of mine, my computer now talks directly to the Smart Meter on my home. The power company now thinks it owes ME money.

it also depends on the game you are playing and the graphics settings, if you are playing yakuza, lol, rocket league... these games are not demanding. Let's try this, assume you are playing red dead redemption 2, Alane Wake 2, baldur's gate3or and bad optimized games, these games can cause your pc to shut down if you have a PSU below 450w, simply put gpu demand too much power

my rtx 4070 oc in my pc uses on full load 385watts included ram cpu ssd the psu is 650watt corsair, gamers says NO you burning the psu way to week BS its over kill

wow. Thanks to our government here in Germany, we have with at least the highest kWh costs worldwide. That’s so stupid!

very good video thanks

You can easily double these prices now.
At least in London.

what's the cost 2 years later? With electricity sky rocketing?

9 cents for a KWh is fucking cheap

This is y we need communism tbh

maaaaan so cool white hair line, although this video wasn't what i was looking for, have a good one!

Try playing a pc in the U.K. where it cost like 32p per kw per hour and my pc while gaming draws 600w including monitor and everything so it works out very expensive

I'm thinking of getting a gaming pc, nothing immense, but good enough, but I have been worried about power consumption. $30/year isnt THAT bad actually, especially since I already turn my stuff off, by the wall, when not in use and my pc would likely just be an RX 7500.

in rural mountains in california now our cost per kwh is 53c. pg&e really upped their rates these last 2 years

Thanks for the video, what an astonishing content you make. Not idlin is the way

Mmmmmmm...... Lots of constructive and mindful advice. Good job, Man.

Nothing weird about this power meter, it's probably made by the same factory in China. It's a very old model, too (with many revisions of the years, no doubt). I have the same but for EU plugs.

Man, electricity is actually cheap in the U. S.! At least in your region it is.

Buy a pc handheld like a Steam Deck or Rog Ally. It'll save you so much energy in the long run. Even when docked you'll still be saving a lot compared to a gaming pc or console. Even a Nintendo Switch will do just fine.

Where do you live that .75 kWh is just 5c? It is usually more like 30c/kWh

so our eletricity doesnt scale based on how much you use per month? like once your over a certain kwh for the month the price increases? that will give you a bigger number per year. good video none the less

Why does anyone care about pollution. For every Pound of carbon I prevent going into the atmosphere, china and india pump five or six more Million tons of carbon Into the atmosphere it's a losing proposition. Why are we killing ourselves to stop carbon dioxide From going into the atmosphere when china in india aren't being stopped at all

Global warming alert !

Power (and thermal) cycling is what will usually kill electronics. I pretty much never power my PC off (since c. 2012, now on the 3rd build), never had a single hardware failure in that time, not even an HDD. The one from 2012 (P8Z77 / 2500K, later 3770K), according to the SMART data on a couple of WD Greens running in RAID 0, was running for 6.5 years of 7.5 years before I upgraded. It drew c. 45W at the wall, the current one under 40W.

Dont take i9 or any intel , go for amd to save even more upto 50-70%

Use battery products rather then direct power products



Like laptop instead of computer.

why would anyone leave the pc on??? with ssd's it takes like 30 seconds to boot.

Welp I’m paying 3 dollars and 19 cents a month compared to the 220 I pay for the ac and lights /: jk I don’t use my computer but ounce a week 😂

sad u dont even mention the PSU of a PC

Hold on, was that 130w on idle? That sounds like strangely large numbers. I dont have a power meter, but the self-reported numbers from my components total to 40w total when idling.

Do you have any kind of breakdown of your idle numbers? For example how much of a difference would it make to just turn off the screen and leave the computer on?
You're wasting money anyway I suppose, but it would still be interesting to know, especially since most modern components will idle really well. The GPU you have should idle at less than 20w.

my pc is on 24/7 365 why ? because turning it on and off is more expensive and can damage your processor. leaving it on is way cheaper.

Great video.. here in Denmark we pay example 0,44 usd for each 1 kwh and even more in the witner time when the big solar power parks dont provide as much power as normal. This ofcourse depend on many things often its less than 0,44 usd.
Actually the electricty itself cost example 0,075 usd, BUT on top of that come all kind of tax such as delivery tax, sales tax, net tax and other stuff and then the price end up like 0,44 usd for 1 kwh of electricty.
But it depend allot if its peak time of the day from 17-22 where its the most expensive ( like 0,44usd )
but from 12-16 the price can be like 0,22 usd since there is an overproduction of power so in such a case you only pay all the taxes but get the power for free. So the prices goes up down allot.
The main issue for many people are that you are not at home when the power is "cheap" so you spend most of your time gaming, cooking, tv from 17-22 in ordinary familys. The same goes with your electric car that you cant charge in the middle of the day when its away from home. ( some electric cars can even be used as a house battery where you can charge the car example in the night and then if its home deliver to the house when the power is expensive so you dont have to buy during peak houres. ).
Pesonaly when the war in ukraine started prices skyrocked and my bill was like 2-3 times higher than normal for x month and then it dropped to a more normal level again.
But due to all the unrest in the world that can effect prices i bought a hybrid solar power system so now i make my own electricty and in the summer time produce like 99% of all power i use my self. From 7 in the morning to 20 in the evening it can power my gaming computer with solar. ( and house )
And in winter time i can charge the battery when its cheap at night ect.
I think the electricty prices/tax is crazy BUT in example 10 years from now i think prices will be lower when there are more wind and solar parks than today.
At idle my gamer pc run at like 150watt ( that is with pc, 4k monitor and usb devices, and like 550w when gaming )
tip if you turn off HDR in the screen you save like 50watt, and you can also reduce game fps and monitor hz so the computer dont have to use quite as much power. Honestly most games do NOT require you to run them at any more than 60fps to have a fluid and great gaming experience. There are also options in windows 11 under power/graphics where you can select what games should run with "reduced power" and turn off HDR and such things, but honestly i dont really know if it work that great. You can also in nvidia and AMD software reduce FPS in games, just remember to reduce your monitors HZ if you do so for best result.
ps. my 10 year old laptop uses only 45watt when surfing the net.. the gaming pc uses 150watt.
think about that.
pps, i consider to get a small one or two 500watt windmill in the garden for the winter time to charge the battery.
power is very expensive in my country.

even more so today, and potentially next gen. Power efficiency gets talked about way too little, if your CPU/GPU can do the same work with 50+Watts less consumption, that 50-100 bucks initial price difference gonna equate after a few years and be cheaper in the long run.

A small note to the calculations: the energie used by a PC isnt "wasted", it converted into heat in a way we can also do calculations with. During winter that energie the PC uses is 1:1 saved in heating, but on the contrary, if you live in a hot country and have an AC, it has to cool that extra heat as well (with a higher efficiency but still). So if you live up north you might as well stock up on a nice gaming rack and play throughout the winter when you cant go outside anyways.

Welp that explains the monthly bill 😅 thank you for the vid

well for laptops its gonna be 300w at peak

wait shouldnt you divide the kwh by three as its the hours you played?

after watching this video you sir have earned my subscription

Thanks for watching. 🙏 Don't forget to LIKE, It helps a lot!