Gaming PC: This is the typical power consumption

The power consumption of a gaming PC is higher than that of a computer designed purely for office applications. Find out which components are particularly power-hungry and what you should also bear in mind in this practical tip.

This is how high the power consumption of a gaming PC is

All electrical devices consume electricity, and this of course also applies to computers.

• However, power consumption varies depending on what the computer is designed for. A PC for pure office applications gets by with simpler components than a gaming PC.
• For you to be able to run computationally intensive games on a computer, the PC must have some computing power. This means that a powerful CPU must be installed.
• The game should not only run smoothly, but also be displayed smoothly and in as much detail as possible. Accordingly, the demands on the graphics card are high. This component also has to deliver a lot of power.
• More power means more energy consumption. To ensure that the powerful components are supplied with sufficient power, the power supply unit must also be more powerful than on an office PC.
• More power also means more heat generation. Consequently, the CPU as well as the graphics card must be cooled effectively – and in most cases the coolers also need power to operate.
• A gaming PC therefore consumes more power than a conventional PC, where the power consumption is around 90 kWh per year for 4 hours of use per day. How much higher the consumption is depends on the hardware installed.
• While you can expect a conventional PC to consume about 14 to 200 watts per hour for the processor and graphics card, you have to expect a gaming PC to consume about 350 watts for these components – almost twice as much.
• If you calculate the power consumption of a gaming PC solely on the basis of the processor and the graphics card for four hours of gaming a day, i.e. 350 watts x 4 x 365, that’s 511 kWh a year.

Components also consume electricity

Gamers are usually not content with a powerful PC.

• A large monitor with high resolution is a must if gaming is to be really fun. This also costs electricity.
• But there is also potential for savings with the gaming PC. When you’re done playing a game, don’t just shut down the PC, switch it off completely, preferably unplug it from the mains. The same goes for the monitor.
• If the PC is only shut down, it continues to consume power for the main memory in standby mode. This amounts to about 15 watts per hour.
• Clean your PC regularly, paying special attention to the fans. A dusty fan has to work harder because it no longer cools effectively and therefore consumes more power.
• Do not load games from the cloud. It costs a lot of power because the high-resolution images in cloud gaming have to be calculated first.
• You can save power on the monitor by turning down the resolution a bit.