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How on earth is Nintendo Switch's power consumption so low?

W

Wiped89

Member
Seriously, it's a miracle. The Switch's max power draw - max - is 18W. 18! To put that into perspective, the PS4 Pro can max out at 300W. I don't know what Xbox One X is, but probably even higher. Even the PS4 Slim and Xbox One S draw somewhere between 100 - 200W on average use.

And then sleep mode; Switch uses less than 1W while asleep. PS4 uses 58W to sleep and download (the equivalent of leaving an old school power hungry lightbulb switched on in your house 24/7).

As someone who owns a house and pays all the electric bills, the Switch is a thing of beauty knowing you could play for 12 hours solid and not use as much power as 2 hours of PS4.

EDIT: Okay, here's the agreed stats:

Switch (average usage): 12W
Switch (sleep): >1W (up to 10W while charging)
Switch (max rated): 18W (gets up to 17.7W while in use and charging two joy cons and with things plugged into USB ports)

PS4 (average usage): 140W (standard game) up to 200W (high end Pro game)
PS4 (sleep): 10W, up to 70W while downloading
PS4 Pro (max rated): 300W

Xbox One (average use) 120W
Xbox One (sleep) 15W

For funsies:
Wii (average use) 41W
Wii U (average use) 39W

Source: Anandtech analysis and Energy Usage Calculator
 
P

PrinnyBomb

Member
I'm kind of disgusted that the PS4 uses 58 W in sleep mode... I never use sleep mode on non portable consoles but still... How is that acceptable?

Also good on the Switch, those numbers are impressive
 
N

Norris1020

Member
That PS4 standby time is when it’s downloading in rest mode, right? Because I’m pretty sure it’s between 3 and 10w depending on what features you use for rest mode.
 
Nikana

Nikana

Go Go Neo Rangers!
There's no way PS4 pro pulls that much in standby/rest. The OG pulls 10w in rest.

If the PS4/pro is doing anything like downloading a patch it lacks the ability to stay in low power so maybe that's the reading you're getting.
 
jobrro

jobrro

Member
Nosgotham said:
not that low down there. its a pretty great technical feat.
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly it has a little less than 10% of the GPU power of the Pro that OP compared it to. The other consoles also have more CPU cores, 8-12GB RAM vs the Switch's 4GB and mechanical hard drives. That increased power also needs beefier cooling which also increases power consumption.
 
W

Wiped89

Member
Norris1020 said:
That PS4 standby time is when it’s downloading in rest mode, right? Because I’m pretty sure it’s between 3 and 10w depending on what features you use for rest mode.
Click to expand...

That's in downloading mode yes. If you untick 'Download while in rest mode' in the settings you can get it as low as 10W in rest (still 10x Switch), but no one unticks it.
 
W

weltalldx

Member
Jigolo said:
don't tell him there are phones with lower wattage that are more powerful than the switch either

(he might get upset)
Click to expand...

I don't see any BOTW esque games on these phones though. The Switch is a marvel because it is able to deliver these types of graphics on a handheld. No point having the specs and no software to take advantage of said specs.
 
JordanN

JordanN

Banned
weltalldx said:
I don't see any BOTW esque games on these phones though. The Switch is a marvel because it is able to deliver these types of graphics on a handheld. No point having the specs and no software to take advantage of said specs.
Click to expand...

UE4 is on mobile and there have been some fantastic mobile showcases done with them.

So the potential is there but the real reason we don't see "BOTW esque games" is because of both budget and different audiences (or even the fact mobile is more touchscreen oriented then button oriented).

Afterall, why make a BOTW for mobile when you can do a Candy Crush or Clash of Clans clone for half the cost but sell a ton more?
 
N

Norris1020

Member
Wiped89 said:
That's in downloading mode yes. If you untick 'Download while in rest mode' in the settings you can get it as low as 10W in rest (still 10x Switch), but no one unticks it.
Click to expand...

Right, but that’s only when it’s doing the action of downloading a game or an update. When nothing need be downloaded then it’s at a lower wattage. But at any rate I absolutely agree the Switch power consumption is awesome and I only use standy on my consoles when I’m downloading something then fully shut them down when it’s done.
 
V

vazel

Banned
Wiped89 said:
Only if you turn off all the features (suspend game, download updates, USB charging etc), at which point you might as well not use rest mode at all.
Click to expand...
No. Read the article.
According to Ars Technica, ”Supply Power to USB Ports" uses 6.3W while it's on. ”Stay Connected to the Internet" and ”Enable Turning On PS4 From Network" use a combined total of 2.4W. ”Keep Application Suspended" uses 1.2W. Sony doesn't offer information about the power consumption as Microsoft does, so we have to rely on third-party test results.

If you set your PS4 to only supply power to its USB ports for 3 Hours, it will actually use about 3.7W of power in Rest Mode instead of 10W. That works out to about $3.94 per year, and you still get the network connectivity and game-suspend features.
Click to expand...
 
W

Wiped89

Member
vazel said:
No. Read the article.
Click to expand...

It uses 70W while sleep downloading though according to this article. Which when you factor in the size of games these days, and the number of patches and updates, could be pretty often.

We're getting sidetracked though. The point is the Switch uses way way less in both usage and sleep.
 
Leonidas

Leonidas

Member
Wiped89 said:
Seriously, it's a miracle. The Switch's max power draw - max - is 18W. 18! To put that into perspective, the PS4 Pro can max out at 300W. I don't know what Xbox One X is, but probably even higher. Even the PS4 Slim and Xbox One S draw somewhere between 100 - 200W on average use.
Click to expand...

It's a 153 Gflop handheld(or 340 Gflop docked device).
Xbox One S (1.4 Tflops, 4x the power of docked Swtich) runs at under 80w being stressed in gaming(~4x the power usage of Switch).

OhjSyVk.jpg


PS4 Pro has a 300w PSU but it only uses like 160w while being stressed. Xbox One X numbers will be similar(it uses a 245w PSU).
 
Y

yrba1

Member
The NVIDIA Tegra is derived from the GTX 10 series line of video cards, which is a breakthrough in high-performance while consuming less power.
 
G

GLAMr

Member
Wiped89 said:
Seriously, it's a miracle.
Click to expand...
No, it's physics. As others have mentioned, the PS4 and Xbone use significantly bigger/more powerful components (CPU, GPU, optical/platter drives, big fans). Switch uses a much more modern, energy efficient mobile processor.

18 Watts is pretty much bang on what many experts and electronics enthusiasts (myself included) estimated when early Tegra/form factor details were leaked.
 
C

CANLI

Member
Maybe se people will find it foolish but the consumption is my first reason to choose what I have to buy.
I've not bought PS or Xboxes because of that. It's a n investment of min 5 6 years and with time, your electricity invoice can cost you hundreds euros more. Children maybe don't care about that but it's the parents who have to pay that.
 
geordiemp

geordiemp

Member
Wiped89 said:
Seriously, it's a miracle. The Switch's max power draw - max - is 18W. 18! To put that into perspective, the PS4 Pro can max out at 300W. I don't know what Xbox One X is, but probably even higher. Even the PS4 Slim and Xbox One S draw somewhere between 100 - 200W on average use.

Edit: and for comparison, Wii U power consumption was 37W. Wii was 41W. So it's much more powerful than those consoles but still draws less than half the power. It's witchcraft.
Click to expand...

From Eurogamer :

It should be stressed that the 310W metric is almost certainly the rated capacity of the internal power supply - actual consumption is around half of that during standard gameplay on Pro-enabled titles.
Click to expand...

You really have no idea, good attempt at a stealth Switch love in.

If you use mobile parts, lower clocks and take out the hard drive and disk, use slower memory, and are happy with low TF performance, then you have a mobile part.....Amazing, how do they do that !

Magic ? 4 Terraflops vs 0.25 Terraflops is your answer,

One number is bigger and one is less. Edit Wii and WiiU had the TF power of a Toaster.
 
S

Siever

Neo Member
OP's numbers are totally wrong - he compares rated PSU powers to actual power draw of Switch. Nice try.
That said Switch will be much less power hungry than stationary consoles because it's a mobile device.
 
P

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Wiped89 said:
It uses 70W while sleep downloading though according to this article. Which when you factor in the size of games these days, and the number of patches and updates, could be pretty often.

We're getting sidetracked though. The point is the Switch uses way way less in both usage and sleep.
Click to expand...

It is easier to draw less power when you do not do essentially anything while sleeping (if you were a console that is ;)).
 
T

test_account

XP-39C²
Wiped89 said:
Only if you turn off all the features (suspend game, download updates, USB charging etc), at which point you might as well not use rest mode at all.
Click to expand...
Wait, does that mean that the Switch restmode is useless? At less than 1W usage, there is no way that it does background downloads and USB charging (less than 1W charging would probably take ages anyway) etc..
 
geordiemp

geordiemp

Member
LordOcidax said:
The GPU on the Switch is far better...
Click to expand...

And if you go to 4 TF with a 1060 your back to 120 Watts.

How is that ? Amazing.

If you go down to under 0.5 TF, how much power ?

Amazing.

Incredible. Power consumption tied to power of electronics...amazing.

LOL.
 
Azelover

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
jobrro said:
If I remember correctly it has a little less than 10% of the GPU power of the Pro that OP compared it to. The other consoles also have more CPU cores, 8-12GB RAM vs the Switch's 4GB and mechanical hard drives. That increased power also needs beefier cooling which also increases power consumption.
Click to expand...

Of course it is less powerful, it's meant to be a portable in part. Granted, on paper the difference is very big but in practice, not quite so much.

20 years ago half a megabyte of additional RAM would make a clear difference. Today there needs to be a huge technical gap for most people to be able to notice even a small difference. I wonder how much longer this old model of making consoles more powerful will do the job. I think we're already peaking as far as the gameplay benefit, and that's by far what's most important.
 
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