Gamescom, the largest video games trade fair in the world, starts on August 23rd in Cologne. As a Civey survey carried out on this occasion on behalf of the energy provider E.ON shows, enthusiasm for computer and console games will continue to be great in 2023: 22,5 percent of Germans aged 18 and over play video games for at least one hour a week. The leisure activity is particularly popular among 18 to 29 year olds: more than half of those surveyed (55,1 percent) consume video games in their everyday lives. The majority in this age group play between one and ten hours per week (26 percent). 8,8 percent of 18 to 29 year olds spend more than 20 hours a week in front of the screen.
Civey surveyed 24 German citizens aged 9 and over and 10.000 people who play video games for at least 18 hour per week online for E.ON from July 2.000th to August 1th. The results are representative due to quotas and weighting, taking into account the statistical error of 2,5 percent (overall result).
To calculate the power consumption of various platforms, E.ON examined the following exemplary configurations: Cheap gaming PC (Intel Core i5-12400F, Gainward GeForce RTX 3060 GHOST, Kingston NV2 500 GB, Kingston FURY Beast 16 GB, Sharkoon WPM Gold ZERO 550W) , Premium gaming PC (AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, MSI GeForce RTX
4070 GAMING 600, Xbox Series X & S, Nintendo Switch), each in combination with a 27-inch gaming monitor (average power in gaming mode 108,5 W) or a 55-inch Smart TV (average power in HDR mode 117 watts).
Console beats PC – How energy efficient are the systems?
Console and TV? Or rather PC and screen? For many players, choosing their preferred platform is a question of faith. At 38,3 percent, the stationary desktop PC is by far the most frequently used gaming device. Another large proportion of respondents prefer mobile gaming on smartphones and tablets (27,3 percent). 22 percent rely on consoles such as Playstation, Xbox or Nintendo Switch.
Ten percent of the players surveyed use a laptop. While the topic of virtual reality will probably be one of the highlights of Gamescom this year, it has only played a role in everyday life for a fraction of those surveyed - 8,5 percent currently use virtual reality glasses for video games. However, 40,2 percent can imagine exploring virtual reality in this way in the future. However, for 45,3 percent of video gamers, using VR in combination with a video game is not relevant. The idea of using VR in conjunction with a video game is lowest in the age group of 50 years and over.
What impact do these gaming habits have on energy consumption? To find out, E.ON used extensive data calculations to compare different setups and compare their power requirements: two exemplary PC configurations in combination with a 27-inch monitor, a modern gaming laptop and the most popular game consoles paired with a 55-inch monitor SmartTV.
When playing with a desktop PC with moderate performance, the energy consumption is around 0,44 kWh per hour, and with a high-end PC it is even up to 0,52 kWh. In contrast, a considerable amount of energy can be saved when playing on the console. Gaming on the Playstation 5 in combination with a 55-inch television consumes around 0,33 kWh per hour - at least 25 percent less than the inexpensive PC.
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Microsoft's Xbox Series A gaming laptop turns out to be a more economical alternative instead of a stationary PC. With a consumption of 0,27 kWh, it is around the same level as the Xbox Series X.
The leader in terms of energy efficiency is Nintendo's hybrid console Switch, which can be operated both stationary in combination with a TV and in handheld mode and thus uses an average of 0,12 kWh of energy per hour - but the console is only compatible with the systems to a limited extent comparable to other manufacturers.
Energy requirements of video games in everyday life
In practice, of course, the energy requirement depends primarily on the playing time. For example, if you want to experience a current blockbuster like the role-playing game 'Diablo IV' in full length, you should expect a consumption of between 50 and 21 kWh for around 26 hours of playtime on the stationary PC, depending on the configuration. On the laptop it is only about half as much at 12 kWh, Playstation 5 (16 kWh) and Xbox Series X (13 kWh) are at a similar level.
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In the game 'The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom', which is available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch, the end credits flicker across the screen after around 100 hours of play and a consumption of 12 kWh. With the Nintendo Switch With the same energy consumption, you can play for more than twice as long as with a high-end PC. Extrapolated over a year, if you watch video games for 10 hours per week, the energy requirement is between 64 kWh (Nintendo Switch) and 270 kWh (high-end PC).
According to the survey, almost 23 percent of players pay attention to how much Electricity them per month for gaming* consume from video games. 31 percent say they take the power consumption of the devices into account when purchasing them. One way to significantly reduce energy consumption when gaming is to use consoles or smartphones instead of a stationary computer.
If you want to save energy but don't want to miss out on the PC experience, you can reduce your power consumption with a smaller screen. The performance of hardware components such as the processor and graphics card are also very important, as is switching off the devices completely after use. According to the survey, six out of ten gamers (61,5 percent) are already foregoing standby mode entirely.
Note: This article was created for testing purposes using AI.
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