Xbox One may be less powerful, but it also draws less power

PS4 draws a bit more power than Xbox One.

29

Unless you work for Microsoft's PR department, it's generally accepted that PS4 is more powerful than Xbox One. But, it also draws a lot more power.

An analysis by AnandTech shows that PS4 draws more power than Xbox One while playing a game and while sitting idle. In terms of Blu-ray playback, Microsoft's box is far more efficient (somewhat ironic, one could say).

However, standby power consumption is comparatively high on Xbox One. The reason for this is likely Kinect. In standby mode, you'll be able to turn on Xbox One with a voice command: "Xbox, On."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    November 20, 2013 2:45 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Xbox One may be less powerful, but it also draws less power.

    PS4 draws a bit more power than Xbox One.

    • reply
      November 20, 2013 2:51 PM

      man, practically pays for itself. Xbox one? more like Xbox Savingsonpoweronsumption.

    • reply
      November 20, 2013 3:05 PM

      That power savings isn't something to be scoffed at either. That's the whole reason the XBox One is under powered in the first place. Microsoft did not want a repeat of the red lights of death they had in the previous generation so they purposefully have been very careful to keep the power draw and thus the heat low.

    • reply
      November 20, 2013 3:24 PM

      I was looking at this yesterday, and frankly between the two I'd pick the power usage of the PS4 over that of the Xbox One. That 15W drain on standby, all day and night long, is going to add up to higher usage than the 20W savings when the system is in use.

      • reply
        November 20, 2013 3:27 PM

        PS4 is aiming for the same kind of always on functionality so you can have updates/patches downloaded in the background, buy a game via a website/app and have your PS4 have it already downloaded/installed when you get home, etc.

        • reply
          November 20, 2013 3:29 PM

          [deleted]

        • reply
          November 20, 2013 3:30 PM

          sure, but how does that relate to what I posted?

          • reply
            November 20, 2013 3:35 PM

            because if the PS4 is also always on then the delta in standby usage is pretty small vs the difference when in use

            • reply
              November 20, 2013 3:47 PM

              doesn't look like that's the case... and I think you may have misread my post anyway. See below.

              • reply
                November 20, 2013 4:29 PM

                I think what he is trying to say is that the PS4 will often be in idle and not standby due to downloading in the background (the same would be true of the Xbox).

                • reply
                  November 20, 2013 4:37 PM

                  I don't think that's the case, the article mentioned "Standby - Background updating is allowed in this mode."

                  So if you look at the numbers I crunched below, and assuming Anand's info is correct... even considering background updating, the PS4 has better power consumption than the Xbox One, due to the high power usage of the Xbox One on standby.

                  • reply
                    November 20, 2013 5:03 PM

                    Allowed doesn't mean active though. For idle, they mention "ethernet connected", which implies that ethernet was NOT connected for standby. It would be interested to measure power usage as they were actively downloading.

                    Realistically we are talking about maybe $5-$10 a year difference though, less if you actually run the console, so it's more academic.

                    • reply
                      November 20, 2013 5:14 PM

                      That doesn't make much sense to me. Ethernet would have to be connected in standby for background updates to work at all. Having the ethernet plugged or unplugged makes no difference when it comes to power consumption anyway.

                      Realistically though, the consoles won't spend hours a day actively downloading. They'll spend most of their time in standby.

                      This isn't academic for me, and why I crunched the numbers lower in the thread. I'm on a special rate plan because I drive an EV and my power cost from 2-9 PM is two to three higher than during the rest of the day. That makes me cautious of devices that consume power even when I'm not actively using them.

                      • reply
                        November 20, 2013 5:55 PM

                        I'm referring to the tests they did. If they tested standby power consumption without an active internet connection on it (no wifi setup and no ethernet cable) then they couldn't have measured the power draw of a system that is downloading and applying patches. Put another way, the power consumption WILL be higher when it is downloading in standby, because the hard drive will be writing.

                        You looked into motion sensors for your house? They have outlets that work off of motion sensors as well. Might help with the idle draw of your devices.

                        • reply
                          November 20, 2013 8:25 PM

                          Motion sensors would be a good solution, but I've got a wife and kids who are home most of the day. They don't play video games, at least not yet ;)

                          You're absolutely right that the power consumption will be higher when it is downloading. I'm actually not disputing that, in fact I would think when downloading/applying patches the power consumption looks a lot more like idle/load than standby.

                          What I'm saying is that most of the time, when the systems are in standby, they will not be downloading or applying patches. Out of 24 hours in the day, I may play for an hour or two, and the system might apply background patches for 10-15 minutes (and probably not every day). But the rest of the time will be spent in idle, doing a quick check every hour or so to see if there's anything new to download, and also in the case of the Xbox, listening for an "Xbox On" command.

                          Because the Xbox uses up so much more power on idle, it actually consumes more power overall than the otherwise less efficient PS4.

                          • reply
                            November 20, 2013 8:26 PM

                            last sentence should read "Because the Xbox uses up so much more power on standby", not idle.

          • reply
            November 20, 2013 3:45 PM

            playing for 1 hour a day, leaving consoles on standby the rest of the time:

            PS4: 123 kWh / year
            Xbox One: 172 kWh / year


            playing for 2 hours a day, leaving consoles on standby the rest of the time:

            PS4: 171 kWh / year
            Xbox One: 210 kWh / year


            playing for 4 hours a day, leaving consoles on standby the rest of the time:

            PS4: 267 kWh / year
            Xbox One: 285 kWh / year


            See what I mean?

            • reply
              November 20, 2013 4:24 PM

              The power draw of both in standby mean I will continue to hard switch the consoles off at the power strip. That is what I do with the PS3 and 360, I was hoping that both of them would be better in standby. They aren't. :(

            • reply
              November 20, 2013 4:27 PM

              I wonder if the Xbox would draw less if you turned off the ability to use a voice command to power it on.

              • reply
                November 20, 2013 8:36 PM

                Yeah, I can't think of any other reason why it would require so much power otherwise. Especially when it is otherwise so efficient.

                My hope is that if you turn off the fancy "Xbox On" voice feature, power consumption on standby would look more like the PS4's, but I don't know that anyone has measured this yet.

                • reply
                  November 20, 2013 10:24 PM

                  the Ars review did, I think they noticed it using like an extra 3W when it heard the word Xbox but never any other time

            • reply
              November 21, 2013 1:25 AM

              Thanks! Do you have source?

              • reply
                November 21, 2013 2:20 AM

                His source is math. Like so:
                0.00859kW * 23h + 0.1398kW * 1h = 0.33737kW/day * 365.243day = 123.222kWh/year

                • reply
                  November 21, 2013 2:36 AM

                  Ok, so Anandtech then.

        • reply
          November 20, 2013 4:12 PM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            November 20, 2013 4:27 PM

            they haven't finished stuff like their stand by mode to resume games

            • reply
              November 20, 2013 4:39 PM

              [deleted]

              • reply
                November 20, 2013 4:59 PM

                and I never claimed otherwise? I just said both consoles want to be always online, the Xbox One just gives you more reasons to actually be always on right now

    • reply
      November 20, 2013 3:25 PM

      Compared to the amount a PC sucks down during gaming this nothing at all. They both cant even heat your room during the winter.

      • reply
        November 20, 2013 4:32 PM

        My PC and AV setup keeps me lovely and toasty in winter.

    • reply
      November 20, 2013 3:46 PM

      Filed under: Things that wont affect my console purchase decision.

    • reply
      November 20, 2013 5:02 PM

      ...but Microsoft still chose an external power brick... with a fan in it. I have to wonder if this is still a remnant of the original XBox power cord recall triggered by electrical fires started from bad solder joints on the AC power connector of the internal power supply: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/19/xbox_recall_nofix/

    • reply
      November 20, 2013 6:16 PM

      I heard a terrible rumor that the PS4 only had single band 2.4 ghz wireless n. After the utterly worthless wireless performance the PS3 had I was really hopeful they would have addressed this properly. :(

      • reply
        November 21, 2013 4:26 AM

        why do people insist on wifi for such devices. Cords are not evil, they do wonders for stability and consistency!

        • reply
          November 21, 2013 4:50 AM

          Absolutely, but cords aren't always practical.

          • reply
            November 21, 2013 11:21 PM

            It's true some times in not even plausible

        • reply
          November 21, 2013 10:31 AM

          Both my PC and my 360 are hardlined to my router.

      • reply
        November 21, 2013 4:44 AM

        Yeah it is only 2.4, absolutely retarded decision by Sony

    • reply
      November 20, 2013 7:56 PM

      You got to pay for quality, it's like my ford raptor I have to pay for quality and baja rated truck, if I wanted it for free I would get a poor quality Chevy, ps online services has been lackluster and uninspiring hopefully they can raise the bar but it will still fall short from number one Xbox just like my raptor.

Hello, Meet Lola