Unbearable cost of electricity (now with numbers!)

 Continuing from previous post .

I was wondering about cost of gaming when electricity can be up to 80c/kWh on some days. I didn't have any power meters handy back then, but now I found one I have had for years. It's mostly cheap low-grade consumer unit, and absolutely not calibrated, so I take its readings as mostly ballpark figures.

Now, to start with, I have desktop computer with AMD Ryzen 7 5800X CPU, AMD RX 6900 XT GPU and a 27" 75 Hz LCD display, and I use old Sony stereo system (with speakers) for sound. All these are on same power meter here.

Booting up desktop (no stereo or display yet) gives reading of 90 watts

Add display, we're up to 150 watts (so display is 60 watts).

Turn on stereo set and we're at 165 watts (15 watts for stereo set alone, with no sound. Note that this is around 25 years old set so I expect power efficiency of newer units would be better). So, at 80c/kWh, that 13 cents per hour for just idling or light work (or at more tolerable 30c/kWh, around 5c/hour).

Game of the day is Assassins' Creed: Odyssey, which I recently started again. At Ultra settings (which my system can run, not fully stable at full 75 Hz but still quite well) total power consumption is up to 400 watts (so 32c/h @ 80c/kWh or 12c/h @ 30c/kWh).

Drop graphics details by a notch to approximately "high" overall settings drops consumption to 300 watts (24c/h / 9c/h). So this drops power usage by full quarter, with effectively zero changes in visual detail.

I don't have any newest AAA titles available, but nearest equivalent I had installed is Control, which I think had also on "high" settings (not ultra). This is a bit more demanding game, upping power usage to 530 watts (42c/h / 16c/h). 

I also tested Factorio, with end-game base. Power consumption (of computer, not the base!) here was expectedly lower, just 190 watts, but still higher than just idling (15c/h / 6c/h).

So, to recap. As expected, AAA titles will cost more to play than "lower end" games, but the difference wasn't as great as I guessed before doing the measurements.

If I were to finish the AC:O (let's say 100 hours - it's a damn long game), it's cost be 12 euros in electricity alone -- and that is at expected average of 30c/kWh prices! And even having computer idling at 8 hours day would be 40 cents. I guess for now at least it's best to put computer in standby when not needing it, and avoid gaming during most expesive hours. While these figures shown here may seem low individually, they still add up over time.