Wii uses very little juice compared to the competition

Samster

Slave to the Wind
Nov 6, 2006
145
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London, England
Nicked from QJ:

The Xbox 360 by Microsoft Corporation stayed unchallenged in its next-gen dominance for one year. Now that the other two were released, people are finding more and more points of comparison to bring down the competition. There are certain features that easily come to mind like graphics, processor, loading times and overheating problems among others.

Avid gamer Singe apparently owns a Wii and an Xbox 360. Instead of comparing the above mentioned, the reader turned power consumption as a basis for comparison. Having turned on the consoles 24/7, Singe measured and compared the two:

Wii:

* In Standby Mode: 10w
* Idle @ Wii menu: 17w
* Running a Wii Game (Test with Zelda/Trauma Center) in 480i: 17w

X360:

* In Standby Mode: 2w
* Idle @ Dashboard: ~140w
* Running a Game: ~160w
* Playing a DVD: ~110w

If these numbers are indeed recorded scientifically and without bias, it seems that Nintendo's claim of the Wii being light on power use is correct. While it is quite logical that the X360 would consume more power as it comes with a higher-end specs, the uber light power usage of the Wii is just remarkable.
 
I won't be surprised, Wii has far less processing power thus less energy consumption. Also Wii doesn't use loud fans to cool its components.
 
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Yep - it's using a 10th of the power that a 360 does during gameplay!

That's a remarkable achievement and very apt in todays "green" society:D
 
What's actually more impressive to me is the 360's power consumption. 160w from a system at full load using three 3.2 GHz processors running two logical threads is pretty remarkable when you consider that an equivalent P4 would suck about 90w per processor.

That's not to say the Wii isn't nicer, I just never knew the power consumption specs on the 360.
 

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