PS5 power consumption: The console eats so much energy
The PlayStation 5 is an extremely popular console – despite its high purchase price. And like all electrical devices, it also incurs costs after purchase. Here you can find out how high the power consumption of the PS5 is and what that means for your wallet.
“Next Gen” has and needs a lot of power
Games like “Cyberpunk 2077” look impressive on the PS5.
Image: © Screenshot TURN ON 2020
The current top consoles PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are powerful like never before. Games in 4K resolution, with 60 or sometimes 120 frames per second, require a lot of computing power.
To put together a similarly powerful PC, you need at least one computer with a AMD Ryzen 5 3600X processor and one Nvidia Geforce GTX1070 ti graphics card. Such a PC consumes around 330 watts – according to a rough calculation using the website of Rösner IT. Sony’s official specification of just over 200 watts for the PlayStation 5 in gaming seems moderate. However, the consumption of the PS5 cannot be generalized that easily.
Consumption varies greatly
The PS5 is versatile. What exactly you do with it determines the power consumption.
Image: © TURN ON 2020
How much energy your console uses depends on what you use it for: What games do you play? Or are you watching a DVD, Blu-Ray or 4K Blu-Ray instead? Are you streaming media or is the PlayStation just showing the menu? Even the version of your console matters: the latest revision of the PS5 with disc drive (model number CFI-1116A) uses slightly less power than the current “Digital Edition” model or older revisions.
Here is a section of the consumption values for the latest disk model CFI-1116A. The complete list is there at Sony.
| activity | Consumption in watts (W) |
| actively playing PS5 games in UHD/4K (3-game average) |
201.1 |
| actively playing a PS4 game in UHD/4K (“Marvel’s Spider-Man”) |
108.5 |
| actively playing a PS4 game in HD/1080p (“Battlefield 4”) |
90.5 |
| Blu-ray playback | 53.3 |
| DVD/media streaming | 54.1 |
| Home menu, no active action | 44 |
Power consumption even when you’re not playing
Even when not in use, the PS5 consumes some electricity.
Image: © TURN ON 2020
Even if you are not actively using your console and it is switched off, it still uses some power. Depending on what you have set in the PlayStation 5, the energy consumption will vary.
In sleep mode, the PS5’s default standby setting, you only have to expect 0.36 watts. If, on the other hand, you select the mode with power supply for the USB ports, for example to charge a headset or controller, the value increases to 3.1 watts. If the console is to remain connected to the Internet in sleep mode, it draws 1.2 watts from the socket. USB and Internet connection together require 3.2 watts in sleep mode.
energy costs in one year
An example calculation shows the annual electricity costs for the PlayStation 5.
For the example, let’s assume you play a PS5 game on your console in 4K every two days for about three hours. The rest of the time it is in standby mode with USB and Internet enabled. We calculate the electricity price using the average electricity price at the end of November 2022, which is 40 cents per kilowatt hour.
For a better overview in the calculation paths we abbreviate:
- h = hour
- d = day
- W = watts
- kW = kilowatts
- kWh = kilowatt hour
Active consumption while playing
- Time of use active per year:
365d ÷ 2 × 3h = 547.5h - Current consumption active:
0.2011 kW (201.1 W from the table above) × 547.5 h = 110.11kWh
Passive consumption in stand-by
- Consumption time passive per year, match days:
365d ÷ 2 × 21h = 3,832.5h - Consumption time passive per year, remaining days:
365 days ÷ 2 × 24 hours = 4,380 hours - Power consumption passive:
0.0032 kW (3.2 W from the text above) × (3,832.5 h + 4,380 h) = 26.28kWh
Cost of total electricity consumption
- Current consumption active plus passive:
110.11kWh + 26.28kWh = 136.39kWh - Electricity costs per year:
136.39 kWh × 0.40 euros = 54.56 euros
All values are commercially rounded.
Playing every 2 days 3 hours a day costs you just under 55 euros a year in our example. Due to the lower passive consumption, these costs drop by almost 10 euros if you operate the PlayStation in sleep mode without USB and Internet.
The gaming PC mentioned above consumes around 180.68 kWh per year in active operation under the same conditions. For passive (switched off) operation, there are several details on the Internet. The values are between 20 and 30 watts.
However, this cannot be proven with the current PC of the author. The power meter shows less than 1 watt here. Assuming this 1 watt as passive consumption, the comparison PC has a power consumption of around 188.89 kWh per year. This results in costs of a good 75 euros, around 50 percent more than with the PlayStation 5.
You can determine and record the exact consumption of your console (and all other devices) with an energy meter. This allows you to precisely calculate your individual electricity costs.
summary
- The power consumption of the PS5 is a significant cost factor.
- How much energy the console needs depends heavily on usage.
- At its peak, the PS5 draws around 200 watts from the socket.
- A comparable PC has a higher power consumption.
- By choosing the right sleep mode, you can save some electricity and thus costs in stand-by.
Reference-www.turn-on.de