Xbox One and PS4 are massive power hogs

For those their graphical improvements and multimedia performance, there’s one place where Microsoft’s Xbox 360 One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 tend to be sorely lacking: energy efficiency. This is based on a report released on Thursday in the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which found that both the Xbox 360 One and the PlayStation 4 consume 2 to 3 times more electricity than the prior generation of consoles. The Nintendo Wii U may be the only next-gen console that consumes less energy compared to Wii that came before it, the actual NRDC found.

According to the NRDC’s evaluation, the current generation of gaming systems will consume the same amount of energy every year as all the homes in Houston, Tx, while costing consumers nearly $1 billion annually to use. The Xbox One’s consumption is largely because of Kinect, an accessory that senses motions and voices and included every Xbox One until Microsoft announced earlier this week it would start shipping systems without this.

Because the Kinect is always upon saying Xbox on will activate the machine it serves as a large energy suck, one which the NRDC estimates will definitely cost upwards of $400 million every year in power bills. The Kinect’s always on functionality has drawn other criticisms too, with some charing it’s an invasion of privacy yet others saying it’s a tool for advertisers to focus on Xbox owners.

For the PlayStation 4, the excess energy use comes in the USB ports on the system, that are powered even when the system is off and there is nothing plugged into them. By comparison, Nintendo’s Wii U uses between half to a third of the power of the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4 when switched on, and it uses no power once the system is off, the NRDC discovered.

In order to help curb the power waste, the NRDC suggested that Microsoft offer an opt-out option for that always on Kinect and that Sony make an effort to bring down the power draw from the USB ports when they’re not charging a tool. In addition, the two systems could more proficiently power their multimedia options, the NDRC stated, as it found that both the actual Xbox One and PlayStation 4 make use of 30 to 45 times more capacity to stream video than an Apple TV or perhaps a Google Chromecast.

Xbox One and PS4 are massive power hogs 2014-11-21T09:09:00-08:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Unknown