Nintendo Wii beats up on the competition in power savings

So, the graphics might just be warmed over GameCube fare, but the Wii sure does take those wimpy specs and runs with 'em. A new showdown between the big three home consoles and a mid-range PC doesn't compare games or GPUs, but rather power consumption, and the Wii wins by a landslide. The watts don't just bleed during gameplay, DVD playback seems to require immense effort from the 360 and PS3, and even the consoles in "idle" mode consume about ten times the watts of the Wii. Of course, the consoles consume a minimal amount of power in standby, which is substantially more when the Wii's Connect24 service is on, but not quite a deal breaker, just about a $1 a month of power. So if you're looking to shave a few bucks off your power bill or do your treehuggin' duty to the environment, it looks like the choice is fairly obvious -- though you'll naturally have to look elsewhere than the Wii to get your video playback kicks.

[Via Joystiq]

[Steele @ Feb 21st 2007 9:25PM]

It was pretty obvious that the wii would win this contest, but im surprised that it uses as little energy as a ultra-portable laptop. Pretty awesome.

[7of7 @ Feb 21st 2007 10:03PM]

In other news a scooter beats up on the gas mileage of a Cadillac Escalade. Which would you rather have?

[Mike @ Feb 21st 2007 10:07PM]

The scooter.

[Chris @ Feb 21st 2007 10:35PM]

Very Seriously, the scooter

[John Doe @ Feb 21st 2007 10:48PM]

Better question which one can I afford. And even better question which one DOESN'T make me look like I'm compensating for a deficiency somewhere.

[Lowest ranked! @ Feb 22nd 2007 12:20AM]

id rather take the scooter, but im also the guy thats always lowest ranked. basically, i represent ppl that own wii's.

[Wonderer @ Feb 21st 2007 10:18PM]

What do you expect from 5 year old technology?

[Andy @ Feb 21st 2007 10:52PM]

Because we had that whole motion sensing controllers with bluetooth 5 years ago.....

[Panther_V @ Feb 21st 2007 10:24PM]

Wonderer i was so about to post the same message but then i thought i would get flammed for it. Anyways Wii uses a ultra low end gpu and ultra low end cpu which doesn't eat up alot of power and produce less heat making it possible for it having fanless cooling system.

[Will @ Feb 21st 2007 10:29PM]

Not surprising when the power brick of the 360 weighs more than the console.

[chbob @ Feb 21st 2007 10:37PM]

Hey Panther_V thats pretty funny, I guess I mistook that circular spinning black thing on the back of the Wii for fan. I should of known it just there to fool the Wii into thinking it was running cooler.

[Luke @ Feb 21st 2007 10:58PM]

What are you talking about Panther_V? The Wii has a fan in it, trust me I would know because I own one.

[Lowest ranked! @ Feb 21st 2007 11:13PM]

yea cuz the wii has the crappiest hardware, it doesnt even need power to run those crappy games

[Ben @ Feb 21st 2007 11:23PM]

Knock the wii for crappy graphics all you want (well crap compared to the ps3 and 360) .... it still proves that game play > graphics for most of the population.

Me included.

[Michal G @ Feb 21st 2007 11:29PM]

Oh and forgot to mention, scooter duh..

[Mike @ Feb 21st 2007 11:29PM]

I love the Wii... and it's power efficient, fun and when people are over it's a party.

Win/Win

[I have played all three consoles]

PS3 just a PS2 with better graphics oh and craptastic motion sensing and no rumble...[woo omg yay >_>]Basically only reason to get a PS3 is the blu-ray since a blu-ray drive costs about as much as a ps3...

360 same as original with better graphics and that's about it...

Wii is new. Big N took a risk and I think they planned this out very nicely. Sleek, cost and power efficient, good games, etc...

=]

[August @ Feb 22nd 2007 10:21AM]

Agree with you on the PS3, but the 360 at least has Xbox Live going for it and tight implementation with Windows XP Media Center and Vista.

Oh, and a $200 HD-DVD option is nice too (cheaper really if you consider it comes with a 360 system remote and King Kong on HD; oh and interoperability with a PC). Just wish it had HDMI (please release a new version MS), although the HD-15 cable does (correct me if I'm wrong; I'm not entirely sure) offer better picture quality, albeit without uncompressed audio.

[Charbax @ Feb 22nd 2007 12:31AM]

The Wii does playback video, just not HD video.. Though there might be a HD Wii (with HD video, upscaling, HDD and HDMI) coming out within a few months..

[qwert @ Feb 22nd 2007 4:17AM]

shure the wii has old hardware and therefore it doesnt need so much power. but it still is impressive. look at the graph! its not just a wee er.. wii bit less, its about the factor 10. of course the graphics "suck", but again the power/graphics ratio (not to mention the ratios for fun and gameplay) is still better than with the bigger consoles or the pc.
for the average leisure gamer the wii is perfect. cheap, doesnt need to much energy and looks good (the device) and the graphics are more than just ok.
and the other two? i dont know who should buy them. hardcore gamers use a pc, so yes they are for "compensating" ;)

and escalades are the crapiest cars ever. but maybe you need such a big car to always have your SEM with you, to find your part you are compensating for ...

[CB @ Feb 22nd 2007 5:41AM]

It's about time they got pulled up on power consumption, the worrying thing in that graph is PC usage, cos ther's freakin billions of them and that craptastic POS that is windows is pushing the ram/cpu envolope all the time just to keep a goddam OS ticking over, if everyone switched to windows mobile, you'd be able to shut down a few power stations

[Manders @ Feb 22nd 2007 8:00AM]

ya play, ya pay!

[Scott @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:07AM]

Well, I own a Wii, and I own a Scooter.

I traded my car in for a Piaggio Fly150. It gets about 70mpg and I've gotten it up to 68mph on the highway. Comparing it to the Wii. Transportaion Device = Gaming Device. Check. Efficiant way to do it? Check. Stylish as hell? Check.

And sure, you could pay a lot more $ for a lot more of the same ole thing, (Cars or gaming systems) but paying less for something way more fun seems to be a pattern in my life.

[dreadn @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:10AM]

Theese graphs are nonsense.

My pc drains 90W peak when i play, 50W in averagte and 25-30W in idle.

[tevetorbes @ Feb 22nd 2007 9:48AM]

All I keep seeing is "See, fun games are more important than good graphics."

Course, games at all for the Wii would be a plus, right? Where are they?

Methinks the novelty is wearing off: maybe Nintendo should've made a motion-sensing controller for the Gamecube after all.

The fact that the post suggests, even tongue-in-cheek, that we should buy a Wii to forgo high power consumption is absolutely ludicrous. Maybe you should buy a console based on which one has fun games, or in the Wii's case, games at all!

WTG Nintendo- you've made a green, novelty impulse-buy of a console: how about you release some games for it so that we can actually compare consoles on attributes that matter, mmkay?

Mod me down fanboys- I'll take it in stride. While you come up with 1001 reasons why I'm stupid and your precious Wii rules, I'm gonna go play my 360 and have fun. And always remember: you can play ACTUAL TENNIS and get tennis-elbow, and hey, you don't use ANY electricity AT ALL!

[sensei @ Feb 22nd 2007 10:14AM]

tevetorbes: when will you fanboys just go away? It's just a game console, you either like it or you don't, why the animosity? And does yelling/typing help? You're just making Microsoft fanboys look bad...

[EL_RIEL @ Feb 22nd 2007 4:44PM]

scooter FTW!!

LOL @ Cadillac Escalade crappiest pseudo-SUV.

[BAMF @ Feb 22nd 2007 5:52PM]

File under "Who the fcuk cares"