Which Gaming Console Is The Most Energy Efficient?

The Electric Power Research Institute Inc. (EPRI), a nonprofit organization that conducts research and development related to the use of electricity, recently did a study to determine which gaming console is the most energy efficient between the Sony Playstation 3, the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii.

The details of the study, which you can read about here in the New York Times, resulted in determining that Wii is the most energy efficient of the three. As a matter of fact, Wii is six times more energy efficient than those other two options. According to EPRI, that is probably related to the intense graphic quality on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. After all, the images on the Wii are known to be like cartoons, which is much different than those other two consoles. The graphics cards and powerful processors in the PS3 and Xbox 360 simply require a lot more power.

What does this all mean? When the average amount of time that each player uses his or her console is added to the equation, the PS3 and Xbox 360 use about as much energy as doing a load of laundry in the washing machine. The Nintendo Wii uses the amount it takes to light a linear fluorescent light bulb. Obviously the researchers had to play a game to study this properly. In case you are wondering, they played Madden NFL 11. Personally, I still really like my Wii, even though I’ve had it for several years and the images are “cartoony.” Of course, I had to include some of those cartoony images here. I love them!

[via New York Times, Infoniac]