When you see your teenage gamer, rapt in front of the screen, energy efficiency is probably not the first thing you think of, but maybe it should be. Gaming requires memory and the more RAM you have, the more power it will consume. Cooling fans, storage drives and monitors all consume power. A gaming computer needs 300 – 500 Watts to operate, which is 1400kWh annually and six times higher than a laptop’s power usage. It might not seem like a lot but if the estimate is correct, more than half of the U.S. population are digital gamers. Those numbers are raising consumption and conservation concerns. Could a system upgrade boost energy efficiency?
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