{"id":5159,"date":"2022-06-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hdbka.com\/cloud-gaming-will-save-you-money-but-wont-save-the-planet\/"},"modified":"2022-06-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T00:00:00","slug":"cloud-gaming-will-save-you-money-but-wont-save-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hdbka.com\/cloud-gaming-will-save-you-money-but-wont-save-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloud gaming will save you money but won’t save the planet"},"content":{"rendered":"
I’ve never thought about my energy costs as a PC gamer. Sure, if I sit and think about it, running my own gaming PC uses more power than a console like the PS5, Switch or Xbox Series X, but so what? We’re talking pennies, right? But things have changed. We’ve seen huge hikes in the price of electricity in Europe, but also some chunky rises in the US too with more to come. <\/p>\n
It’s time for a rethink. <\/p>\n
I’ve dabbled with cloud gaming via GeForce Now<\/a>, and you can spec up a great virtual PC using Shadow<\/a> (from $30 a month and limited states), but I decided to find out how much money and power I could be saving by comparing my desktop gaming PC to Google Stadia<\/a>. I chose Stadia as it’s the lowest-powered, and lowest cost, option. It doesn’t even require a basic laptop, just any dumb screen with an HDMI port and a Chromecast that runs at just 2 watts peak. GeForce Now with the Nvidia Shield TV came a close second, but that draws more power and costs a whole lot more to get started with. <\/p>\n So a Stadia, my rig and a few measuring tools are all I need to find out how much you could be saving by “offshoring” the heavy lifting. Of course, I also wanted to find out if the experience of gaming on Stadia can compete with my home rig too. <\/p>\n First, I need to make a big distinction. Electricity is a lot more expensive in the UK<\/a> than it is in the US<\/a>—for the most part. The average price for a kWh in the UK is £0.28, which works out to $0.36 while the average in the US is $0.14 per kWh. But in the UK the regions are pretty similar in cost, while in the US they vary a lot. <\/p>\n You might well go meh at electricity savings when the cost is just in $0.10 kWh Nebraska. If you live in $0.38 kWh Hawaii, though, there are a lot of savings to be had. <\/p>\n Test setup<\/p>\n GPU: <\/strong>Nvidia GTX 1070 Ti To gather energy data I used a power meter plug that I tested using low wattage lights and a space heater. The power used matched the manufacturer’s wattage specifications so I was happy the plug was accurate to within 5%, at least. <\/p>\n I then chose to use the same game across both Stadia and PC. I wanted a game with high CPU and GPU requirements and one I could play on both platforms. Control, the award-winning 2019 third-person shooter, fit the bill. <\/p>\n I played the first hour of the game on each platform, using the same monitor and headset. The only difference was that I was playing via the cloud in one instance and on my local PC in the other. <\/p>\n The results were stark. Playing on my PC used 12 times more power than on Stadia—10 pence versus 0.8p for me, or 4.9c versus 0.4c for the US average. <\/p>\n Image 1 of 6<\/p>\n Doesn’t sound like much does it? But let me add some context. I recently completed Cyberpunk 2077 on Stadia, clocking 88 hours of game time. That saved me £8 (or $10) on my electricity bill. The more you play the bigger the savings, and that’s before you factor in the cost of buying a gaming PC. <\/p>\n There are more savings when you consider you don’t need to download or install games either. There are no long waits or chunky updates. <\/p>\n Downloading and installing a game on my PC uses a lot less power as the GPU doesn’t get taxed. Downloading Control for an hour used 160 watts, a little less than half what playing the game for an hour used. Depending on your internet connection, downloading the 60GB Cyberpunk 2077 install can take quite a few hours and add more to your bills.<\/p>\n There’s a reason I’ve been a PC gamer for more than 30 years, however, albeit one with an ageing GPU. I like tinkering and I like modding and I like setting things up juuuust right. But the older I get, the less time I have and the more I just want to get to the gaming bit without any of the hassles. And while there’s no modding or much tinkering to be had with Stadia, there is also very little to complain about either. <\/p>\n That said if you have a huge Steam or Epic Games libraries like I do then Stadia might not hack it. If that’s the case then Nvidia’s GeForce Now is a solid option<\/a> that can still provide significant electricity savings if you’re using a Shield TV or a low-powered laptop. <\/p>\n Swipe to scroll horizontally<\/p>\n Cloud gaming can save you more than you think <\/h2>\n
\nCPU: <\/strong>AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
\nRAM:<\/strong> 32GB DDR4
\nStorage:<\/strong> SSD
\nMonitor:<\/strong> Dell 2515H (1440p)<\/p>\n