Electricity pricing is a concern around the world, especially for gamers. However, most PC enthusiasts don’t realize just how much energy their machines consume. With controversial laws in multiple states preventing the sale of certain high-end gaming pre-builts, now is an excellent time to look at how much electricity a gaming PC uses.
How much power does a gaming PC use?
It’s tough to calculate average electricity usage for a gaming PC since there’s such a wide variety of components that can be used in a build. So, we’ll provide a few generic sample PCs below that represent a range of enthusiast configurations.
For these sample builds, we’ll be calculating average cost with these assumptions:
- kWh pricing is US national average of $0.14
- Assumes two hours per day of gaming usage.
- Power supply is rated at >90% efficiency.
- The computer goes into sleep mode, or the user turns it off when not being used.
High-end Gaming PC power consumption
This build contains the highest-end (and most power-intensive) enthusiast-grade components on the market right now. Of course, there are parts that use more power (looking at you, Xeon and Threadripper), but those are aimed at multimedia production and servers, and we’re capping this build at parts directly marketed towards gamers.
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090
- RAM: 32GB DDR4 (4x8GB)
- Storage: M.2 NVMe SSD
- Secondary Storage: 3.5″ SATA 7.2K RPM HDD
- Fans: 4X140mm
- CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H100i Elite
- Yearly Power Consumption: $74.91
- Monthly Power Consumption: $6.24
Mid-range Gaming PC Power Consumption
This build represents the average mid-tier gaming PC. Most people who have built a rig in the last couple of years will find that it consumes around the same amount of energy as this one:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
- RAM: 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB)
- Storage: M.2 NVMe SSD
- Secondary Storage: 3.5″ SATA 7.2K RPM HDD
- Fans: 4X140mm
- CPU Cooler: Corsair iCUE H100i Elite
- Yearly Power Consumption: $53.93
- Monthly Power Consumption: $4.50
Low-tier Gaming PC Power Consumption
For this build, we’ve gathered parts representing the bare minimum current-gen components a rig needs to be called a gaming computer.
- CPU: Intel Core i5-11400
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super
- RAM: 8GB DDR4 (2x4GB)
- Storage: M.2 NVMe SSD
- Fans: 4X140mm
- CPU Cooler: Deepcool Gammaxx 400
- Yearly Power Consumption: $33.76
- Monthly Power Consumption: $2.81
How can I reduce power consumption with my PC?
The most important thing a user can do when trying to reduce their PC’s power consumption is to make sure they either turn it off or have it set up to sleep after they’re done using it. Leaving a computer on 24/7 is a habit many of us have, but PCs use a lot of energy even when not under load.
Additionally, the amount of power a PC uses is directly in proportion to its processing power. So, those that don’t need all the RAM and power of an RTX 3090 might want to look at an RTX 3070 or 3080 as a GPU instead.
