How Many Watts Does A Gaming PC Use? [Ultimate Guide] – 2023

How many watts does a gaming pc use? This is the question that every gamer asks and wants to know the answer to this question.

If you want to know the answer, you have come to the right place. 

You will not only get the answer of how many watts a gaming pc use, but also you will get some additional information that every gamer should know.

So, To find out how many watts a gaming pc use, we must first know its component.

It means that a normal pc used for doing your normal school, college, or office-related work does not consume much power compared to a gaming pc because a normal pc requires less energy to perform a specific task.

But a gaming pc requires much power to play games like Minecraft, Fortnite, etc. Gaming pc requires more power because they use the graphic card, which consumes more power than any other PC part.

What’s The Average Power That A Gaming PC Use:

Most of us are unaware of the power consumption of a gaming pc. A gaming pc is more powerful than a normal pc used for normal work. It requires much power to run games. 

Due to our unawareness of the power consumption of a gaming PC, when we get the monthly electricity bill on our hands, most of us get shocked after getting the high bill.

That’s why you need to know the exact power consumption of your gaming pc. The answer to this question is not as simple as it seems.

As a general rule of thumb, the more powerful your gaming PC is, the more power it will use.

However, this does not mean that every gaming PC will use the same amount of power. Many factors can affect your energy consumption. For example:

The type of motherboard you use will affect how much energy your computer consumes. Some motherboards use less power than others. The same goes for your graphics card and other components.

Suppose you play demanding games on high settings with multiple monitors connected to your system.

In that case, it will use more power than if you were playing less demanding games on low settings with just one monitor connected.

How heavily used your CPU is will also affect how much energy your computer consumes. Suppose you’re running a complex calculation or performing intensive tasks on your CPU.

In that case, it will be using more power than if all you’re doing is browsing the web with no other programs open simultaneously.

On average, a gaming PC will use around 100 watts when idle and 200 to 300 watts when playing a game. This can vary from model to model, but it’s a good ballpark figure. In short, a gaming pc uses 4 to 5 times more power than a normal PC.

Reasons Why Gaming PC Use More Power:

Gaming PCs are built for high-end games requiring more power consumption than a normal PC.

Every component of a gaming pc is more powerful than a normal pc; that’s the reason a gaming pc can run heavy games.

As a gaming pc has all the components more powerful than a normal PC, it consumes more power while playing games.

Gamers spend their money on GPU, RAM, CPU, SSD, HDD, PSU, and Motherboard. All these components are used to get the best performance from a pc while playing games.

If we talk the Nvidia GTX 750 GPU, it needs a 500 watts power supply unit, whereas the AMD RX 580 also needs 500 watts power supply.

Both these GPUs are used to provide the best gaming experience while playing games.

In addition to the components, gaming PCs tend to have more features, such as multi-monitor setups and advanced lighting effects. These features can also increase energy usage.

The following are some of the other ways in which a gaming PC uses more power than a traditional desktop computer:

Multi-monitor Setups: When you use multiple monitors on your computer, it requires more graphics processing power to display content on all of them simultaneously.

This means your graphics card needs extra power and uses more electricity.

Lighting Effects: Gaming PCs with lights can be an attractive feature for many people, but they also use up electricity.

The lights vary from simple LEDs on the case to elaborate RGB effects using dozens of LEDs throughout the system. Lighting effects can add up quickly if you’re not careful about choosing only those components that support them (such as LED strips).

Read More: Are Laptop Cooling Pads Worth It?

Gaming PC Parts Average Watts Usage:

The power supply is the heart of your computer and needs to provide enough wattage to power all of your components. Here are the average watts usage for some common gaming components:

Processor: 65W – 100W

Graphics card: 250W – 500W (for a GTX 1080)

Motherboard: 20W – 30W

System Memory: 2W – 10W

Storage Drives: 0.5W – 1W (for a 120GB SSD)

Monitor: A monitor of 21 inches will use 0.3 kWh per day.

What Happens If Gaming PC Does Not Get Enough Power:

Many things can happen if your gaming PC does not get enough power from its power source. Here are some of them:

  • Your PC will not start.
  • The blue screen of death forces you to shut down the pc.
  • You pc starts frequent freezes.
  • The game may crash or freeze during gameplay.
  • Some parts of the game won’t load at all.
  • The game may run slowly or lag between scenes.

If your gaming PC does not get enough power, it can lead to a poor gaming experience. This can happen if you have a low-end graphics card or processor.

It may also happen if you have an older system that was not meant for gaming.

If your computer does not get enough power, it will use its resources to try and compensate for this problem. This includes using your RAM, CPU, GPU, and Motherboard memory to make up for your system’s lack of power.

These components are much cheaper than a high-end graphics card or processor.

When this happens, you might see a decrease in performance in certain game areas, such as frame rates, loading times, and graphics quality.

How To Know Gaming PC Energy Consumption:

Many factors can affect the power consumption of your computer, so it’s important to know what they are and how they affect your electrical bill. 

Your gaming PC’s power consumption will vary depending on which components you have installed, how much memory is in the computer, and how long you’re using it.

If you want to find out how much energy your gaming computer is using, there are several steps you can take. 

1. First, find out what kind of power supply unit (PSU) it has. Most modern PSUs will have a label with their wattage rating or maximum power output printed.

2. Next, look up the wattage rating of each component in your system. The processor usually draws around 100W of power while idle and more when active (clocked at high speeds), while video cards draw around 200W under load. RAM draws around 5W per gigabyte installed, and hard drives draw around 10W per gigabyte written to them constantly.

This number increases when reading from them and writing files onto them quickly (such as during copying).

3. Once you know how much power each component draws, add these numbers to get an approximate figure for overall energy consumption.

How To Know About TDP of Gaming PC:

Thermal Design Power (TDP) measures the maximum heat a processor generates during operation.

The manufacturer specifies the TDP and indicates how much cooling should be supplied.

TDP is an indicator of the amount of heat that a processor can generate under full load conditions.

It is calculated by multiplying CPU frequency by voltage and the square of its physical core count. If you have multiple cores in your CPU, then multiply them together.

For example, if you have a quad-core processor running at 3GHz with a voltage of 1V per core, then the TDP would be 12W (3GHz x 4 cores x 1V).

The TDP for a computer system can also include other components, such as graphics cards and motherboard chipset components, contributing to overall heat generation within the chassis.

How You Can Save Electricity While Running a Gaming PC:

You can’t stop the march of progress, but you can learn how to use it more efficiently. And if you’re using a gaming PC, there are plenty of ways to save electricity while still enjoying high-performance games and apps.

Here are 8 tips to save electricity:

1. Put your PC to sleep when it’s not in use.

2. Turn off your monitor when it’s not being used.

3.  Use Energy-Efficient Hardware.

4. Use an Energy-Saving Monitor.

5. Run Your Computer at Night.

6. Use a power strip with an on/off switch so you don’t have to unplug each device individually.

7. Make sure all devices in the room are plugged into a surge protector or power strip with an on/off switch so you don’t have to unplug each device individually when turning off the computer or monitor before bedtime or when leaving for work during the day. 

If you’re going away for a weekend or vacation, turn off your printer and modem to use electricity even when not in use (and will probably print out junk mail ads as soon as they detect that someone is using their email address).

8. If you have an older computer that uses a fanless design, consider getting rid of it and replacing it with a newer model with fans and vents because these give off heat which is bad for your PC.

How Many Watts Does A Gaming PC Use In Sleep Mode:

The answer to this question depends on a lot of factors. The most important ones are:

  • Power supply efficiency
  • Processor idle power consumption
  • Graphics card idle power consumption
  • Hard drive power consumption (if you have one)
  • Any other components that you have installed on your PC and what they do when you put the PC to sleep.

So, how much power does my gaming PC use when asleep? Well, it depends. On average, however, it’ll probably use about 20-30 watts of power. But that’s just an average. Your gaming pc might consume more than that.

Bottom Line of How Many Watts Does A Gaming PC Use:

After reading this in-depth article, we hope you will get the answer to your question about how many watts a gaming pc use and some additional information that a gamer should know.

We have discussed how many watts an average gaming pc part uses and how you can save electricity while running a gaming PC.

After reading the article, we hope you can consume less power while playing games on your pc.

If you still have any queries related to gaming pc in your mind, comment below or send us an email we will provide you the complete guidance.

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