Windows 10: Power Usage of PC: How To Reduce It?

I agree with the above. modern components are much more efficient and draw less from the wall (particularly graphics cards). Older hardware such as the age of OP's come from an era of power guzzlers.

I know you're short of money, but save some each month and you soon find you have enough. It's what I do.

I am confused as to why you need to run Skype 24/7.

 

It's not that odd surely - I do.

I guess if you don't have a phone and want Skype 24*7 you could turn the monitor off when you aren't using it to save a few watts.

It would probably be cheaper in the long run to get a phone, run Skype on that, and turn off your PC though.

 

I turn my machine off at the end of the day. Sure its whisper quiet but I prefer to save electricity if its not being used.

 

I'm surprised NiceandShy is running Skype 24/7 given his/her security concerns. There have been various vulnerabilities reported in Skype e.g. http://www.zdnet.com/article/zero-da...ode-execution/. That one may have been fixed but who knows what other vulnerabilities remain? Also, are we sure MS / NSA have not allowed a back door in Skype for eavesdropping?

NiceandShy may wish to review his/her need for Skype. If Skype is no longer needed, then just switch off the PC to save energy use.

 

If Skype and backdoors is a concern, then one should not even use Windows, or any computer for that matter, especially NOT a smart phone. My Skype has stayed secure ever since Skype got released. No issues what so ever. If there was a backdoor in Skype, then it would have been discovered a long time ago and MS would had been sued for millions if not even billions. It's easy to reverse engineer an app, and I am 100% certain Skype has been reverse engineered on multiple occasions.

Either way, Skype does not really have much to do with solving the electric consumption issue. The issue is most likely due to old hardware, nothing else. My ancient desktop computer consumed almost 400W while doing absolutely nothing. Now I have disassembled it and am recycling useful components for some electronics projects/experiments.

 

Thanks, but is it possible to make my graphics card use less electricity?

One thing I've tried doing is reducing the "video settings" of the games I play, but I don't know if this even helps...

 

Sorry but that is not going to make much difference, even with over/underclock it's not going to change more than few Watts up and down once 3D accelerator kicks in. Modern graphic cards actually have 2 processors in one, for 2D and 3D operations. Once upon a time there were so called 3D accelerators as a separate card but now they are in one processor. This one of mine for instance, uses 12W under 2D and normal desktop operations while with 3D applications uses up to 75W as much as PCIe slot can deliver because it doesn't need added power leads.

 

Thanks CountMike!

As you said earlier the Nvidia GTX 460 doesn't use much power right?

I'm looking at this page, but I can't find much information on how much power it uses?

Link: GeForce GTX 460 | GeForce

 

Here's my Rx 460 at idle (2D)



Even in full use during benchmark it was hitting only 48+ Watts.

 

GTX 460, TDP is 150 watts.
The second digit vaguely indicates power consumption. e.g. a GT 420 is 50 watts TDP, GTX 480 is 250 watts TDP.

 

Wow, it's great how you can see so much information!

I'm using HWMonitor app to see my information, but your app seems to display much more information.

 

HWiNFO - Download