Nintendo Wii beats up on the competition in power savings

By Paul Miller | February 21, 2007

So, the graphics might just be warmed over GameCube fare, but the Wii sure does take those wimpy specs and runs with ‘em. A new showdown between the big three home consoles and a mid-range PC doesn’t compare games or GPUs, but rather power consumption, and the Wii wins by a landslide. The watts don’t just bleed during gameplay, DVD playback seems to require immense effort from the 360 and PS3, and even the consoles in “idle” mode consume about ten times the watts of the Wii. Of course, the consoles consume a minimal amount of power in standby, which is substantially more when the Wii’s Connect24 service is on, but not quite a deal breaker, just about a $1 a month of power. So if you’re looking to shave a few bucks off your power bill or do your treehuggin’ duty to the environment, it looks like the choice is fairly obvious — though you’ll naturally have to look elsewhere than the Wii to get your video playback kicks.

[Via Joystiq]

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