Considering that power saving is key in our offices and households, we need to keep track of our power consumption. When buying a gaming laptop, sometimes we are too drawn to getting the best feature to notice the power consumption. Maybe you want to know how many watts your gaming laptop consumes so that you can keep track of your power.
A gaming laptop consumes 160-185 Watts/hour. Normally, a gaming laptop is more powerful and consumes more watts than a normal laptop. This is because it has the best features such as a powerful GPU, the graphics card, the display. The battery, just to mention a few.
Why Do Gaming Laptops Consume More?
Simply because a gaming laptop is more powerful, it uses more watts than a regular laptop. A gaming laptop performs complex and demanding tasks such as running powerful apps that require a great processor and good RAM. For a gaming laptop to give the best resolution and offer you a smooth gaming time, the features must be the best.
What Are the Factors For Watts Consumption?
The processor
In other words, the GPU of your gaming laptop will determine the watts it consumes. This depends on how powerful the performance is. A gaming laptop needs a good GPU to run games smoothly and give an amazing display. The more powerful the GPU, the more watts it consumes.
The display
The resolution of a gaming laptop is usually around 1080p or higher. This is a great display. It, therefore, consumes more watts. A gaming laptop needs a good display. Also, the larger the display, the more watts it consumes. For example, a laptop with a 16” display consumes around 70 watts every hour.
CPU
The central processing unit is the backbone of a laptop. The energy consumed by the CPU is measured in kilowatts per hour. Compared to a normal laptop, a gaming laptop consumes more. It could consume up to 100 kilowatts per hour.
Adapter
The size of your laptop determines the size of the adapter. The adapter is the power supply for your gaming laptop. Therefore, the bigger the adapter, the more power it will consume. For big laptops, the adapter is big hence it uses more watts.
Related: How do i fix my laptop power jack?
Do You Want To Monitor How Much Your Gaming Laptop Consumes?
Keeping track of how much your laptop consumes could help you save on energy if that is your goal. Tracking this could be tricky but there are ways to tell. For example, you can simply check the watts your laptop charger consumes. This will determine how much your laptop has been used.
Some devices monitor the watts consumed. These can be used even with other electronics inside your households. The electricity usage monitor can be plugged in with your laptop charger. Another simple way to know how much your laptop is used is by calculating how much each laptop feature consumes, for example, the display, the RAM, and then adding the numbers to get a figure.
Related: Tips to stop laptop battery from draining fast
Is It Possible To Save On Energy?
As much as we can agree that the watt consumption of a gaming laptop is mostly dependent on the features that the laptop has, there are things we can do or not do to ensure that the laptop uses the minimum watts possible.
How Can You Minimize the Watt Usage?
Mind the way you charge your laptop
Charging your laptop correctly can save up energy and reduce watt usage. For example, you can apply the following tips when charging.
- Remember to unplug the charger when your laptop is charged. This is to ensure that your laptop is not overcharged. The battery life is affected by overcharging.
- Ensure that you do not allow your laptop to go so low on charge that you only plug in when the laptop shuts down.
- Avoid using chargers that are not specifically for you gaming laptop. Do not share chargers either.
Related: How to charge a laptop battery manually
Invest in a cooling system
The more effective your cooler is, the fewer watts your gaming laptop will consume. Your cooler will make sure that your laptop is cold whenever you are charging it. This will ensure that your laptop does not overheat when gaming.
Manual settings
Something as simple as your settings could reduce the number of watts consumed. When gaming, it is good that you use the minimum brightness. If you are comfortable with low levels of brightness, the better.
Conclusion
The watts a laptop consumes come down to the type of laptop you use for gaming. The features of a gaming laptop determine the wattage. If you are not sure about the consumption, you can enquire from your manufacturer so that you don’t end up buying a laptop that consumes too much. Also, the little things that could save up on energy are essential for you to put into practice if you want to see a change in watts usage.
