Sony is Fighting Climate Change By Scaling Back PS5 Performance (polygon.com) 26
An anonymous reader shares a report: Sony is testing a Power Saver mode for the PlayStation 5, explaining in a new PlayStation Blog update that the option will permit games to run with lower power consumption. While the upcoming feature was revealed as part of the system update beta, the feature will not be available during the beta phase. However, when the feature does hit your console, players will gain access to a new option called Power Saver.
With Power Saver enabled, "supported PS5 games will scale back performance and will allow your PS5 to reduce its power consumption," explained Shuzo Kikuchi, VP of product management at Sony Interactive Entertainment. "If not enabled, or if games do not support the feature, the performance will not be scaled back and power consumption will not be reduced."
As for what scaled-back performance actually means, SIE indicates that VR mode will be unavailable and that "some gameplay features may be limited." So that's one very clear change, and one vague, game-specific change.
With Power Saver enabled, "supported PS5 games will scale back performance and will allow your PS5 to reduce its power consumption," explained Shuzo Kikuchi, VP of product management at Sony Interactive Entertainment. "If not enabled, or if games do not support the feature, the performance will not be scaled back and power consumption will not be reduced."
As for what scaled-back performance actually means, SIE indicates that VR mode will be unavailable and that "some gameplay features may be limited." So that's one very clear change, and one vague, game-specific change.
Re: Perfect Climate Justice (Score:2)
Power consumption when "off" (Score:2)
Given the unit will undoubtedly spend most of the time "off", what about power consumption when the unit is turned off? We know most appliances today aren't really "off" when they're "off", so why not look at that?
Re: (Score:1)
We know most appliances today aren't really "off" when they're "off", so why not look at that?
We know about this, so do members of industry, government, and regulators. Most modern devices in "off"/standby use less than 1W of power, PS5 included. There aren't really further gains to be made in standby mode.
Re: (Score:2)
It's actually a reason why Microsoft defaulted the Xbox Series X to "off" rather than "sleep". They figured it only takes a few seconds longer to go from "off" to "on" over "sleep" to "on".so it's actually saving energy if they defaulted the console to just turn off.
Of course, the console will go into a low power standby to do things like get software updates and such but then when its done it'll switch back off.
Of course, Trump hailed this as a conspiracy and asked Microsoft to change the default back to s
Consistency (Score:2)
I assume this is kind of a way for a game to say "yeah, don't need all the clocks, thanks..." in a way that gives devs a testable max performance target that can be more aggressive than, say, just down/up-clocking the chips on demand based on heuristics (which is already happening today).
I can't imagine the average PS5 user will care about saving a few pennies a year by consuming a little less power, especially if it limits game functionality or makes the graphics worse. Even businesses displaying PS5s... I
Re: (Score:2)
They could save a good bit of energy consumption if they could drop the clock speeds slightly while reducing the voltage. Power draw in an IC increases with the square of the voltage so a 10% reduction in both frequency and voltage is actually closer to a 30% reduction in p
Re: (Score:2)
"Woohoo! I can feel better about myself because my $700 PS5 used 60 watts less! Now the power company can give those generators a little break!" (end sarcasm)
Does the PS5 really use that much power when run at full bore? Is that how we're going to solve the climate issues or whatever? Do users have a choice in using this feature, or is it just gonna be always on? Wonder how many people will disable it if they can.
What about everything else that uses power when you're not actively using it... short of u
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I can't imagine the average PS5 user will care about saving a few pennies a year by consuming a little less power, especially if it limits game functionality or makes the graphics worse. Even businesses displaying PS5s... I can't imagine the power ask is huge, but maybe it is?
In seeing some of the games available today there appears to be a trend towards "blocky" visuals as a choice of style. Also common is what appears to be a limited color palette. I don't know what is driving this style but I can guess it is nostalgia among the parents for 8-bit games (and perhaps 16-bit games) from the years prior to 2000 or so. The kids are rarely paying for these games, it is the parents, so part of the marketing will be towards the people with the money as opposed to directed only at t
Translated into reality... (Score:2)
...Sony is doing nothing effective to fight climate change, but the PR department thinks that if they include the magic words in a press release, people will buy more of their products
ICE PS5 (Score:2)
Released Early? (Score:2)
Interesting that power scaling wasn't available at release time, but nice that they're doing it.
Power bills never go down and AI is squeezing family budgets.
It might also help in warm climates without air conditioning, both to avoid overheating and not warming up the house as much.
Certainly that microclimate change is something they can actually have an impact on.
LLM (AI) Power Consumption at Sony (Score:2)
I'd like to know the total power consumption of all of their LLM queries and initiatives.
Re: (Score:2)
^Exactly^
Are the football fields of computers that handle the AI/LLM crap always busy 24/7/365? Do they drop performance when that particular machine isn't being used for something?
How about the "alleged" fields of computers that monitor all phone and data traffic (formerly called 'ECHELON')... are they set to 'power saving mode'? How about all the computers at Sony's offices and factory buildings?
Do your part (Score:2)
Now congratulate each other for a job well done.
I feel better already.
Looking anon button
<ducks>
When Power Consumption Goes Down (Score:2)
When consumption goes down, power companies scream to the government about declining demand, who in turn allows them to raise rates. Now they deliver less power for the same money. Rinse and repeat.
Watch what happens to rates when power-saving measures are effective. Unless you live in an area with public-owned utilities, you will eventually end up paying the same, or in some cases more, the less power you use. It is not well covered by the press, but my power company files for rate increases every year
Re: (Score:3)
Who needs VR anyway? (Score:2)
Who needs VR/AR in the first place anyway? Useless gimmick.
How about no (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, this will quickly end up in the "recommended services to disable" on the console, along with the settings that send personalized data back to advertisers. Assuming that Sony even lets you disable those like Microsoft does.
Chrome (Score:2)
Hopefully its an option and not forced? I'd like that on Windows 11 to stop Microsoft forcing "Efficiency Mode" on Chrome to "save power" (cripple its performance and give Edge a competitive advantage).
The fix for the Windows thing is not obvious.
All that saving undone by one AI query.... (Score:2)