When you’re plugging in a machine with as powerful hardware as the PS5, it’s sensible to be concerned about how much power it’s actually going to need. Because we don’t want our upgraded console to also upgrade our electric bill.
The good news is that you don’t really need to worry. As it turns out, the PS5 is not as hungry as its predecessor, the PS4 Pro.
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This news comes from Eurogamer, which has been testing the PS5 as part of its reviews process, and found that the PS5 uses just 1.5W of power during Rest Mode with the network switched off. That’s compared to the 5W of power the PS4 Pro needed to keep itself going.
Downloading a game in rest mode upped the power usage to 36W (compared to 50W), while jumping to the console homepage without doing anything needed 47W (compared to 63W). Gameplay varied somewhat, and Eurogamer found that Rise of the Tomb Raider (at 30 fps) wanted 107W of power at its peak, while Knack (locked at 60 fps) peaked at 135W. That’s compared to a respective 147W and 148W needed on the PS4 Pro. Spider-Man: Miles Morales peaked at 203W of power, but we can’t compare that figure just yet since the PS4 version hasn’t been released.
So the good news is that the PS5 doesn’t need quite as much juice as the PS4 Pro, it seems quite similar to the power demands of the Xbox Series X.
Last month it was reported that the Xbox Series X needed 128W of power playing Red Dead Redemption 2 — a last gen game, much like Rise of the Tomb Raider. The Series X also used 28W in sleep mode and 50W on the main menu. Unfortunately, next-gen titles weren’t available on Xbox Series X at the time, so we didn’t get any of those numbers for comparison.
The power testing was done by two different sites under different conditions, so we can’t take them both as absolute truth. But it’s looking like both the PS5 and Xbox Series X have similar power needs. Of course we’re going to have to wait for more in-depth side-by-side analysis to be absolutely sure.
In the meantime, you can be happy in the knowledge that there’s an extra bonus to upgrading from the PS4 Pro to the PS5. And that you won’t be left with some hefty bills, regardless of which new console you inevitably pick.
- Use a PS4 VPN to stream extra content and avoid network throttling
