Sony just started selling the new PlayStation 3 80GB Core and beside the removal of the PS2 compatibility, it has been updated with a new 65nm revision of NVIDIA’s RSX graphics processor. That’s at least what the first power consumption tests with the new model points to. A user at slickdeals.net decided to compare the power consumption of his 40GB model to Sony’s new 80GB Core model in hope of finding something interesting, and perhaps at least partially confirm the rumors of a more power efficient 65nm version of RSX.
Even if the results weren’t enough to convince him to upgrade, there’s no doubt Sony has done something to lower the power consumption. The measurements showed 11% to 16% lower power consumption with the new model, the biggest difference was when the GPU was under heavy load, I.e. when gaming.
If you’re not much of a gamer this won’t affect your electric bill (but then why the heck do you own a PlayStation?), but it certainly seems like Sony is now using 65nm RSX, which may also affect temperatures, but there was no testing of that.
40GB PS3 –
- XMB idle – 125.8 watts
- DVD playback – 141.2 watts
- PS3 MGS4 – 155.2 watts
80GB PS3 Core –
- XMB idle – 111.9 watts
- DVD playback – 126.0 watts
- PS3 MGS4 – 130.0 watts
