4 ms·

I assume you live in a country where electricity is still cheap. This is not universally true.

not_the_fda 4y ago
The most expensive electricity is Germany at $0.40 / kwh vs the average of $0.15 / kwh. A 40 hour game will cost $10 extra.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  > The most expensive electricity is Germany at $0.40 / kwh That’s not true, my contract is for 0.41 (EUR, but that’s kinda the same right now) and I’ve seen far higher prices. Unless you are talking wholesale, which might be true but is useless for a consumer comparison.
  - seanp2k2 4y ago
    >The most expensive electricity is Germany In California with PGE we pay $0.49/Kwh on peak if you're using above "baseline" https://www.pge.com/pge_global/common/pdfs/rate-plans/how-rates-work/Residential-Rates-Plan-Pricing.pdf https://www.pge.com/pge_global/common/pdfs/rate-plans/how-ra... Our power bill for a <2000sqft single-family home is about $800 per month right now, and CA + PGE keep trying to do things like this to prevent solar from being worth it: https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/08/cpuc-proposed-decision-on-nem-3-expected-by-sept-29/ https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/08/cpuc-proposed-...
robin_reala 4y ago
I’m in southern Sweden, which is seeing stupid electricity prices at the moment. My current daily electricity price tops out at 6.62 SEK per kW/h, so a 450W card would cost me a US dollar for a four hour gaming session.
- bslqn 4y ago
  - robin_reala 4y ago
    It’s reasonable to do both? (although in this case I’m not blaming my government too much, beyond failing to anticipate Germany’s need for our excess energy, and for not setting a country-wide pricing model for electricity. With Putin’s current stupidity, a lot of the previous energy planning goes out of the window, and all we can do is hold on for the ride.)
- eitland 4y ago
  Southern Norway crossed the 10NOK/kWh threshold earlier this year. It is kind of mind boggling how this can happen for a country with almost infinite supply of hydro power, but here we are. Of course, Norway being Norway, since the start of September we now get a 90% refund for everything above 0.7NOK (based on the average price of each 24 hours) so for most of us will survive. Oh, and since most power plants are owned by the public this doesn't affect budgets as badly as it could have done. (It is even more complicated but I don't have more time now. Someone please fill in if I got something really wrong. Also, yes, this is a wild tangent but thinking I know HN I guess it will the day a little less boring for someone : )
swid 4y ago
Even if power is expensive, it only uses that power when you are using it. The whole card is 450W, so maybe 3 hours of intense could be a dollar? The card isn’t going to be running 100% for any game I know. Compared to a slower 250W card, the premium is 1/2 that. With that it’s like you agree to pay an extra dollar for 6 hours of gaming. With expensive electricity. I feel like this is conservative and doesn’t seem to bad for people considering the most expensive consumer card on the market.
potatolicious 4y ago
Not "just" energy prices (which is important!) but even things like your home. Pulling >1KW through a single power socket (or 1.5-2 KW once you account for CPU, monitor, etc.) is non-trivial for a lot of people. At that level you're really in the territory where people will trip breakers in their home. This is "you have to hire an electrician and rewire part of your house" level of power consumption, which doesn't seem sustainable? Or at least "don't turn the stove on at the same time", which seems like an awfully disruptive way to ask people to live. Heck, at that level for homes/cities with older electric service at lower amperages, the computer is now a significant fraction of the total service capacity of your connection to the city grid. What's the response then? "Sorry you're not living in a new build home, forget about gaming"? For me the wall-power isn't a huge issue but now you have to think about air conditioning. 1-2KW dissipating in a closed room heats the room up fast. This is already a problem with the RTX 2000-series that I'm running now and it seems like it'll be even worse. "Glad you want to game, now please evaluate your home's electrical and HVAC systems to ensure they are compatible with a giant box pumping 2KW of power and converting it directly to heat"
- BitwiseFool 4y ago
  >"Or at least "don't turn the stove on at the same time", which seems like an awfully disruptive way to ask people to live." While reading this I felt a tinge of nostalgia for back when I had to ask my mother to stay off of the phone while I was online.
__david__ 4y ago
Perhaps, but you're probably not buying a >$1000 graphics card if you can't afford your electricity bill.

The most expensive electricity is Germany at $0.40 / kwh vs the average of $0.15 / kwh. A 40 hour game will cost $10 extra.

Semaphor 4y ago
> The most expensive electricity is Germany at $0.40 / kwh That’s not true, my contract is for 0.41 (EUR, but that’s kinda the same right now) and I’ve seen far higher prices. Unless you are talking wholesale, which might be true but is useless for a consumer comparison.
- seanp2k2 4y ago
  >The most expensive electricity is Germany In California with PGE we pay $0.49/Kwh on peak if you're using above "baseline" https://www.pge.com/pge_global/common/pdfs/rate-plans/how-rates-work/Residential-Rates-Plan-Pricing.pdf https://www.pge.com/pge_global/common/pdfs/rate-plans/how-ra... Our power bill for a <2000sqft single-family home is about $800 per month right now, and CA + PGE keep trying to do things like this to prevent solar from being worth it: https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/08/cpuc-proposed-decision-on-nem-3-expected-by-sept-29/ https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/08/cpuc-proposed-...

robin_reala 4y ago

I’m in southern Sweden, which is seeing stupid electricity prices at the moment. My current daily electricity price tops out at 6.62 SEK per kW/h, so a 450W card would cost me a US dollar for a four hour gaming session.

bslqn 4y ago
- robin_reala 4y ago
  It’s reasonable to do both? (although in this case I’m not blaming my government too much, beyond failing to anticipate Germany’s need for our excess energy, and for not setting a country-wide pricing model for electricity. With Putin’s current stupidity, a lot of the previous energy planning goes out of the window, and all we can do is hold on for the ride.)
eitland 4y ago
Southern Norway crossed the 10NOK/kWh threshold earlier this year. It is kind of mind boggling how this can happen for a country with almost infinite supply of hydro power, but here we are. Of course, Norway being Norway, since the start of September we now get a 90% refund for everything above 0.7NOK (based on the average price of each 24 hours) so for most of us will survive. Oh, and since most power plants are owned by the public this doesn't affect budgets as badly as it could have done. (It is even more complicated but I don't have more time now. Someone please fill in if I got something really wrong. Also, yes, this is a wild tangent but thinking I know HN I guess it will the day a little less boring for someone : )

swid 4y ago

Even if power is expensive, it only uses that power when you are using it. The whole card is 450W, so maybe 3 hours of intense could be a dollar? The card isn’t going to be running 100% for any game I know. Compared to a slower 250W card, the premium is 1/2 that. With that it’s like you agree to pay an extra dollar for 6 hours of gaming. With expensive electricity. I feel like this is conservative and doesn’t seem to bad for people considering the most expensive consumer card on the market.

potatolicious 4y ago

Not "just" energy prices (which is important!) but even things like your home. Pulling >1KW through a single power socket (or 1.5-2 KW once you account for CPU, monitor, etc.) is non-trivial for a lot of people. At that level you're really in the territory where people will trip breakers in their home. This is "you have to hire an electrician and rewire part of your house" level of power consumption, which doesn't seem sustainable? Or at least "don't turn the stove on at the same time", which seems like an awfully disruptive way to ask people to live. Heck, at that level for homes/cities with older electric service at lower amperages, the computer is now a significant fraction of the total service capacity of your connection to the city grid. What's the response then? "Sorry you're not living in a new build home, forget about gaming"? For me the wall-power isn't a huge issue but now you have to think about air conditioning. 1-2KW dissipating in a closed room heats the room up fast. This is already a problem with the RTX 2000-series that I'm running now and it seems like it'll be even worse. "Glad you want to game, now please evaluate your home's electrical and HVAC systems to ensure they are compatible with a giant box pumping 2KW of power and converting it directly to heat"

BitwiseFool 4y ago
>"Or at least "don't turn the stove on at the same time", which seems like an awfully disruptive way to ask people to live." While reading this I felt a tinge of nostalgia for back when I had to ask my mother to stay off of the phone while I was online.

__david__ 4y ago

Perhaps, but you're probably not buying a >$1000 graphics card if you can't afford your electricity bill.