Display power draw

Dragonwinged · June 17

So with all these handhelds coming out, including the Switch 2, I'd like to know how much the screen resolution affects power draw and battery life. For example, if you have a 1080p monitor and set the in-game resolution to 720p, would it draw the same power as a native 720p panel? If not, will the higher resolution panel always draw more power or is there a way to lower its power draw?

CasualExtremist · June 17

26 minutes ago, Dragonwinged said:

So with all these handhelds coming out, including the Switch 2, I'd like to know how much the screen resolution affects power draw and battery life. For example, if you have a 1080p monitor and set the in-game resolution to 720p, would it draw the same power as a native 720p panel? If not, will the higher resolution panel always draw more power or is there a way to lower its power draw?

I am not sure screen resolution alone drives the power draw. LCD vs OLED vs QLED and all these other variants will have different power draw even at the same resolution. Seems like it'd be difficult if at all possible to develop a general rule of thumb when every company tweaks the technology one way or another. Especially when you are also considering at what screen brightness level also.

I'm fairly certain screen brightness is the best method to reduce power draw if that is your only concern. Obviously with a visual cost.

DreamCat04 · June 18

9 hours ago, Dragonwinged said:

So with all these handhelds coming out, including the Switch 2, I'd like to know how much the screen resolution affects power draw and battery life. For example, if you have a 1080p monitor and set the in-game resolution to 720p, would it draw the same power as a native 720p panel? If not, will the higher resolution panel always draw more power or is there a way to lower its power draw?

The component with the highest power draw in those handhelds is by far the chip. The screen only takes like 1-2W max and of that bit of power, 90% is the backlight in LCDs, so resolution basically won't in- or decrease the screen's power draw. With OLEDs, I doubt that resolution will change the power draw of the display, brightness is the main determining factor in a screen's power draw