What consumes more power, screen or CPU?

[Anza Power]

What usually consumes more power in a device like cellphone tablet or portable console? the display screen or the CPU?

 

And please no "it depends on x, y and z, it can be both this and that", I want a straight answer...

[Rorgash]

....then you dont mind lies i guess, so lets take.. screenm because you want a straight answer no matter if its actually always true or not

[AlwaysFSX]

Screen. It's constantly refreshing and uses a lot of power to run the lights, change pixels, the boards to process the images, etc. CPU just does basic math so it doesn't consume as much power.

 

For example, some desktop monitors can draw over a hundred watts, while many CPUs draw under that amount.

[MegaDave91]

Well it does depends. Not every answer is a simple yes or no, or this or that. Depends on the cpu and it depends on the monitor in question. My monitor uses 72 watts and my cpu (if I wasn't overclocking) uses 84 watts.

[GzeroD]

 

And please no "it depends on x, y and z, it can be both this and that", I want a straight answer...

^^^^ Cannot answer without doing this

[GeekySole9354]

Pretty sure it's the screen, don't quote me on this though.

[loccilucas]

They were talking about this on the radio the other day, they concluded that its the screen.

[Jobbe03]

The straight answer, does depend on x, y and z...

[SpyRosL]

Screen. It's constantly refreshing and uses a lot of power to run the lights, change pixels, the boards to process the images, etc. CPU just does basic math so it doesn't consume as much power.

 

For example, some desktop monitors can draw over a hundred watts, while many CPUs draw under that amount.

Seriously?

Modern displays between 22-27 inches consume 25-30 watts.Where did you find those monitors?

[Guest]

And please no "it depends on x, y and z, it can be both this and that", I want a straight answer...

Then I can't help you. That's like saying which gets better millage a Chevy or a Ford but don't bother with the different models I want a "straight" answer.

[AlwaysFSX]

Seriously?

Modern displays between 22-27 inches consume 25-30 watts.Where did you find those monitors?

The past. I only used it as an example.

[Guest]

Seriously?

Modern displays between 22-27 inches consume 25-30 watts.Where did you find those monitors?

[Boink]

The simple answer is the screen but there are exceptions. Exceptions to this rule include:

 

1. your phone/tablet is on standby (screen off, no power consumed by it.)

2. you have a virus that taxes your cpu (this happened to me recently, I burned through my entire battery in 5 hours on standby until I got rid of it)

3. you have the mobile hotspot feature on your phone turned on

4. you have some program that heavily taxes your cpu

 

But yes, 99% of the time the screen uses a lager percentage of the battery than anything else. You can see this on android devices under the battery tab in the settings menu.

 

 

[Mew]

Screen. It's constantly refreshing and uses a lot of power to run the lights, change pixels, the boards to process the images, etc. CPU just does basic math so it doesn't consume as much power.

For example, some desktop monitors can draw over a hundred watts, while many CPUs draw under that amount.

This is such s bad answer. You're takint the worst case senario, a crt vs a ulv cpu. From my experience, most screens are led or led backlit so they don't consume much power whereas a cpu drains more power. Easy example is using the Facebook app vs browsing websites in a browser, Facebook will be constantly using your cpu, using more power while browsing is just mostly keeping the screen on.

[StingBull]

Screen. Smartphone CPU's do whatever they can do to not consume much power and on top of that, they are already pretty efficient.

[DigitalHermit]

If it's a large CRT, then the screen uses more power...

else it's the CPU which can take around 100W on full load.

[Nomelas]

Generally your screen uses more power than any other part of your device. The more pixels on your device, the more power is ultimately consumed. CPUs are also getting more and more efficient with power. If you're running a full screen app that's using 100% of your CPU but also have your screen on max brightness then it might be harder to say which will drain your battery more. Also depends on your CPU. there is no straight answer I'm sorry.

[AlwaysFSX]

This is such s bad answer. You're takint the worst case senario, a crt vs a ulv cpu. From my experience, most screens are led or led backlit so they don't consume much power whereas a cpu drains more power. Easy example is using the Facebook app vs browsing websites in a browser, Facebook will be constantly using your cpu, using more power while browsing is just mostly keeping the screen on.

They wanted an answer, I gave them an answer.

[Cwazywazy]

In a mobile device, it's the screen. In a desktop (Not sure about laptop) it depends on what CPU and what screen you have. (If you have a tiny little atom and a giant 4k monitor, your screen is gonna use more power. If you have a power sucking CPU and a small LED screen your CPU is gonna use more power.)

[Aniallation]

Most likely screen. Unless your CPU is taxed and you have an AMOLED screen with one pixel lit.