OK to leave games running?

[15Evan15]

So i have a new pc.

i3 4460 cpu

r9 380 gpu

8gb ram

seasonic s1112 (something like that) 420 watt

 

I play gta 5 a LOT and was wondering since it take 5 minutes to get computer on and game up(about 5 times a day), is it ok to just leave gta 5 running? could i minimize it somehow? turn monitor off? thanks

[Jon Trollston]

If you can afford the power bill, I don't see why not. 

[15Evan15]

Just now, CUDA_Cores said:

uhh yes, you can leave any application you want running on your computer. I don't see why not?

it would wear out pieces?...

[15Evan15]

1 minute ago, CUDA_Cores said:

uhh yes, you can leave any application you want running on your computer. I don't see why not?

how could i calculate the cost?

 

[Moonzy]

11 minutes ago, 15Evan15 said:

 

here's our lord and saviour, linus, on the topic

Spoiler

 

 

 

also, as long as your temps are fine

[maremp]

14 minutes ago, 15Evan15 said:

how could i calculate the cost?

 

Depends on electricity price where you live. And also on how efficient is your psu, I can't find the model you mentioned. 

 

Power draw from outlet: Use a power monitor, you can just see how much it's drawing (1W = 0.001kWh) and go to next step. If not, use estimation = TDP * (1 / psu efficiency percent). For 80+ gold psu has about 90% efficiency, which means you use 0.9 in the formula (% / 100 -> 90/100 = 0.9).

Your tdps are 84W for cpu, 190W for gpu and roughty 100W for everything else, so that would be about 374W at full load, but 300W would probably be more realistic when gaming, since the whole system isn't working at full load all the time. But that's just the tdp, you now have to factor in the psu efficiency.

For the example above (300W tdp, 80+ gold psu), you can expect around 335W draw from the outlet. With constant load, this would be about 0.34kWh. 

I'm not counting your monitor here, if you leave it on, that's about 50W extra (depends on its efficiency, panel type, size etc.).

 

When you have your power draw, you have to know what's the electricity price, usually it's per kWh, so that's what I've used above as final figures. When you have those numbers, you just simply multiply power usage, cost and number of hours running.

For example of estimation above, if your price is $0.1 per kWh, you get: $0.1 * 0.34 * 1h = $0.034 per hour, or for whole day, $0.1 * 0.34 * 24h = $0.816.

It doesn't seem much, but it adds up. Let's say you leave the computer on for your convenience of not having to wait a minute for game to load for 4 hours every day, each day of the year. This would amount to an extra $50 per year. In 5 years, that's more than what you've paid for your gpu. All that just for the convenience of not having to wait for a game to load.

 

Turning the monitor off will do something, but it's a small fraction of the power your pc is wasting. You can minimize it by not leaving the pc on for no reason. You can minimize your wait times by at least leaving your computer on desktop instead in game, since idling draws much less power than in game. Even better option is to shut it down or at least put it to sleep. In the time it takes it to start and get back up and the game to load, you can do a small chore or something.

 

Also note that you are using consumer-grade components. Unlike workstation or server hardware, those are not tested or even designed to be running 24/7/365. Doing so will degrade lifespan of your components.

[15Evan15]

3 hours ago, maremp said:

Depends on electricity price where you live. And also on how efficient is your psu, I can't find the model you mentioned. 

 

Power draw from outlet: Use a power monitor, you can just see how much it's drawing (1W = 0.001kWh) and go to next step. If not, use estimation = TDP * (1 / psu efficiency percent). For 80+ gold psu has about 90% efficiency, which means you use 0.9 in the formula (% / 100 -> 90/100 = 0.9).

Your tdps are 84W for cpu, 190W for gpu and roughty 100W for everything else, so that would be about 374W at full load, but 300W would probably be more realistic when gaming, since the whole system isn't working at full load all the time. But that's just the tdp, you now have to factor in the psu efficiency.

For the example above (300W tdp, 80+ gold psu), you can expect around 335W draw from the outlet. With constant load, this would be about 0.34kWh. 

I'm not counting your monitor here, if you leave it on, that's about 50W extra (depends on its efficiency, panel type, size etc.).

 

When you have your power draw, you have to know what's the electricity price, usually it's per kWh, so that's what I've used above as final figures. When you have those numbers, you just simply multiply power usage, cost and number of hours running.

For example of estimation above, if your price is $0.1 per kWh, you get: $0.1 * 0.34 * 1h = $0.034 per hour, or for whole day, $0.1 * 0.34 * 24h = $0.816.

It doesn't seem much, but it adds up. Let's say you leave the computer on for your convenience of not having to wait a minute for game to load for 4 hours every day, each day of the year. This would amount to an extra $50 per year. In 5 years, that's more than what you've paid for your gpu. All that just for the convenience of not having to wait for a game to load.

 

Turning the monitor off will do something, but it's a small fraction of the power your pc is wasting. You can minimize it by not leaving the pc on for no reason. You can minimize your wait times by at least leaving your computer on desktop instead in game, since idling draws much less power than in game. Even better option is to shut it down or at least put it to sleep. In the time it takes it to start and get back up and the game to load, you can do a small chore or something.

 

Also note that you are using consumer-grade components. Unlike workstation or server hardware, those are not tested or even designed to be running 24/7/365. Doing so will degrade lifespan of your components.

 

[15Evan15]

3 hours ago, 15Evan15 said:

 

if i minimize gta 5 while playing, (for instance, im driving aroound and i click minimize), will that count as idle? since it is only minimized... idk

[maremp]

11 hours ago, 15Evan15 said:

if i minimize gta 5 while playing, (for instance, im driving aroound and i click minimize), will that count as idle? since it is only minimized... idk

I don't know, I haven't played gta 5 on pc. Idle is when your cpu and gpu are running at around 10% utilization or less. You will have to check that yourself.

 

But I would try what happens if you put your computer in sleep or hybrid sleep with the game running. If it works, you can use that to save much more power and it's faster than to pause and minimize the game. You can bind the power button to put your pc to sleep, so when you go away, you can just hit the power button and go away.