The Playstation 5 consumes more power than even the latest GeForce RTX 3080 laptops

Mobile GeForce RTX 30 laptops have just begun shipping meaning we can finally obtain in-house benchmark numbers and measurements under various loads. Our first handful of Ampere laptops thus far have been the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 and Gigabyte Aero 17 with the RTX 3080, Schenker XMG Neo 17 and Asus TUF Dash F15 with the RTX 3070, and the Schenker XMG Core with the RTX 3060. Our power consumption results with a Metrahit Energy multimeter are shown in the table below. To represent "Gaming" load, we ran Witcher 3 at 1080p maximum settings with an uncapped frame rate on all our RTX 30 laptops while Astro’s Playhouse was used for the Playstation 5. For the "Maximum" column, we used Prime95 and FurMark on our laptops to stress both the CPU and GPU to 100 percent utilization.

The Playstation 5 measurements were taken from both Digital Foundry and Tom's Hardware for the purposes of this comparison, but there are hundreds of other online sources we could have drawn upon. Most agree that the console consumes roughly 180 W to 200 W when running demanding titles. Ideally, we would want power consumption readings when running Witcher 3 on the PS5 for a more apples-to-apples gaming load comparison. Until we can actually find a console in stock ourselves, however, that data will have to wait.

Overall results are not unlike what we discovered when comparing the PS5 to GeForce RTX 2080 laptops last November. The maximum TGP targets between mobile GeForce 20 and mobile GeForce 30 GPUs are almost the same because these chips are limited to the cooling potential of existing laptop designs. Even our most power-hungry Ampere laptop, the large 17.3-inch Schenker XMG Neo 17, averages only 187 W when gaming to be just barely on par with the Sony console. The laptop can potentially draw more power at up to 259 W, but this is only when the processors are at maximum load which never occurs during gameplay.

The power consumption of the PS5 is surprising not because of how high it can be, but for how close it is to the fastest gaming laptops currently available retailing for at least 5x the price of the console. That's a lot of power per dollar console gamers are getting this generation.