Power Consumption Comparison of Apple Mac Computers
I thought it would be interesting to compile a table of the relative power usage of various apple computers. When purchasing a computer, power consumption really is an important issue, and is often overlooked. And there's a lot at stake here. The power usage of some of the desktop models is actually shockingly high, while laptop energy usage is impressively low. According to these specs, an idle Mac Pro would consume 123 KWH per month, or, at $0.17/KWH, would increase your electric bill by $20 per month! Not to mention all of the heat that such a machine dissipates. It can be like having a small space heater on all the time--which isn't usually a very good thing in the middle of the summer.
Alas, it is very difficult to find solid power consumption information on these machines. Which is sort
of surprising, because all it would take is plugging each of them into a
$25 power meter that you can buy
from Amazon.com
to get the actual power draw of each machine in each mode. Anyway, here's what I've been
able to compile, with links to the source documents I used for reference for each of them. In some cases,
I've found conflicting information on power usage for the same machine (even Apple themselves contradicts themselves on their specs for some machines,
so I've just included all of the
information I've seen documented in any reasonable way. The table is ordered by maximum power consumption.
Any additions/corrections would be welcome.
Computer | Off Power Consumption (Watts) |
Sleep Power Consumption (Watts) |
Idle Power Consumption (Watts) |
Max Power Consumption (Watts) |
Max Power Supply Output (Watts) |
![]() 2.0 GHz |
< 1.4 | < 2.4 | < 17.0 | 60 | |
![]() 2.33 GHz |
< 1.4 | < 2.9 | < 22.0 | 85 | |
![]() 1.83 GHz |
< 1.3 | < 2.3 | < 21 | 110 | |
![]() 2-2.16 GHz, 1 GB RAM |
< 2.5 | < 3.4 | 7.2 < 84 |
95 130.8 |
180 |
![]() Quad Core 2.66 GHz, 1 GB RAM |
< 2 | < 13 | 171 | 250 | 980 |
Power Mac G5 Dual 2 GHz, 512 MB RAM |
< 2 | < 16 | 140 165 < 185 |
450 604 |
> 1000 |
Useful Links:
Apple and the Environment (environmental specs for Apple computers)