M1 Mac Mini has dropped my electricity bill by almost 50% | Hacker News Reader

M1 Mac Mini has dropped my electricity bill by almost 50%

forums.macrumors.com

27 pointsjb199115 comments

> I changed my mighty PC for a M1 Mac Mini. The PC was running Windows with an i9, a RTX2070 and a 850w PSU. All other devices are the same.

This is hilarious. M1 is amazing, but I don’t think it makes sense to compare it to a PC with a powerful dedicated GPU and the fastest processor made by Intel.

I think it's apt in the sense that for many, the m1 machines are meeting their needs as much as the high spec machines did.

It’s like a Ferrari owner buying a Hyundai and saying they save a lot on their gas bill.

Why did they own the Ferrari if they weren’t using its power in the first place?

It's more like someone buying a normal Hyundai that can keep up with the Ferrari, even when racing on the freeway.

It can't tho. Even if the Ferrari uses old engine tech (14nm) vs latest engine tech (5nm) the Hyundai still loses.

https://techjourneyman.com/blog/apple-m1-vs-intel-core-i9/

Can't wait for Intel and AMD to get their hands on 5nm equivalent FAB processes.

If gas pumps didn’t have prices on them and your fillup costs were included on your autopay gas & electric bill, you would be more likely to be surprised when your new car lowered your bill, simply due to the extra layer of indirection from the bundling of that cost.

Of course this isn’t particularly fair, as the RTX is far superior to the M1 integrated graphics, but real-world performance of the M1 is actually comparable to the Core i9 while only consuming a fraction of the power.

While the M1 can beat laptop i9s (from older MacBooks), it definitely cannot beat desktop i9s like the one OP had - https://techjourneyman.com/blog/apple-m1-vs-intel-core-i9/.

The old PC accounted for more than 50% of that household's power bill? Even considerably more? I say they should learn to cook.

Lots of people cook with natural gas, and it’s most likely much cheaper than electricity. But I would expect air conditioner/refrigerator/freezer to be enough of electricity consumption that a computer would not be able to move the needle 50%.

Edit: comment says they are in Brazil, so I have no idea what their typical usage patterns are like.

Wow, his graphics card's idle power (83W) takes up as much power as my 2018 15" MBP's maximum usage (the power supply is rated at 87W)!

These new low power notebooks are also great in environments where power is scarce, i.e. on boats.

I mean like seriously? Macrumors?

Out of Lighting, Fridge, Air Conditioning, Kitchen Appliance etc, dozens of other.....

It’s a forum post, not a Macrumors article.

Doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Our power usage is dominated by our household's ~100-150w baseline power consumption. Idle draw for a high end machine is probably around that amount.

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