That said, I think there's also some gains to be had at the top of the stream: tool-builders and with projects. It's all a numbers game.
Video games and simulators are an incredible waste of energy at every step of the way. New graphics cards require tons of engineers to design, simulate and that's before the silicon's even been bought. Next is creation, boxing, and shipping. Then RUNNING it. I guarantee that playing the simulator for 5 mins uses more energy than a dozen downloads.
But it's all a numbers game. How many people are running high end graphics cards? How many are playing that simulator? etc.
All that said, I'm also thinking about this. I wonder how much I could save by, say, switching from JS/Java to Rust. I don't know the answer. I'm mostly musing and it's probably naive or grasping at what little I can do as an individual to help the climate crisis.
It's so big, we have to do something, but at the same time, there's nothing we can do? Attempts could have negative consequences? Hell, even typing this on my giant monitor probably spent more energy than I could ever hope to save in my life.