2013 iMac Power Consumption

[kansei]

So, seeing as the big difference moving to Haswell is improved battery life in laptops, I figured it made sense that we'd see reduced power consumption on our desktops as well. I found this thread on the 2012 model https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1525226/. Apple quotes figures of idle screen off 20.5W / screen on 79.9W. One would expect they'd post 'optimal' figures, so it looks like the Haswells do in fact consume much less power.

Feel free to contribute readings from your meter if you have them, along with relevant system specs.

27" - i7 3.5GHz - 780M - 256GB SSD - 24GB RAM

• idle (screen off): 16.0W
• middle screen brightness, browsing macrumors: 48-50W
• max during gpu benchmark (unigine heaven w/ tessellation): 139W

 

[iSayuSay]

What a considerable power reduction. Pretty sure 5 years from now you can get x86 CPU capability in an iPhone or iPad while conserving battery life. Kudos to Intel for reducing my power bills!

 

[jg321]

So, seeing as the big difference moving to Haswell is improved battery life in laptops, I figured it made sense that we'd see reduced power consumption on our desktops as well. I found this thread on the 2012 model https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1525226/. Apple quotes figures of idle screen off 20.5W / screen on 79.9W. One would expect they'd post 'optimal' figures, so it looks like the Haswells do in fact consume much less power.

Feel free to contribute readings from your meter if you have them, along with relevant system specs.

27" - i7 3.5GHz - 780M - 256GB SSD - 24GB RAM

• idle (screen off): 16.0W
• middle screen brightness, browsing macrumors: 48-50W
• max during gpu benchmark (unigine heaven w/ tessellation): 139W

Wow, that's amazing! Incredible what they're doing with these things these days.

 

[bp1000]

I tested power consumption of my Haswell iMac and posted the results a my thread the other day. All results at idle.

I clocked 25watts 1 bar to 70w full bar brightness.

Auto brightness put it just under half which measured 30 watts. Incredibly for a 27" iMac.

 

[pastrychef]

27" - i7 3.5GHz - 780M - 256GB SSD - 24GB RAM

• idle (screen off): 16.0W
• middle screen brightness, browsing macrumors: 48-50W
• max during gpu benchmark (unigine heaven w/ tessellation): 139W

Wow. Those numbers are remarkable. I measured wattage of the video card using iStat Menu while running a benchmark and the video card alone was using over 175W. This is in a Mac Pro, by the way.

Thanks for posting.

 

[ioannis2005gr]

I tested power consumption of my Haswell iMac and posted the results a my thread the other day. All results at idle.

I clocked 25watts 1 bar to 70w full bar brightness.

Auto brightness put it just under half which measured 30 watts. Incredibly for a 27" iMac.

This is a wild progress!!!

 

[fhopper]

There are so many reasons this was a major upgrade rather than a minor one as some people have said. Power consumption is one big step forward. (Not to mention the attendant reduction in heat generation in the office. I have an LED TV and now computer in a room that used to get hot... now it does not.) Of course the networking potential in an era of intrahome streaming is another. I bet the new Apple TV will blaze with 802.11 ac