Watts, Amps, Degrees. How does Flash fair?
I did a test. A test to measure the usage of energy comparing Flash and Quicktime (native OS player).
Test Environment:
Macbook Pro 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo (early 2007)
3 GB RAM
128MB ATI Radeon X1600
Snow Leopard 10.6
Using iStat Menu’s as a source for the live values.
Starting Values:
CPU Amps: 4A
CPU Watts: 3.68W
CPU Temp: 58˚C
Quicktime:
Test: 45 second sample of the Iron Man 2 trailer from the Apple Trailer site. 480p.
Player: Quicktime X on Snow Leopard
CPU Amp: 5.39A, 5.79A, 5.79A, 6.01A = 5.745A average
CPU Watt: 5.89W, 5.7W, 6.0W, 5.8W = 5.8475W average
CPU Temp: 60˚C, 61˚C, 63˚C, 61˚C = 61.25˚C average
Flash:
Test: 45 second sample of the Iron Man 2 trailer from the official Marvel account. 480p.
Player: Flash 10 on Chrome
CPU Amp: 14.7A, 17.6A, 17.6A, 17.57A = 16.8675A average
CPU Watt: 20W, 15.41W, 19.5W, 19.19W = 18.525W average
CPU Temp: 68˚C, 67˚C, 69˚C, 70˚C = 68.5˚C average
The Results:
Before we can compare the results properly lets find out what we have measured.
Amps(Amperes): the ampere is a measure of the amount of electric charge passing a point per unit time. [Wikipedia] How much we are drawing.
Watts: The unit measures the rate of energy conversion. [Wikipedia] Which is basically how much energy we are using.
So the Watt reading is somewhat more important than Amperes. Watts’ is what your electricity company charges you in (watt hours), so lets focus on that.
So Quicktime uses 5.8475W on average and Flash uses 18.525W.
It obvious to see that Flash uses more Watts, more energy, than an OS based player. 3.16x more energy.
So using Flash will eventually, all added up, hurt Johnny Polar Bear and will lead us to some climate based doom. And not to mention cost you more money to use (probably a few cents here and there, but its something).
Note: I hope I have gotten my facts right about Watts and Amperes. Any electricians or electrical engineers that want to correct me, please do.
