For PCs, one little part can make a green difference
Did you know approximately 15% of the total carbon footprint of personal computers is generated during use-phase due to electricity consumption? While most of a PC's carbon footprint arises during its manufacture and disposal, how much electricity it uses over its lifetime makes a significant difference.
The Px3 study took an in-depth look at the impact various processors have on energy consumption when running in active power consumption mode for a mix of use cases. This analysis was the first to answer the question:
Does a computer’s processor make a difference in energy use and costs, and emissions?
Taking a head-to-head comparison of laptop processor energy emissions, the report evaluated how processor selection could impact use-phase sustainability and costs.
Methodology
The study examined the power consumption of three Lenovo ThinkPad X13 notebooks running Windows 11. Each machine was identical except for the processor inside: one was a AMD Ryzen 5; another was an Intel Core i5; and another was a Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3. The scientists ran an identical set of workloads on each device, including typical productivity tasks, content streaming, and video conferencing.
Results
In short, our Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor used less energy, impacting power consumption, energy costs, and carbon emissions. The main benefits included:
What is end user computing?
1. Energy
Devices powered by Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 used less energy across all use cases. For example, when compared to the Intel processor, 62% less energy was consumed while streaming content, and 58% less energy was used to perform productivity tasks. And compared to AMD, our Snapdragon processor performed especially well with popular video-based collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, reporting an energy savings of up to 57%.
2. Emissions
Across 1,000-users and five years, Snapdragon enabled laptops have the potential to reduce scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 21.847 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent:
That’s like avoiding the pollution a fossil fuel vehicle would make driving around the earth more than three times.
For your information
Simply put: Snapdragon powered laptops reduce emissions because they consume less electricity.
3. Cost savings
In the time span of five years, an enterprise using 1,000 Snapdragon powered laptops can save 60,900 kWh compared to an identical laptop with an Intel processor (or 22,750 kWh compared to AMD). Using the International Energy Agency median cost of commercial electricity, this adds up to a cost saving of $7,321 per 1,000 devices based on a global average electricity price. That’s another impressive number, but this time, it adds to your bottom line — imagine that savings across a 50,000 or 100,000 employee enterprise.
Snapdragon energy efficient computing for ESG, profitability
The significance of these new findings is exciting. As ESG becomes more relevant for companies and consumers, your end-user computing selection can help to lower emissions and costs.
To access the study and examine its exact findings, I invite you to download (no form required) the “Device Use Phase Analysis: Climate Action with Energy Efficient IT” study by Px3 here.
