How does a PC graphics card affect your electricity bill?

That is why users need to find out where the problem of electricity consumption in the house may lie. One of those problems may lie directly in the computer (PC), specifically its components such as the graphics card.

The GPU and CPU are the biggest power hogs on a PC.

One way to measure the consumption of electronic devices is to check their energy efficiency. We can know this when we buy it or simply when we look at the specifications it may have or directly through devices such as smart plugs. But the first thing we need to know is that some devices consume more than others, and that may be the cause of the problem.

First, users need to know which components in their PC are consuming the most power. The culprits are the components that have to process the most information, meaning they have the most power. This is something that people may think about but tend to forget when buying a PC because they don't take into account its energy efficiency but what it is capable of doing.

A quality PSU plays a significant role in helping your PC save power.

As a result, it is recommended that users buy the best power supply unit (PSU) possible, and the difference in saving on electricity bills in the long run will be in using a PSU with a high energy efficiency certification. This way, when we have the latest generation CPU along with a GPU with a high energy efficiency rating, the energy savings will be significant. To get a better idea of ​​the energy efficiency of PSUs, let's take a look at the chart below.

As you can see, efficiency is one of the reasons why the cost of electricity in the house increases because after all, it is a component that requires a lot of energy. A powerful component will need to consume more electricity, which is why in our home appliances, one of the devices that usually consumes the most electricity is the refrigerator because after all, it needs to be constantly connected to have high power for the cooling task.

Similar to the case of PC, the only difference with the refrigerator is that we will not use it all day but use it enough hours for work, so it also greatly affects the power consumption.

There's no need to invest in the most advanced GPU just for casual gaming.

Ultimately, the graphics card and CPU are often the two biggest culprits when it comes to our PCs consuming a lot of power, so users are often advised to choose components that are less power-hungry but still allow us to enjoy our games to the fullest. As a result, it would be unnecessary to use a powerful RTX 4090 GPU to play most games at high graphics settings because in addition to the very high initial investment cost, it can consume a lot of electricity, leading to exorbitant prices on electricity bills every month.

Micah Soto

Update 10 February 2025