Energy Efficient Dolphin Emulation Machine

Nintendo Maniac 64 · (This post was last modified: 01-30-2018, 02:29 PM by Nintendo Maniac 64.)

Well one thing to consider is undervolting. If the Ryzen 2200G and 2400G are anything like all the currently-available desktop Ryzen CPUs, then putting them into at least a B-series motherboard should let you undervolt (assuming the board itself supports that capability!)

It'd also be ideal to get a board that supports offset voltage rather than absolute voltage since the former will be applied even when the processor is at low idle clockrates.

Speaking of offset voltage, you can sometimes achieve somewhat to considerably greater offset-undervolts if you also underclock the processor a bit. I don't remember the exact offsets off the top of my head, but my G3258 needs an offset voltage somewhere around -0.110v at its stock 3.2GHz, but at 2.9GHz it only needs something like -0.170v.

**mstreurman** · 01-30-2018, 06:28 PM **#12**

Keep in mind that most Mainboards and PSU's have the possibility to use a specific function that will bring down usage to 0.5W when in standby (don't remember the name). I use it all the time on my machine and it actually brings down my wattage to 0.2W/h for the whole machine. and it still turns on faster than my Samsung UHD TV can start giving output, but when I'm using my nVME m.2 even starting form scratch (coldboot) is faster than my TV can start giving output.

Nintendo Maniac 64 · 01-30-2018, 06:32 PM **#13**

(01-30-2018, 06:28 PM)mstreurman Wrote: Keep in mind that most Mainboards and PSU's have the possibility to use a specific function that will bring down usage to 0.5W when in standby

Of course - the biggest benefit of undervolting is lower heat & power draw under load.

**mstreurman** · (This post was last modified: 01-30-2018, 07:45 PM by mstreurman.)

(01-30-2018, 06:32 PM)Nintendo Maniac 64 Wrote: Of course - the biggest benefit of undervolting is lower heat & power draw under load.

What I am talking about is not undervolting though.

EDIT: Found the name of the function: ErP

This should be supported by both your PSU as well as your Mainboard... I have a Coolermaster MasterWatt Lite 500W and a MSI PC MATE H270 and it works flawlessly. But I did have to enable it in my BIOS/UEFI

Nintendo Maniac 64 · 01-30-2018, 08:18 PM **#15**

(01-30-2018, 07:42 PM)mstreurman Wrote: What I am talking about is not undervolting though.

I know, it's just it sounded to me like you were saying that the technology in question makes undervolting needless with regards to idle loads.

**mstreurman** · 01-30-2018, 08:27 PM **#16**

(01-30-2018, 08:18 PM)Nintendo Maniac 64 Wrote: I know, it's just it sounded to me like you were saying that the technology in question makes undervolting needless with regards to idle loads.

Don't know how you got that? I stated clearly "when in standby mode" nowhere did I say that it was needless for idle loads.

Nintendo Maniac 64 · 01-30-2018, 08:30 PM **#17**

(01-30-2018, 08:27 PM)mstreurman Wrote: Don't know how you got that?

I don't know either. Tongue

01-31-2018, 06:49 PM **#18**

Thanks for all the replies! Smile

I'll definitely wait untill the release of the new Ryzen APU's. I am really curious to see what kind of motherboards will be released for those... If those are for some reason unavailable or crazy expensive here in the Netherlands I still might go the (under voltaged) G4560 and GTX 1030 route.

TKSilver · 02-01-2018, 06:56 AM **#19**

Also make sure if you are going for energy efficiency to use a PSU calculator to get the right PSU one that has the pull from your system fall right in the most efficient part of it's band

Calculate with this
https://outervision.com/power-supply-calculator
Then look at the data for the PSUs you are interested in. This will actually make a large difference.