2013-08-20, 08:42
Hi All
I ran some power consumption tests today on my late 2012 model Mac Mini 2.5 i5 Ivy Bridge with Intel HD4000 graphics HTPC running Windows 8 64bit via bootcamp.
I was curious the consumed watts when the HTPC was in sleep verus idle in desktop.
I decided then to see the consumption when running XBMC. I had configured my XBMC to have External Player support (MPC-HC) having installed Kawaii Codec Pack (KCP-0.5.4.0).
The findings were interesting.
I leveraged an Arlec (240v) power meter.
With Mac Mini in sleep, it consumes 2w.
With Mac Mini idle in Windows, it consumes 12w.
Test file was a 3GB mpeg4.
Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1280x720 29.97fps [English (Video 1) [Default]]
Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz stereo [English (Audio 1) [Default]]
When running XBMC 12.2 Frodo, playing movie using out-of-box XBMC default player (DVDPlayer) - power consumption read 16w.
When running MPC-HC directly from windows (without XBMC) - power consumption read 24w.
When running MPC-HC as an external player from XBMC - power consumption read 32w.
I take it XBMC must be leveraging some type of hardware acceleration (DXVA2) that results in less CPU and thus less watts?
Is there anything that should be done to configure MPC-HC to leverage acceleration ?
cheers.
I ran some power consumption tests today on my late 2012 model Mac Mini 2.5 i5 Ivy Bridge with Intel HD4000 graphics HTPC running Windows 8 64bit via bootcamp.
I was curious the consumed watts when the HTPC was in sleep verus idle in desktop.
I decided then to see the consumption when running XBMC. I had configured my XBMC to have External Player support (MPC-HC) having installed Kawaii Codec Pack (KCP-0.5.4.0).
The findings were interesting.
I leveraged an Arlec (240v) power meter.
With Mac Mini in sleep, it consumes 2w.
With Mac Mini idle in Windows, it consumes 12w.
Test file was a 3GB mpeg4.
Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1280x720 29.97fps [English (Video 1) [Default]]
Audio: Dolby AC3 48000Hz stereo [English (Audio 1) [Default]]
When running XBMC 12.2 Frodo, playing movie using out-of-box XBMC default player (DVDPlayer) - power consumption read 16w.
When running MPC-HC directly from windows (without XBMC) - power consumption read 24w.
When running MPC-HC as an external player from XBMC - power consumption read 32w.
I take it XBMC must be leveraging some type of hardware acceleration (DXVA2) that results in less CPU and thus less watts?
Is there anything that should be done to configure MPC-HC to leverage acceleration ?
cheers.