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Mac Pro Power Consumption

earthwriter

earthwriter

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 7, 2017
25
1
We don't expect low power consumption from a Mac Pro workstation, that's just how it is, however we have been monitoring usage via a Amwatt load tester and while idle is around 240 watts with the HD 7850 Card in it and 8 cores, we have noticed that sleep is around 30 watts and off is still 12 watts any idea why it's consuming power when it's off and the monitor is off as well? The only way it's not consuming any watts is unplugged. Do you leave your Mac Pro in sleep all night or do you just leave it off or do you unplug it?
Thanks
 
earthwriter said:
We don't expect low power consumption from a Mac Pro workstation, that's just how it is, however we have been monitoring usage via a Amwatt load tester and while idle is around 240 watts with the HD 7850 Card in it and 8 cores, we have noticed that sleep is around 30 watts and off is still 12 watts any idea why it's consuming power when it's off and the monitor is off as well? The only way it's not consuming any watts is unplugged. Do you leave your Mac Pro in sleep all night or do you just leave it off or do you unplug it?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Which model?

My E5-1650v2 128 GiB system (essentially the 6-core MP6,1 with GTX 960) idles around 40 watts.

The cMP systems are power pigs. 240 watts for doing nothing is disgraceful.
 
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earthwriter said:
We don't expect low power consumption from a Mac Pro workstation, that's just how it is, however we have been monitoring usage via a Amwatt load tester and while idle is around 240 watts with the HD 7850 Card in it and 8 cores, we have noticed that sleep is around 30 watts and off is still 12 watts any idea why it's consuming power when it's off and the monitor is off as well? The only way it's not consuming any watts is unplugged. Do you leave your Mac Pro in sleep all night or do you just leave it off or do you unplug it?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Mine will not wake up from sleep properly so I leave it on and turn off my display.
 
earthwriter said:
We don't expect low power consumption from a Mac Pro workstation, that's just how it is, however we have been monitoring usage via a Amwatt load tester and while idle is around 240 watts with the HD 7850 Card in it and 8 cores, we have noticed that sleep is around 30 watts and off is still 12 watts any idea why it's consuming power when it's off and the monitor is off as well? The only way it's not consuming any watts is unplugged. Do you leave your Mac Pro in sleep all night or do you just leave it off or do you unplug it?
Thanks
Click to expand...

just checked, 12 core 4,1/5,1 uses 20w when sleeping here.
 
Ok so it looks like something may be off here, the PSU perhaps?
[doublepost=1496641978][/doublepost]
AidenShaw said:
Which model?

My E5-1650v2 128 GiB system (essentially the 6-core MP6,1 with GTX 960) idles around 40 watts.

The cMP systems are power pigs. 240 watts for doing nothing is disgraceful.
Click to expand...

We honestly don't know which one we have all we can tell you is this is what get in our About This Mac we just update to 2.1 for the CPU upgrade the serial number on everymac.com says we have a MA356LL/A A1186 (EMC 2113) no mention of cMP it sounds like your E5 processor is in a much newer energy efficient MP that is worth a lot more! So comparison wise I don't see it's really fair to judge, we would like to hear from someone who has older an system with the same kind of processors and similar graphics card setup.
[doublepost=1496642261][/doublepost]This might help shed some light on the power consumption, it's how it is not much can be done about it. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2574404?tstart=0
 
earthwriter said:
We don't expect low power consumption from a Mac Pro workstation, that's just how it is, however we have been monitoring usage via a Amwatt load tester and while idle is around 240 watts with the HD 7850 Card in it and 8 cores, we have noticed that sleep is around 30 watts and off is still 12 watts any idea why it's consuming power when it's off and the monitor is off as well? The only way it's not consuming any watts is unplugged. Do you leave your Mac Pro in sleep all night or do you just leave it off or do you unplug it?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Your power consumption is normal.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201796

The high idle power consumption is because the technology inside is old, power inefficient. You are talking about a 10 years old computer. If you use the today standard to measure it, it is a power hog. The only way to avoid that is to abandon it.
 
earthwriter said:
We don't expect low power consumption from a Mac Pro workstation, that's just how it is, however we have been monitoring usage via a Amwatt load tester.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that many consumer level load testers are quite inaccurate. Most devices are OK as long as the main consumer inside your equipment are resistors turning electricity into heat (like light bulbs, heaters, hair dryers etc.). However a simple watt meter might show you values way of when measuring a device containing lots of capacitors and coils (like your computer).
 
Additionally any device plugged into an outlet saps power regardless of whether it is on or not.
 
The cMP has a power supply that can handle up to 980 watts, and dates back almost a decade. Not really fair to compare against a much newer, lower wattage supply. Back then apple didn't seem to be sweating power consumption as much, and clearly they just wanted something that could handle whatever load people threw at it, since its not like you can just swap in a pc supply.

12watts off does seem a bit high, but probably the standby circuitry isn't really efficient. But remember off isn't really off - some parts (like ethernet for WOL) are still drawing power.
 
omvs said:
The cMP has a power supply that can handle up to 980 watts, and dates back almost a decade. Not really fair to compare against a much newer, lower wattage supply. Back then apple didn't seem to be sweating power consumption as much, and clearly they just wanted something that could handle whatever load people threw at it, since its not like you can just swap in a pc supply.

12watts off does seem a bit high, but probably the standby circuitry isn't really efficient. But remember off isn't really off - some parts (like ethernet for WOL) are still drawing power.
Click to expand...
The current standard to get "Energy Star" certification is ½ watt in standby mode.
 
To me, all you guys numbers seemed not correct.

My 6 core 3.4Ghz cMP 5.1 with 2x 1080 ti consumed 0.0 watt when power off. In sleep mode, 5.5Watt. Idle with safari open doing nothing, it only consumes 120W.
 
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Prince134 said:
To me, all you guys numbers seemed not correct.

My 6 core 3.4Ghz cMP 5.1 with 2x 1080 ti consumed 0.0 watt when power off. In sleep mode, 5.5Watt. Idle with safari open doing nothing, it only consumes 120W.
Click to expand...

Your numbers are about the same as mine for a 4,1 and a 5,1, but OP has a 2,1 which is much older.
 
I've been wrestling with this one myself. I have a 4,1 single CPU, but I replaced the older 130W 4C Xeon (45nm) with a 95W 6C model (32nm). I also put in an AMD 7870, which was one of the first high-end GPUs that offered very low idle energy consumption. I'm guessing I'm pulling maybe 120W idle, and I rarely load it down--the GPU is mostly to accelerate Lightroom, and the Xeon was just a steal at $35 and it helps with my occasional video encoding.

I've tried to figure out what it costs me to run this machine each year, and I think the difference between running it and a brand new model is a matter of dollars per year. While a new machine is more energy efficient, this old machine's manufacturing cost to both me and the environment has mostly been spent--a new machine is a much bigger expense to both! All that of course depends on your usage and demand, but my 2009 is way more than enough for me still.
 
They may be power pigs but I don't notice it on the power bill. I use mine all the time and live alone so only power usage is my lights and whatever I'm using which is generally the computers in my "office".

My power bill last month was less then $70 New Zealand Dollars which is around $48 USD.

My toaster draws more watts then my Mac Pro.
 
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William Payne said:
They may be power pigs but I don't notice it on the power bill. I use mine all the time and live alone so only power usage is my lights and whatever I'm using which is generally the computers in my "office".

My power bill last month was less then $70 New Zealand Dollars which is around $48 USD.

My toaster draws more watts then my Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

What model do you have?
 
William Payne said:
Single cpu 4,1 flashed to 5,1
Click to expand...

That's one of the least power hungry tower Mac Pros. I'd like to see your power bill with a dual processor MP 1,1.

You know, I have a question. Why are the old Mac Pros called 'cylinder' when they look nothing like a cylinder? The 2013 Mac Pro should be called 'cylinder', and the pre-2012 Mac Pros should be called 'aluminum'. First there was the aMP, then the cMP. Next will be the mMP.
 
z970mp said:
That's one of the least power hungry tower Mac Pros. I'd like to see your power bill with a dual processor MP 1,1.

You know, I have a question. Why are the old Mac Pros called 'cylinder' when they look nothing like a cylinder? The 2013 Mac Pro should be called 'cylinder', and the pre-2012 Mac Pros should be called 'aluminum'. First there was the aMP, then the cMP. Next will be the mMP.
Click to expand...

You should see the power spikes on my usage graph when I use my drier for laundry haha.

As for cylinder, who calls that model a cylinder? I thought only the trash can was a cylinder.

The c in cMP stands for classic.
 
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William Payne said:
You should see the power spikes on my usage graph when I use my drier for laundry haha.

As for cylinder, who calls that model a cylinder? I thought only the trash can was a cylinder.

The c in cMP stands for classic.
Click to expand...

Me too, but everyone I've seen refers to it as a cylinder.
 
Who is "everyone"? That makes zero sense. It's physically incorrect.

Maybe the 3,1's being so "blazing" fast that they warp the time barrier and become cylinders...:)
 
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z970mp said:
That's one of the least power hungry tower Mac Pros. I'd like to see your power bill with a dual processor MP 1,1.

You know, I have a question. Why are the old Mac Pros called 'cylinder' when they look nothing like a cylinder? The 2013 Mac Pro should be called 'cylinder', and the pre-2012 Mac Pros should be called 'aluminum'. First there was the aMP, then the cMP. Next will be the mMP.
Click to expand...
cMP stands for classic Mac Pro I believe, not cylinder. nMP is new Mac Pro.
 
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