Why would this article be featured in IT Spotlight? The Green Gaming Project was a collaboration between Science and IT. Evan Mills and Norm Bourassa, senior scientists from the Building Technology and Urban Systems Division, worked together with a group of avid gamers from the IT Workstation Support Group to measure the energy consumption from gaming systems. This project and IT’s Jimmy Mai’s involvement were recently highlighted in Mother Jones, Video Games Consume More Electricity Than 25 Power Plants Can Produce.
The story began when Evan Mills brought in his MacBook Pro to be repaired by the IT Workstation Support Group. Evan shared his story about measuring energy consumption on his son’s gaming PC. The IT technicians, some avid gamers, engaged in the conversation and were curious about his work. One thing led to another and Mills found a group of willing participants in his project. He had IT staff designing, procuring, configuring, testing and monitoring gaming systems plus the development of server and client software to track GPU consumption since it was not available in the open market. The Workstation Support Group became the one stop shop for Mills and Bourassa and this project became the dream job for Desktop Systems Specialist Jimmy Mai, the lead tester on the project. It was a win-win for the Lab.
If you use a high-powered gaming computer or console, you might want to consult the project results to see what you can do to reduce your carbon footprint, check out http://greengaming.lbl.gov.
