Does multi-boxing in mmorpgs consume additional watts?

[CrimsonKnight]

Does multi-boxing consume extra wattage, if I run the boxes on the same pc?

I know that watt consumption for running a pc with 1 box (or mmorpg client) is roughly 250 watts. Would 4-boxing cause my pc to use more watts?

 

[ssddx]

the load does not depend on how many games you have open but the total system processing power you are using at the time.

just as a system at idle uses less electricity than when in game, having less load on your system will use less electricity. the cutoff point is 100% usage across the board however if you hit that you will start stuttering and having slowdown.

want to know how much you actually use? buy a kill-a-watt and load up some tests.

 

[CrimsonKnight]

Thanks. Do you think running multiple game windows open would usually cause significant wattage consumption (since it would use extra system processing power)? Or would the wattage consumption likely be negligible?

The reason why I'm asking is because I'm thinking about 4-boxing, but don't want to see a huge spike in my electricity bills...

 

[ssddx]

if the windows are idle in the background you would not likely be generating any additional gpu load. if you have one up on screen it will generate more gpu activity than if you had them all idle in the background. generally the only time the gpu is utilized is when you have to display something on screen.

cpu load will rise with multiple instances open. how much depends on the activities in game and how heavy on cpu the game is. idling characters in non-busy zones will be less than other tasks.