In this test, I used each machine over many days while performing a variety of general desktop tasks including, but not limited to, web browsing, email, compiling source code, watching video, listening to music, and running virtual machines.
The chart shows total system power consumption, not just CPU power draw.
For the Bosgame M7, this chart is more revealing than the idle chart. Under a mixed light desktop workload, the M7 draws 27.2W, putting it near the higher end of the comparison group.
That’s still not excessive for a Core Ultra 9 285H machine, but it’s clearly not one of the most frugal systems here. It sits just above the Core Ultra 7 255H system, which draws 25.1W. The gap is only 2.1W, so again the M7 is behaving broadly as expected given its higher-tier processor.
The more telling comparison is against the AMD-based mini PCs. The Bosgame M6 draws 17.4W, the Ryzen 9 8945HS system draws 17.9W, and the Bosgame M4 Plus draws 15.4W. That means the M7 is using around 10W more than those machines during general desktop use. For light workloads such as web browsing, email, video playback, music, and occasional compiling, the AMD systems look considerably more efficient.
Notes about the chart:
- The tasks do not include GPU-intensive activities such as gaming, running locally hosted AI apps, video recording, or live streaming.
- While the tests use software that accesses the GPU, such as Wayland, GPU power consumption is minimal, with the exception of the i5-12400F, as that machine’s dedicated graphics card draws 21W at idle.
- Two screens are used on each machine.
- The i5-12400F machine hosts a dedicated graphics card, whereas the other machines all use onboard graphics.
- The Balanced CPU governor is used.
- The machines are running Ubuntu.
Next page: Page 3 – Power Consumption With CPU Stressed
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Power Consumption With System Idle
Page 2 – Power Consumption With Light Usage
Page 3 – Power Consumption With CPU Stressed
Page 4 – Electricity Costs
Complete list of articles in this series:
| Bosgame M7 Core Ultra 9 285H Mini PC | |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Introduction to the series and interrogation of the machine |
| Benchmarks | Benchmarking the Bosgame M7 Core Ultra 9 285H Mini PC |
| Power | Testing and comparing the power consumption |
| More articles will be published this week | |