Power Consumption With CPU Stressed
I’m using s-tui to stress the CPU. It provides a convenient frontend to the stress utility.
Here’s a chart showing system power consumption with the CPU under full load.
The full CPU load chart shows the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra moving into a completely different power class from the conventional mini PCs. In Balanced and Performance modes, it reaches 155W, making it the highest-consuming system in the comparison. Even allowing for the 25GbE network card, which accounts for roughly 10W, the underlying system is still drawing around 145W under sustained full CPU load.
That’s a long way above the Ryzen 9 8945HS, Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, Ryzen 9 7940HS, Core Ultra 7 255H, and Core Ultra 9 285H mini PCs. It’s also above both desktop systems, although the i5-12400F result is inflated by its dedicated graphics card. The MS-02 Ultra is therefore not just a higher-end mini PC; under heavy CPU load, it behaves much more like a compact workstation.
The Power Saver result needs careful interpretation. The chart shows the MS-02 Ultra dropping as low as 85W, which puts it level with the i5-10400 desktop and well below its Balanced/Performance figure. However, that isn’t a stable operating point. Power usage fluctuates, cycling back up towards 155W, with brief peaks as high as 204W. Similar short-lived peaks are also seen in Balanced and Performance modes.
That unusual behaviour suggests Power Saver doesn’t apply a consistent hard power cap on this system. Instead, the machine appears to alternate between lower-power and high-boost states, so the 85W figure should be treated as a low point rather than a steady full-load figure.
Overall, the chart shows the MS-02 Ultra prioritising performance and expansion headroom over efficiency under full CPU load. Its power consumption is high, but that’s consistent with a Core Ultra 9 285HX workstation-class platform with PCIe expansion, multiple storage options, high-speed networking, and a much larger power envelope than ordinary mobile-class mini PCs.
Next page: Page 4 – Electricity Costs
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:
| Minisforum MS-02 Ultra 285HX | |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Introduction to the series and interrogation of the machine |
| Benchmarks | Benchmarking the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra 285HX Mini Workstation |
| Power | Testing and comparing the power consumption |
| More articles will be published next week | |