Several US States Are About to Ban Gaming PC's. No, I'm NOT kidding.

[Shagger]

New regulations that have been in the works since 2016 to push for more energy efficient computers and monitors are about to come into effect that could effectively ban Gaming PC's above certain specifications in six US states, including the home of silicone valley California. So to save the planet, people in these states will not be able to have top-end gaming rigs because the politicians, who are most likely lobbied by oil companies and power companies still using fossil fuels, say so. More details from Game Revolution.

 

Also check this vid from ReviewTechUSA

 

 

This is insane and hypocritical to the max. I really don't thing that Gary playing Call of Duty on his GTX3070 and i9 9900k is what's the real cause of climate change. To be fair, gaming PC's can chew up a lot of juice,  but I refuse to believe that this is a major factor when it comes to the US's inflated carbon footprint This is just so politicians can claim thier doing something to tackle climate change whilst not upsetting the oil billionaires who lobby for them. This is the same as blaming GTA whoever some idiot shoots up a high school. I'm reluctant to bring politics into this, but it's impossible to avoid. I just hope this ludicrous and misguided idea doesn't spread.

 

A slight relief in the fact that the ban targets PC that use a lot of power when idle, so if the power consumption can be lowered enough by the system at idle even a powerful PC might be OK, but there will still be rigs that will still not make the cut. It makes me think of another problem, how are they going to enforce this? Somebody building a PC that, in theory, wouldn't make the cut can just say "I'm gonna install power management software", "I'll only run games a lower settings so the PC uses less energy", "I Promise to to overclock my components" or "I don't leave my computer at idle, I always turn it completely off", so how is this even going to work?

Edited August 7, 2021 by Shagger

[Reality vs Adventure]

Those are mostly blue states that are considering that. And you are right that singling out computers is not effective in reducing the carbon footprint. But democrats lobbied by big oil??? Nope. They usually lobby republicans. Here is a good site on who the top oil and gas recipients are below. And you can choose a year to look at who the recipients are. If this started in 2016, then 19 of the top 20 recipients are republican. Look at 2020. 19 of the top 20 recipients are republican also.

https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=E01&recipdetail=A&sortorder=U&mem=Y&cycle=2016

But this is a half ass attempt to save on energy, especially in the less populated states. California I would say is an exception because they use way too much energy in that state. But again, PC? 

[m76]

You might not be kidding, but also it's not true, just clickbait. They aren't banning gaming PCs, they are banning inefficient pre-built PCs witch cheap crappy power supplies. And this is not a law specifically targeting gaming PCs.

They dispel most of the false reporting in this video:

 

[killamch89]

From what I learnt, it was mainly pre-built PCs that didn't meet certain energy standards and that's why Dell machines along with a few others aren't shipped to those states.

[Reality vs Adventure]

This might explain a little more on a seeming crisis of 'computing energy' in the future. 

"Such concern about energy efficiency appears to be appropriate given the findings of a 2015 Semiconductor Industry Association report [PDF] that, given a benchmark system of 10-14 Joules/per bit transition, "computing will not be sustainable by 2040, when the energy required for computing will exceed the estimated world’s energy production."

https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/26/dell_energy_pcs/

 

 

[Empire]

This whole "ban" isn't much of a ban at all, specially not in the way we thinking. Turns out gaming PCs are allowed just fine. Infact the more powerful your PC is the more power you're allowed. The pre builts being blocked from sale are only blocked because those specific SKUs haven't been sent in to be certified. That's why you'll often see the Cali certified PCs sometimes have the better parts compared to the uncertified PCs. This is also only affecting prebuilts, if you're still building piece by piece none of this will affect you.

[Heatman]

16 hours ago, killamch89 said:

From what I learnt, it was mainly pre-built PCs that didn't meet certain energy standards and that's why Dell machines along with a few others aren't shipped to those states.

Yeah, there was a reason to the ban threat and it's actually targeted to that specific pre-built PCs that didn't meet certain standards which is understandable. 

[Reality vs Adventure]

Problem is, there are only a handful of states in the USA that are doing anything about the computing power consumption because 20 years from now in 2040, what happens if we don't meet the standards needed to stay under the world's power consumption? At that time they will have to take some serious drastic measures. So none of us will see where this is going in 20 years if we failed to keep the energy consumption at bay. And is this only the responsibility of the USA? Is any other country on board? If not, then all for nothing. I see a crisis looming in 20 years. 

[Heatman]

Just now, Reality vs Adventure said:

Problem is, there are only a handful of states in the USA that are doing anything about the computing power consumption because 20 years from now in 2040, what happens if we don't meet the standards needed to stay under the world's power consumption? At that time they will have to take some serious drastic measures. So none of us will see where this is going in 20 years if we failed to keep the energy consumption at bay. And is this only the responsibility of the USA? Is any other country on board? If not, then all for nothing. I see a crisis looming in 20 years. 

There is always the tendency that if something isn't done right now, it's going to cause a lot problem in the future. But just like you said, it won't be successful when all hands aren't on deck at once. 

[Patrik]

you can still build your gaming PC just fine, these regulations involve only prebuilts (not all of them)

[Heatman]

1 minute ago, Patrik said:

you can still build your gaming PC just fine, these regulations involve only prebuilts (not all of them)

Yeah, it's actually what most people are doing with their PC. I don't really think Prebuilts are worth the stress. 

[Shole]

On 8/7/2021 at 10:51 PM, m76 said:

You might not be kidding, but also it's not true, just clickbait. They aren't banning gaming PCs, they are banning inefficient pre-built PCs witch cheap crappy power supplies. And this is not a law specifically targeting gaming PCs.

They dispel most of the false reporting in this video:

 

Epic video, thanks for the share. But yeah they'd never go after a specific targeted audience, but something that might be actually damaging to the environment due to it's crapy build.

[Heatman]

On 8/7/2021 at 9:51 PM, m76 said:

You might not be kidding, but also it's not true, just clickbait. They aren't banning gaming PCs, they are banning inefficient pre-built PCs witch cheap crappy power supplies. And this is not a law specifically targeting gaming PCs.

They dispel most of the false reporting in this video:

 

Well the banning inefficient pre-built PCs witch cheap crappy power supplies seems to be a good cause as it's usage might be prone to serious disaster like fire outbreak since it's got something to do with power supply. 

[Demon_skeith]

Are you sure this isn't some hidden attack on crypto currency? 

Plus, even if banned not like they can stop the parts shipments. 

[Razor1911]

On 8/8/2021 at 2:26 AM, killamch89 said:

From what I learnt, it was mainly pre-built PCs that didn't meet certain energy standards and that's why Dell machines along with a few others aren't shipped to those states.

Yeah, the hype was false. Lol😆

I was too shocked after hearing the news. But, if that would have been true, it would be a joke for the decade. I mean, how come a PC build with high specs can consume that much of an energy to pollute the environment. Can't they just ban the big companies/industries instead. 😆