It feels like wasted power. You could at least be earning something off it. The creator can either take a cut if it’s free or lump sum for paid.

I’ve seen a few idle games take up a lot CPU resources, not necessarily GPU so it had me wondering. Why not make it mine?

  • Maddier1993@programming.dev
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    9 months ago

    Contrary to popular belief, electric power usage is not wasted if the PC is idle. PC draws more power when it is working at 100% vs. When it is idle.

    It’s like people switch off kettles or ovens that are not running… but if a kettle/oven is not running then it is not pulling power.

    • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.worldOP
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      9 months ago

      Right… Hence why idle games draw significantly more power than when a computer isn’t running it.

      This is about idle games. Not a PC at idle.

      • Sirence@feddit.de
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        9 months ago

        If the idle game is running at 100% there is no power left to also crypto mine. If the idle game runs at 10% you could use 90% for mining but then you would pay for 100% energy usage instead of 10%. You’d probably end up paying more than you’d mine.

  • slazer2au@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Because it would be inefficient and people don’t like it when you use their computing power for your own gain. I should mention that there are known instances of this happening. A site being compromised and a JavaScript mining applet has been added to the site.

    Also, Firefox blocks cryptominers by default.

    • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.worldOP
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      9 months ago

      inefficient

      Right… however ANY efficiency when already using a rig for an idle game is literally more efficient, hence why I wondered.

      Also it wouldn’t matter whether the mining benefits the owner or user. In reality if the user wants to try with the CPU, they’ll be making $1 for every $20 wasted in power letting their computer idle hard. However that’s still $19 rather than $20. You could at least give the creator the crypto rather than yourself if it’s free which is kinda my point.

      It’s literally a case of I’d prefer nobody benefit rather than someone else.

      • slazer2au@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        You do know that PCs don’t consume all the power when idle right?

        I have a server with 2x800W power supplies and it idles at 110w. If I were to run a crypto miner on it my power bill will go up far more than the game creator will make.

        The only winner in small scale crypto mining is the power company.

        • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.worldOP
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          9 months ago

          This isn’t about a computer on idle… This is about a computer running a game non stop that people think is Idle… When it’s not. It’s often running a game doing massive number calculations regularly. Sometimes showing hundreds to thousands of separate things on the screen constantly.

          I think a lot of the comments here just don’t seem to understand how many resources an Idle game can actually take up lol.

          • boonhet@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            And if you mine crypto at the same time, it either uses even more resources, or the game runs slower.