Oh what a world we live in where we can’t pwn noobs in Call of Duty or finish that final raid in Wow. Or at least that is what people would be saying if they didn’t pay attention to certain state’s legislation on idle power draw of computers. But looking at many different headlines around the internet would seem to indicate the imminent banning of Gaming PC’s. But a closer look at the regulations shows this is not exactly true. So what is going on?
What is Happening Now?
On July 1st, the California Energy Commission Tier 2 regulations went into effect. This is actually a planned effect of the title 20 regulation that dates all the way back to 2016. These are a set of regulations with language targeting the power efficiency of high end computers not in “active mode.” So these regulations are trying to limit power draw when computers are in sleep or hibernate mode. The other element affecting gaming pc’s is what is known as an “expandability score.” This accounts for a computer’s expandability with regards to upgrading certain components. Depending on the components in a device, there could be a higher or lower allowance for efficiency. Intel was deeply involved in crafting the equations and calculations used in the regulations.
Now what set the internet ablaze with fear was Alienware and images of them not shipping certain skews of a gaming computer to certain states. These models did not pass the regulations set in place by the states. I believe this is why most of the articles you see regarding this are published in late July and not the beginning of the month. Remember, these regulations were put into place in 2016 and only recently became active.
Does This Affect Me as a PC Gamer?
Not Exactly. For one thing, these regulations only apply in California and a few other states who adopted similar effieciency standardizations. These include Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, and Vermont. Another thing is that these regulations apply to system integrators (si) such as Dell, Origin PC, Maingear, etc. Depending on the specs requested, they could still ship certain models. So while these si’s won’t be shipping certain gaming pcs to certain states, there is no power efficiency regulation when it comes to building your own PC. Go ahead and make that Newegg purchase. Buy that overpriced graphics card (if you can find one). Just remember that new power efficiency standards for Gaming Monitors will be enacted on December 9th, 2021. That is a whole other thing.
Tech YouTuber Jayztwocents has a couple of great videos on these regulations (Tier 2 – Gaming Computers, Tier 2 – Gaming Monitors). We would suggest checking out his take on the whole thing.
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