I'm really surprised that none of the cool kids here comment about the astronomical ecological cost of such rigs.
Reminder: IT is responsible for nearly 4% of CO2 emissions worldwide [1]. Video streaming represents 60% of that [2].
In a nutshell, cloud gaming is like switching on an oven at full power with the door open. If a majority of people use that kind of solution, the catastrophic effects of global warming will be even worse.
The true problem is that we're not paying the real price of AWS and other cloud services. We're expecting our children to pay for the ecological impact.
Does that account for data centers getting built primarily in areas with easy access to renewable energy? I suspect the fuel mix for your average Amazon data center to be considerably greener than running the same power rig out of your home. I don't know if it's enough to offset the cost of the networking equipment between the DC and your house, but it's not so clear cut that this would be worse than buying a gaming rig and running the game yourself.
The pie chart in [2] implies streaming is << 60% of CO2 from IT. Networks generate ~16% of the CO2 of IT, and only 60% of that is streaming video. TV manufacturing is another 11%.
All device electricity usage is another 20% (there’s no breakdown there, but most of the streaming device electricity goes to the screen, which you’d pay for with broadcast or dvd playback).
Video streaming servers should be relatively low energy vs. the other servers running in the data center.
The second source you link to states 60% of that energy is in manufacturing, and 40% in use. Wouldn't that imply using a hosted solution only when you need it would be more environmentally friendly than buying your own gaming PC?
Reminder: IT is responsible for nearly 4% of CO2 emissions worldwide [1]. Video streaming represents 60% of that [2].
In a nutshell, cloud gaming is like switching on an oven at full power with the door open. If a majority of people use that kind of solution, the catastrophic effects of global warming will be even worse.
The true problem is that we're not paying the real price of AWS and other cloud services. We're expecting our children to pay for the ecological impact.
[1]: https://theshiftproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Execu... [2]: https://www.dw.com/en/is-netflix-bad-for-the-environment-how...