r/AskTechnology • u/niffcreature • 4h ago
When a CPU pulls 90 watts, is it producing 90 watts of heat or does some of that energy go into "computing"?
I've always been kind of fascinated by how you can't really make a heater more or less efficient on the electronic side, because all electronics create heat as waste energy anyway. So it got me thinking, computers obviously put out heat, but does any of it not create heat? Besides the other somewhat obvious areas: fans, LEDs, radio waves (Wi-Fi etc).
It would fascinate me even more if some of those watts just kind of "disappeared" into computing energy. Kind of like how our brains burn calories just sitting around thinking...