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For some time I have struggled to find out why my NVIDIA adapter is always consuming a minimum of 110w even at idle. This is huge and seriously bad for the environment. I noticed this with Windows 10 and now again on Windows 11. I've tried updates, the latest NVIDIA drivers and other fixes but nothing changed this.
I discovered the power use is actually caused by Outlook. I am running the latest M365 version of Outlook. When I open Outlook, it consumes 70w doing nothing. Outlook does this 24 hours a day 7 days a week unless I close it. This is hugely impactful on climate change.
I found I could disable graphics acceleration in Outlook but more concerning is every copy of Outlook that runs may also be consuming 70w of energy needlessly.
Is or are there any plans to fix Outlook's graphics acceleration implementation so it does not contribute to climate change by default? I envision millions of copies of Outlook all consuming 70w. 70wx1 million users = ~100,000 horsepower continuously every millisecond (very wasteful)
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Hi @The Network Company ,
As I know, using graphics acceleration may increase the burden on the GPU, which may cause Outlook consumption as you mentioned. For more information about Graphics Acceleration, please refer to the reply of Herb Gu in this post.
Considering that you are running outlook on your NVIDIA adapter, as a suggestion, in order to reduce the load of your NVIDIA adapter, you could try to start Outlook with Integrated graphics to see if there're any differences.
If this doesn't help you or if you think this is a functional problem of the client and really need to reduce power consumption when enabling graphics acceleration, please kindly understand that I don't have the same hard conditions as you and can't reproduce your problem. It is recommended that you could submit feedback in Outlook(File>Feedback). Hope Microsoft will pay attention to this issue in the future.
Thanks for your support and understanding!
Thanks for the reply. I turn off all accelerated graphics and the 70w draw disappears. Outlook is also substantially faster and doesn't hang up when composing e-mails or exhibit blank pages on the left column anymore. There is something wrong with Outlook's graphics implementation, no other Office applications do this, not even teams and teams definitely uses the video decoder on the NVIDIA.
Also, thanks for the link to the Technet article. Seems this is an on-going issue 3 years later. Why does Outlook still have hardware acceleration if it's fundamentally broken and requires us to turn it off?
Hi @The Network Company ，
Thanks for your reply!
>Why does Outlook still have hardware acceleration if it's fundamentally broken and requires us to turn it off?
Actually, based on my test in our current environment (don't using the computers with same NVIDIA adapter as you) and hardware graphics acceleration is not disabled, there are no performance problems such as slow operation. As I know, this function is mainly used to process graphics faster and bring users a better experience.
According to my research and search, the similar issue will occur on some specific hardware devices when hardware graphics acceleration is enabled, which means that the issue is also related to the hardware device itself. It is recommended that you could disable this function to reduce the load.
If you do have some suggestions for the application of graphics acceleration on such devices, it is recommended that you could submit feedback in the Outlook client(File>Feedback). Hope Microsoft will pay attention to your requirement in the future. Thanks for your support and understanding!
This issue is not about performance. This is about efficiency. Graphics acceleration causes a 70w increase. I demonstrated how this contributes to global warming. The problem needs to be addressed
Also, ChristyZhang-MSFT, research in opposition itself consumes CPU cycles, means you are contributing to global warming. I don't find this OK. Why do you not want Outlook to be energy efficient?
As time progresses, energy is wasted. This issue has not changed
Hi @The Network Company ,
I understand your concern about the impact of energy waste on global warming. Of course, I am also worried about it and try my best to reduce my own impact on this.
Considering that I can't reproduce your problem in my environment, I have submitted your issue in the outlook client feedback portal, and hope Microsoft will pay attention to it in the future. Thanks for your support and understanding!
