Connecting PS5 Dualsense controller to PC causes large increase in power consumption

[QuantumChicken]

Hi there,

Please note this is not a complaint on reWASD, since this happens whether reWASD is enabled or not, it's more of a complaint on the PS5 controller itself. However, since people here are clearly experts on controllers I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.

When connecting the controller to my PC I see a very substantial increase in power consumption of at least 10W, as measured by my power meter. Here are a few examples -- these measurements come from just the PC itself and nothing else, no monitors / etc.

- Screen off without controller: 5 - 12W
- Screen on without controller: 10 - 15W
- Screen on with controller: 22W+
- Screen off with controller: 20W+

As soon as the controller is disconnected ("Turn wireless joystick off" command from reWASD), power consumption drops immediately.

This doesn't happen with other bluetooth devices, like my logitech keyboard and mouse. Turning those off has a negligible impact on power consumption. Could the controller have an excessively high polling rate or something like that?

[DevX]

It has high polling rate indeed, but even so it is unlikely that bluetooth radio alone in your PC can draw > 10W power. Most likely something else causes it. Does it happen if you uninstall reWASD completely and reboot? Also check your task manager if you have some processes with high CPU usage.

[QuantumChicken]

Thanks for the suggestion -- I just tried uninstalling reWASD completely and rebooting, there is no difference in power usage. Connecting the controller causes a spike of ~10W like before.

I checked task manager as well, there are no processes consuming high CPU when the controller is conncted, which is puzzling. I checked "Details" tab as well, nothing pops out that could explain the difference in power draw.

[QuantumChicken]

I tried performing the same experiment on Linux (same PC, dual-booting), but the controller is not co-operating and won't connect on Linux at all. If I succeed in connecting it I'll update this post.