One of the best perks of owning a PlayStation 5 is its diverse library of exciting titles, while pairing it with the first-party controller, the PlayStation 5 DualSense, one of the most comfortable and responsive gamepads of the last decade. Even now, the whole ecosystem has a few fun surprises: one is the pretty but bright use of LED lights on the gamepad’s light bar to enhance gameplay mechanics, and another is the audio enhancement that you can set to add immersion. Beyond that, the PlayStation 5 comes with a few tech features that also make it more eco-friendly.
One of them is a supported power saving feature that comes with the September 17, 2025 (25.06-12.00.00) update. Luckily, Sony has taken the guesswork out of telling you which games support the PlayStation 5’s power saver feature by displaying a leaf outline over a lightning bolt icon. You will find this symbol next to the disc or game title on the home screen.
This feature reduces the power consumption coming from your console, saving a few dollars on your electricity bill. This sacrifices performance by limiting CPU, GPU and memory, and removes features such as virtual reality. This essentially means that your PlayStation 5 titles won’t be as enjoyable to play, in exchange for less power consumption. Conversely, this is why not all PlayStation 5 games will have one, especially if they are more demanding, because we do not necessarily want high graphic fidelity and FPS-oriented titles to turn into a slideshow. Fortunately, games with the leaf symbol won’t be as unpleasant to play because developers have taken the time to optimize their games around this feature.
Use power saving mode for your PlayStation 5 games
In general, the PlayStation 5 consumes around 200 to 300 watts under normal gaming conditions, although this may depend on the model. When you enable Power Saver, you can reduce it from 90 to 110 watts. This represents about half, or even more than half of normal consumption. Of course, this can sometimes negatively affect the enjoyment of a game, since you will lose frames and resolution while playing these titles. Yet, ideally, the developers used their magic to make the gaming experience less jarring.
If you want to see how this works, you’ll need to enable this optional setting on your console. On the Home screen, go to Settings, then select System. From there, select Power Saving > Power Saving for Gamers, then choose to enable it. Under the Use Power Saving toggle, you’ll see a submenu with supported games that have their own set of toggles. Select the games with which you want to save power from this list and enable them to start in power saving mode. Then go back to the home screen, open a game with the leaf icon and the lightning bolt, and the mode should apply automatically after startup.
While in-game, some settings may not appear in the menu or may have been changed. Changes will happen on a title-by-title basis, so it’s best to take a look before playing.
