this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2026
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My ESXi box draws 20 watts at idle with 3 Windows VMs and 3 Linux VMs.
Guess which of those VMs draws the most power (hint: it's not Windows).
Power draw depends on more than the base OS, what it does matters so much more. Which is why my one Linux VM draws the most power - it gets used for some intense tasks with ffmpeg.
Interestingly, I've found little power draw difference using ffmpeg on Windows or Linux. Both will max CPU while converting and take a similar amount of time.
Did you install the guest tools and set the CPU governor to the correct scheduler? Do the Windows boxes host the same applications as the Linux boxes?
Idle windows is so damn heavy on io :(