According to a study on electrical consumption by DisplayLink, USB displays use less power than discrete systems. The study used two identical computer systems and measured the power needed to run one to four LCD monitors. One of the computers was equipped with DisplayLink USB to DVI adapters and the other with a dual-DVI discrete graphics cards.

Power consumption was measured at the entry point to the power supply to gauge system use under different loads. The study showed that the computer with the USB used an average of only 4 watts per display, or 7% increase in power use.

The computer system with the discrete graphics card on average used 34W of power for a 67% increase. When equipped with four displays the discrete system has an increase of 132%. The USB system used up to 80% less power.

Via DisplayLink