Power overwhelming: the one with the oscilloscopes

Abstract Visualization as a discipline has to investigate its practical implications in a world steadily moving toward greener computing methods. Quantifying the power consumption of visualization algorithms is thus essential, given the ever-increasing energy needs of GPUs. Previous approaches rely on integrated sensors or invasive methods that require modifications and special test setups. However, they still suffer from imprecision from low sampling rates and integration over time. Using a high-precision, high-frequency setup via steerable oscilloscopes, we can objectively measure the resulting quality of previous approaches. This is essential to establish a ground truth, pave the way for improved modeling of power consumption in general, and enable better estimates based on the output of lower-quality sensors. We finally discuss benefits that can be drawn from the additional insight of the higher-precision setup and which additional use cases can justify the incurred costs. Graphical abstract