--- title: Does Running An E-Paper Display At 30 FPS Destroy It? description: Running a Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper board at 30 FPS in greyscale mode only adds about 7.4 mA of power draw, which the author concludes keeps e-paper's... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/does-running-an-e-paper-display-at-30-fps-destroy-it--qwfeyze0p twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Does Running An E-Paper Display At 30 FPS Destroy It? | daily.dev og:description: Running a Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper board at 30 FPS in greyscale mode only adds about 7.4 mA of power draw, which the author concludes keeps e-paper's... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/does-running-an-e-paper-display-at-30-fps-destroy-it--qwfeyze0p og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/QwfeyZE0P.png og:image:alt: Does Running An E-Paper Display At 30 FPS Destroy It? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Does Running An E-Paper Display At 30 FPS Destroy It? **[Hackaday](https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Running a Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper board at 30 FPS in greyscale mode only adds about 7.4 mA of power draw, which the author concludes keeps e-paper's low-power claims intact even at higher refresh rates. The full system drew about 115 mA running a Game Boy emulator, draining a 400 mAh battery in roughly 3.5 hours. A datasheet lists a one million update lifespan, which works out to about 9.3 hours at full refresh at 30 FPS, and smart drivers that only redraw changed pixels should extend this by an amount not yet measured. After 2.16 million frames of an endurance test, some ghosting appeared but cleared with repeated refreshing, with no permanent damage detected within the tested limits. Waveshare itself recommends against running such high-FPS applications on this hardware. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How much extra power does running an e-paper display at 30 FPS actually use? Driving a Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper board in 30 FPS greyscale mode added only about 7.4 mA on top of the baseline system draw, which is considered negligible. The full system, running a Game Boy emulator at 30 FPS, consumed about 115 mA total, draining a 400 mAh battery in roughly 3.5 hours. _Anyone benchmarking battery life on e-paper hardware can track test write-ups like this one via daily.dev._ ### Does running an e-paper display at high frame rates like 30 FPS damage it or shorten its lifespan? A custom endurance test ran 2.16 million frames on a Waveshare e-paper display and found no permanent damage, though some temporary ghosting appeared that cleared after further refreshing. One manufacturer datasheet rates typical lifespan at one million updates, which equals about 9.3 hours at 30 FPS with full refreshes, though partial updates extend this considerably. Waveshare recommends against such high-FPS use regardless. _Makers weighing e-paper longevity against performance can follow hardware endurance tests like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Tiny E-Paper Display Delivers 30 FPS Of Game Boy Fun](https://daily.dev/posts/tiny-e-paper-display-delivers-30-fps-of-game-boy-fun-oefy1fv0a) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [20 FPS On E-Paper Display Without Help](https://daily.dev/posts/20-fps-on-e-paper-display-without-help-naambzofd) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Someone made an e-Ink ESP32 Game Boy, and it runs at a very playable 60Hz refresh rate](https://daily.dev/posts/someone-made-an-e-ink-esp32-game-boy-and-it-runs-at-a-very-playable-60hz-refresh-rate-jhfnskebd) · XDA Developers · 5 upvotes · 0 comments - [PaperBoy Game Boy Emulator works at 60 FPS on ESP32-S3 E Ink devkit](https://daily.dev/posts/paperboy-game-boy-emulator-works-at-60-fps-on-esp32-s3-e-ink-devkit-jvbe3zil3) · CNX Software · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [This ESP32 e-paper weather tracker runs off one battery charge for 1.5 years](https://daily.dev/posts/this-esp32-e-paper-weather-tracker-runs-off-one-battery-charge-for-1-5-years-ax3hzgkwt) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#iot](https://daily.dev/tags/iot), [#embedded](https://daily.dev/tags/embedded) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/does-running-an-e-paper-display-at-30-fps-destroy-it--qwfeyze0p) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Does Running An E-Paper Display At 30 FPS Destroy It?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/does-running-an-e-paper-display-at-30-fps-destroy-it--qwfeyze0p","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/does-running-an-e-paper-display-at-30-fps-destroy-it--qwfeyze0p"},"datePublished":"2026-10-28T20:09:12.335Z","dateModified":"2026-10-28T21:33:27.413Z","description":"Running a Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper board at 30 FPS in greyscale mode only adds about 7.4 mA of power draw, which the author concludes keeps e-paper's...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d9d693ddcb75f6e62379fa8d3484272b?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d9d693ddcb75f6e62379fa8d3484272b?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hackaday","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hackaday","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--JhDfhy70--/f_auto,q_auto/v1767541814/logos/hackaday","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/does-running-an-e-paper-display-at-30-fps-destroy-it--qwfeyze0p","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"iot,embedded","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hackaday","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hackaday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Does Running An E-Paper Display At 30 FPS Destroy It?"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/does-running-an-e-paper-display-at-30-fps-destroy-it--qwfeyze0p#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How much extra power does running an e-paper display at 30 FPS actually use?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Driving a Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper board in 30 FPS greyscale mode added only about 7.4 mA on top of the baseline system draw, which is considered negligible. The full system, running a Game Boy emulator at 30 FPS, consumed about 115 mA total, draining a 400 mAh battery in roughly 3.5 hours. Anyone benchmarking battery life on e-paper hardware can track test write-ups like this one via daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Does running an e-paper display at high frame rates like 30 FPS damage it or shorten its lifespan?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A custom endurance test ran 2.16 million frames on a Waveshare e-paper display and found no permanent damage, though some temporary ghosting appeared that cleared after further refreshing. One manufacturer datasheet rates typical lifespan at one million updates, which equals about 9.3 hours at 30 FPS with full refreshes, though partial updates extend this considerably. Waveshare recommends against such high-FPS use regardless. Makers weighing e-paper longevity against performance can follow hardware endurance tests like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```