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| AMD's AM2 Platform DDR2 ... Moving On | |
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(Review by MS May 23, 2006) |
Test Overview
I/O Panel featuring the PS/2 connector block for keyboard/mouse, one serial port, one S/PDIF out (coax), one optical S/PDIF port, one combined eSATA / Firewire block, four USB ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports and six autosensing analog audio connectors.
Power Measurements
We used the same power measurement setup as in out previous reports. Briefly, for isolated CPU power measurements, we used a Fluke 80i-410 AC/DC current probe in combination with a Wavetek Meterman 33XR multimeter to measure current through the isolated +12V supply lines feeding into the CPU VRM. To increase granularity of the measurements, we ran the supply lines in a triple loop through the clamp. The clamp itself was calibrated using a BK Precision model 1692, 30V 40 A DC power supply. Since there is a temperature dependency of the probe, we monitored the zero-current offset at the beginning of each measurement as well as at the end of each run. If the values drifted during we retook the measurements. Despite these precautions there are possible deviations of the read-out from the real current, however, these errors mostly affect the lower (processor idle) measurements. We estimate that the errors should not be more than 10% at the lower end of the data and less than 5% in the mid and higher data range. Moreover, since the same procedures were applied to all processors tested, there may be an offset in the absolute numbers, however, the relation of the individual cores to each other with respect to power consumption should be fairly accurate.
Bear in mind that the power measured is the input power going into the VRM rather than the regulated output power at the individual supply phases. However, the current VRMs are operating in the order of approximately 75-85% efficiency in the worst case. This means that the power measurements are slightly inflated across the board by approximately 10%.
We also tried using a modified powersupply running the 12V DC lines through an Extech Power Analyzer Data Logger Model 380803, however, this particular model works with DC current only at very low Amperes.
Software Configuration and Benchmarks
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 Dark green: Socket 939 (DDR400); light green: AM2; blue: Intel platforms |
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Athlon64 X2-3800+ (dual core) |
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