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LOSTCIRCUITS
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| Intel Core 2 Duo Blinded by the light | |
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(Review by MS, July 25, 2006) |
Software Setup and Benchmarks
All systems were set up using a fresh installation of WindowsXP Professional Edition - Service Pack2 with all latest chipset and accessory drivers. Since we were using nVidia-based ASUS GeForce Extreme n7800 GT graphics cards in SLI configuration for the most part of the gaming benchmarks, we decided to use the same configuration on the Intel 975 chipset-based BadAxe board. Officially nVidia does not support SLI on non-nVidia chipset motherboards, however, hacked drivers are available that overcome the software lockout. In this case, we used the 85.96 driver revision that enabled SLI without any problems.
Actual benchmarks run were:
Power Measurements
Looking at system power consumption is interesting to a certain degree, however, for all practical purposes we are more interested in the isolated CPU power consumption. To assess the latter, we used the same power measurement setup as in out previous reports. Briefly, we used a Fluke 80i-410 AC/DC current probe in combination with a Wavetek Meterman 30XR 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 75-80 % efficiency in the worst case. This means that the power measurements are slightly inflated across the board by approximately 20%.
Benchmark overview: AMD processor scores are in dark green (Socket 939) or light green (Socket AM2), Intel CPU scores are in blue (Netburst architecture / P4) or pink (Core 2)
To make a long story short, not only does the Conroe processor win essentially every benchmark we ran, it also bests the AMD processors with respect to power consumption as we will show in detail in the following pages.
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Intel Core Duo T2600 (dual core) |
next page: => Memory Performance =>
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