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LOSTCIRCUITS	SHORTCUTS: SMP and the New Intel Kentsfield Key Features Power Management and Cache Questions Test Setup, Benchmark Overview Power Consumption Memory System 3D Rendering: TrueSpace POV-Ray 3.7 Cinebench 2003 DVD Shrink, Dr DivX & Mainconcept H.264 Futuremarks FarCry, DOOM3 F.E.A.R. Prey, Call of Duty2 Final Thoughts Give Us Some Feedback on this Review
Intel's Core 2 Quad Extreme Edition QX6700 Codename "Kentsfield"
(Review by MS, November 1, 2006)

Test Configuration

Benchmark Overview

SiSoft Sandra 2007 SP1 Cachemem 2.65 Prime95 Caligari TrueSpace 5.1 Cinebench 2003 POV-Ray v.3.7 Beta 16 3DMark2005 3DMark2006 Dr.DivX OSS 2.0 Mainconcept H264 DVD Shrink Call of Duty2 DOOM3 FarCry F.E.A.R. Prey

Kentsfield: red; Conroe: dark blue; AMD: light blue; P4: purple

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 estimate the latter, we used the same power measurement setup as in 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 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%. In the case of the Core2 Duo processors, we measured the power consumption on both the Intel D975BXB2 board and Foxconn's 975X7AB board featuring a high efficiency digital VRM. In the latter, the current flow through the auxiliary 12V was approximately 15% below that measured on the D975BXB2 motherboard. Unfortunately, in the case of the "Kentsfield" processor, the power draw shot through the roof, which is why we are using the respective numbers from the Intel board for all LGA 775 processors. We are working with Foxconn to resolve this issue.

(BX80557E6300)

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