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LOSTCIRCUITS
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| Low Power and Energy-Efficient CPUs from Intel and AMD Core2 Duo E6300 vs. X2-3800+ (ADD) and X2-4600+ (ADO) | |
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(Review by MS, August 20, 2006) |
Test Configurations
To put things into perspective, we are using dual and single core configurations for comparison along with a dual processor Opteron system. The point is not to say that one is better than the other, rather it is to give some idea where a given system would currently be, and whether there is really any need for upgrading or not. Every processor and every system has its own strengths and weaknesses and depending on one's preferences, some of the issues will be irrelevant whereas others may influence a purchasing decision -- or not.
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. For this purpose, we used the same power measurement setup as in out previous reports, namely, 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 the sensitivity of the probe, 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%.
"AM2" Platform:
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"Socket939" Platform:
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Dual "Socket 940" Platform:
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"Socket 940" Platform:
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"975X" Platform:
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"925XE" Platform:
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"925X" Platform:
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"855" Platform:
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RAID Level0 (Dual Socket 940) | |||
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Benchmark Overview
We used the followig benchmarks:
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Athlon64 X2-3800+ (ADA3800DAA5CD) | |
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Core2 Duo E6300 (HH80557PH0362M) |
next page: => Windows Idle Power / Prime95 =>
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