Power Consumption: GA_MA790X DDR2 versus MA790XT DDR3

[711dman]

In compareing two different reviews the mother boards Gigabyte GA_MA790X-UD4P DDR2 and Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4p DDR3 boards, the MA790X DDR2 board used less power than the Asus M4A78T-E in idle mode in the below review:

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=348&Itemid=69&limit=1&limitstart=12

But in this review below, the Gigabyte MA790XT DDR3 consumed more power than the Asus M4A78T-E:

http://xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/gigabyte-ma790xt-ud4p_9.html#sect0

Why is this? Is it because of the DDR3 that makes the MA790XT DDR3 consume more power than the MA790X DDR2 motherboard?


This is compareing the idle so it will be apples to apples.

 

[bilbat]

Here are a pair of roughly comparable spec sheets, one for 2G DDR2-1066:
http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KHX8500D2_2G.pdf
at 1.6 W/module; one for 2G DDR3-1066:
http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KVR1066D3S4R7S_2GI.pdf
at 3.2 W/module; so, for a 'full boat' (8G), you're looking at about 6 watts difference...