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To test power usage, we removed the power-hungry Radeon HD 4890 and ran the system using the integrated 785G graphics processor.
We did experience an interesting phenomenon: the system would crash when the C1E power saving feature was enabled in the BIOS (this is something we believed was being enabled in hardware now on AMD CPUs), so we had to leave that option disabled. We contacted Asus about this issue to see if it is a problem with our test sample or if it can be repaired with a BIOS update. Regardless, power usage remained very low.
We did notice that when we enabled the memory power down feature of the motherboard, we saved about six watts both under load and at idle. We were a little surprised at the consistency and quantity of savings with this feature. All of the power consumption benchmarks were taken with the Cool'n'Quiet and memory power down features enabled.
Note that we start the chart at 40W. We generally try to start our charts at zero, but in this case the rest of the system is probably drawing about 40W aside from the CPU. Our goal is to isolate the CPU usage.
Our first thought is that the Athlon II X2 250 is surprisingly frugal for a 3.0 GHz part, coming within a couple watts of its low-power derivative, the 240e. All of the cache on the Phenom II models seem to up the ante, and more CPU cores also require more power.
The new Athlon II X3 435 requires less juice than its quad-core Athlon II X4 620 cousin, but it also delivers better performance in apps and games that depend on clock speed as well as multi-threading, making it a well-rounded CPU.
Overclocking is another story entirely, with load power of the overclocked Athlon II X3 435 consuming more than its brethren. Idling is where most PCs spend their time however, and in this respect the overclocked Athlon II X3 435 draws only 16 more watts than its stock clock speed.
- Amd Athlon II X2 or X3 (unlocking, overclocking) [Overclocking]
- AMD Phenom II x3 720 ... or.... AMD Athlon II x3 435 [CPU & Components]
- Athlon II X3 or Phenom II X2 BE [CPU & Components]
- Athlon II X3 are out [CPU & Components]
- Phenom II x3 720 or Athlon II x4 630 [CPU & Components]
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Athlon II X4 620 Athlon II X4 620 Codename: Propus Process: 45nm CPU Cores: 4 Clock Speed: 2.6 GHz Socket: AM3 L1 Cache: 4 x 128KB L2 Cache: 4 x 512KB HyperTransport: 4,000 MHzThermal Envelope: 95W Athlon II X4 620 Quad......
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The Athlon II X4 is the first model in AMD’s L3 cache-less quad-core family, and we expect this processor to be very successful at the low-end. Not only does it represent the cheapest quad-core model available today at roughly $100, but it could very...
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AMD Athlon II X4 620: Quad Core For The Masses At $100
With the recent introduction of Intel’s new LGA 1156-based Core i5 and Core i7 processors, AMD faces even more pressure in the competitive upper-mainstream and high-end market segments. Phenom II is a great processor design, but it can only beat...
AMD CPUs been appealing to budget builders lately
I think my HTPC just found its new processor, been running a 5200+ for the last while
AMD is really thriving in the budget sector, I wonder how the i3's will affect the market. I hope AMD can get back to head to head with Intel on the high end though.
Smart move by AMD by attacking the budget crowd (especially around the holiday season). I am surprised how well this thing did against the X2 550! Seems like a good candidate for a budget gaming/multipurpose build. Any release dates available (for NewEgg)?
this is awesome but (and its a big one) i kinda wanted to see something that pwns intels core i7 in everything. Kind of like what they are doing in the graphics department but total domination. How long will i wait!!!
http://media.bestofmicro.com/O/H/2 [...] 0Stock.jpg
2 cores 2 threads?
3 cores at almost 3Ghz for this cheap? Hmmm not a huge AMD fan but this is plenty of CPU for most people. I would snap one up if I was building a system right now.
That's one impressive little chip! Pair this with a 770 chipset and you'd have the basis for a cheap and cheerful gaming PC!
http://media.bestofmicro.com/O/H/2 [...] 0Stock.jpg2 cores 2 threads?
Aha! Thanks for catching that. After I had done the testing I was playing around with disabling CPU cores in the OS, and I forgot to turn them back on to take the screenshot. Fixed!
did the disable core of Athlon II X3 435 can be unlock ?
a mobile version of this = PWNAGE.
The RAR and 7z archive formats make use of a large size 'dictionary': a small store of patterns that, when used on a solid archive, can help achieve very high compression ratios. If this dictionary can be made to fit in fast memory (ie. cache), then comparing its patterns to currently compressed data can yield tremendous speed improvements:
- the dictionary doesn't have to be called from RAM on every new data page, which frees memory bandwidth
- when the dictionary is half the size of cache, then uncompressed data can fit in cache too, thus actual compression doesn't need 'paging' from memory.
As an example, the PKZIP algorithm (used in .zip files) has a fixed dictionary size of 64 kb; .zip can't handle solid file compression either (the same algorithm can be found in gzip, but when used with the tar archiver, can in essence achieve solid file archiving, which can yield non negligible compression improvements).
In 7-zip, when creating the archive, try setting up the dictionary at a size lower than half the biggest consolidated cache the least gifted CPU has, and compare again: performance will in fact be rather close. However, if you go over the cache's size, performance plummets.
About AVG appreciating core counts better than CPU speed: this could be explained by how I/O intensive a virus scan is; and since Vista sucks at I/O, what's left to compare are how many file handles can be opened and used simultaneously. A test that could be done:
- Install AVG on Vista, XP and Linux
- Run a scan on the same file set (be mindful though that the Linux file set should be put on an ext3 filesystem, NTFS access still being rather CPU intensive on Linux)
- see if there are differences.
with mutlicore cpus reaching sub $100 pricepoints, do developers still have an excuse that "not everybody" has a multicore rig?
even an atom netbook can do 2 thread simultaneously.
kudos to amd for launching budget options ... look at core lga775 prices they havent moved as expected even with lynnfield ... htpcs are going to benefit especially with the low power options ... 3 cores great for encoding and bluray playback etc ...
And I thought I would wait till new year for an extra build for my household. Great AMD!
I really hope they get their act together and hit Intel hard on their flagships just as they did with Nvidia.
This way no one will buy Intel for budget rigs...
Go AMD!
"We will also be simulating an Athlon II X3 720 with a Phenom II X4 965 by lowering the CPU multiplier and disabling the forth CPU core"
"We will also be simulating an Athlon II X3 720 with a Phenom II X4 965 by lowering the CPU multiplier and disabling the forth CPU core" Close but not quite, heads up.
Nice article by the way and I haven't even gotten to the benchmarks.
Pretty amazing performance for such an extremely low price.
Looking at the gaming benchmarks I'm impressed.