First we calculate the index for idle operation. Performance plays absolutely no role in this scenario, which is representative of downloads, office tasks or watching TV via a digital tuner card.

In our "idle" scenario, we see the Sempron processors and the energy efficient (EE) version of the Athlon 64 X2 3800+ get very good marks thanks to their low power consumption and low price. The smallest Sempron costs about €50, while the EE processor can be found for about €70. The Core 2 Duo 6300 is the only Intel processor that can mix in with the AMD crowd towards the top of the list. The Pentium EE955 literally can't score a point here at all, a result of its high price and extreme power requirements.

Light Load with 33%

Our next scenario once again sees our processors mostly idling. However, this time they are put under full load 33% of the time. An example of this could be a PC that is left running constantly but only performs intensive tasks 8 hours each day. This could be representative of any PC in a company office.

The result is quite similar to that in our idle scenario, although the Athlon 64 X" 5000+ does lose a little ground here due to its higher power consumption.

Light Load with 66%

Continuing from our previous scenario, our computers are now under full load for 16 hours, idling the remaining time. As we can see, the ranking remains practically unchanged.