Efficiency: Intel's Core 2 Unbeatable

Processor performance is gaining ever more importance. Therefore, we calculated the processors' efficiency using four representative benchmarks from the fields of gaming, audio conversion, video conversion, and applications. The score consists to equal parts of the benchmark results and the power consumption. In this comparison, a processor can only reach 100 points if it offers the highest performance while simultaneously drawing the least amount of power.

The L2 stepping greatly increases the efficiency of the Core 2 Duo E6300 processor. Due to the higher power consumption under load, AMD's processors fall behind the Core 2 Duo CPUs.

Since AMD's processors are very strong performers in WinRAR, they are able to retake some ground from their Intel rivals.

In DivX, our Core 2 Duo with L2 stepping is the most efficient processor in our line-up.

When converting an entire audio CD into the MP3 format, Intel's Core 2 processors can pull ahead by a good margin thanks to their high encoding speed.

It is interesting to see how a processor's efficiency can vary from one application to the next. The reason can be found in the different usage patterns of the CPU caches as well as the software's optimizations for certain micro architectures.