- Email |
- Print |
- Comments (2) |
- Share

Last but not least, we installed today's crème-de-la-crème processor into our reference system: the Core 2 Extreme QX6850. Its internal layout is pretty easy to explain, as this product basically consists of two Core 2 Duo dies, each with 4 MB L2 cache and running at FSB1333 system speed. The quad core does provide noticeably higher performance in almost all parts of the SYSmark 2007 run. However, it takes almost equally long to complete the benchmark suite, which results in a higher total power consumption due to the fact that the quad core has a higher power requirement across all tests (94 vs. 77 watt system idle power). The situation may look different for computing-intensive benchmarks, where the four cores can outperform the Core 2 Duo by a significant margin. Our testing focused on SYSmark 2007, because it draws a good picture of typical PC usage.



Sponsored links
Related forums topics
- HOWTO: Overclock C2Q (Quads) and C2D (Duals) - Guide v1.6.1
- High-end and Luxury P45-GIGABYTE P45T EXTREME Air-Cooling 659MHz
- Thoughts and questions regarding C2D Temperature Guide
- Best Chipset of 2008 so far?
- Why AMD is better than Intel?
- Low power consumption MB/CPU with WoL, ECC & 4xSATA?
- New PC Built, BIOS Underclocking CPU, help?
- Big step to the future,Gigabyte EX58 Extreme with Intel I7 Extreme 965
- When will DDR3 actually be worth it?
- A 4.1 GHz Dual Core at $130 - Can it be True?
- $300 Power Build!
- Advice on this new system build!
- Low power home server
- Need Advice on Cheap Gaming Build
Related news
- Matsushita makes strides in reducing PDP power consumption
- How Google battles its increasing power consumption
- CMOS voltage regulator to reduce CPU power consumption by up to 35 percent
- Intel to trim power consumption of desktop CPUs in half by H2 2006
- Intel to aims to decrease power consumption of desktop processors to 60 watts
Best offers
|
Core i7 I7-920 Quad Core Processor... | $349.99 Dell Home More info |
|
Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Quad... | $195.99 Newegg.com More info |
|
Core i5 750 Qaud Core Processor... | $199.99 Newegg.com More info |
|
Core i7 Extreme Edition I7-975 Quad... | $974.99 TigerDirect More info |
|
Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad... | $165.00 eWiz.com More info |
- in a quad core what does each core run at
- pentium d vs core 2 duo benchmark
- quad core vs. duo core
- core 2 duo idle power
- intel cpus power consumption
- duo core speed
- pentium 4 core 2 duo benchmark
- pentium 4 sysmark 2007
- power consumption of a quad core computer
- speed up quad core processor
- speed pentium d core 2
- typical pc parts power consumption
- compare the pentium 4 to the core duo
- typical pc idle power
- core 2 duo sysmark
Partners
The Games selection
crazy :
Xiao Xiao 7
A great fight scene from the animation movies Xiao Xiao.
|
violent :
Interactive Buddy
Unwind on your interactive buddy: Do anything you want to him, it will earn you money, and you can buy other stuff to torture him with.
|






The 'SYSmark Performance per Watt' can be misleading when comparing the dual and quad core processors, particularly when looking at other types of loads that make better use of the additional cores. In particular, look at x264 encoding, where a quad-core processor offers nearly double performance. See the graysky's articles on TechARP for actual charts and tables:
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=442
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=520
For a load that will use all processors, I believe that testing will show better performance per watt for a quad core compared to a dual (or even single) core because there is little or no additional overhead from the motherboard or powersupply or hard drives when adding an additional core.
It may be easier to understand this by comparing running 2 separate PCs with dual core CPUs in them vs. running a single PC with a quad core CPU. The quad core system won't need another motherboard, power supply, fans, drives, etc. so all those items are areas of power savings.
From the published tests above, the 2 extra cores consume 195-132=63 watts at max load and 94-77=17 watts at idle. That is in contrast to adding a 2nd system identical to the E6850 testbox which used 132 watts at max and 77 at idle.
A simplistic scaling using a spreadsheet, and assuming that performance doubles going from dual to quad cores (reasonable for x264 encodes), shows that:
state cores watts perf/watt perf perf/core perf ratio
Idle 2 77 1.46 112.42 56.21 1
Idle 4 94 2.391914894 224.84 56.21 1.638
Avg 2 90 1.46 131.4 65.7 1
Avg 4 112 2.346428571 262.8 65.7 1.607
Max 2 132 1.46 192.72 96.36 1
Max 4 195 1.976615385 385.44 96.36 1.354
In other words, using the system power numbers given, the quad core can be 35% to 64% more efficient than using a dual core, if given an appropriate load. A look at the Sysmark benchmark scores will show you that it did not scale up very much going from dual to quad.