Power Consumption - 21 Watts When Idle
We measured the power consumption of the Phenom 9600 Black Edition on our Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DQ6 (rev. 1.0) with the current BIOS version F3. The measurements include the voltage regulation modules.
Unlike the engineering sample we used for testing during the Phenom's launch, our retail sample had no problem whatsoever taking advantage of Cool'n'Quiet 2 functionality.
In Windows Vista, the Phenom 9600 Black Edition reduced its clock speed from 2.30 GHz to 1.151 GHz when idle, simultaneously lowering its core voltage to 1.05 V. The Phenom is also able to reduce its clock speed using quarter-step multipliers, explaining the odd frequency of 1.151 GHz (200 MHz x 5.75). CPU-Z rounds the 5.75 multiplier off to 5.8.
Phenom uses a multiplier of x5.75.
Our power consumption measurements for the Phenom 9600 BE are nothing short of frightening. Using the new Cool'n'Quiet version 2, the CPU draws a full 27.58 watts. Whether or not the CPU is able to deactivate some of the voltage regulation modules does not really have much of an impact anymore. We assume that this is a problem caused by the CPU.
When Cool'n'Quiet is deactivated, idle power consumption rises to 61 watts. The jump in power consumption at 2.70 GHz is a direct result of the core voltage increase from 1.250 V to 1.400 V.
Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DQ6
All measurements were taken on a Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DQ6 motherboard using BIOS version F3 (21.12.2007).
