Energy Loss: When Cool’n’Quiet Mode Doesn’t Work
Sometimes it is not possible to get the processor to go into Cool’n’Quiet mode while in standby. This may be due to an error in the BIOS, the operating system malfunctioning, or the motherboard crashing during the attempt; in some cases, the reason is unknown. Sometimes the dynamic down-switching of the CPU will interfere with active programs, so the user is forced to turn the economy mode off.
The BE processors have, at 3.2 W, the lowest energy loss, because their normal clock rate’s energy consumption is low. The Sempron 64 processors have to deal with 5.1 to 6.6 watts of energy loss. The energy efficient processors, while not in Cool’n’Quiet mode, have an energy loss of 5.2 to 10.7 W. The classic Athlon 64 models do the worst: the high energy-intake without Cool’n’Quiet mode is between 11.4 and 21.8 watts.
The Phenom does well, with about 8 W of energy loss, but when combined with the high intake it has during standby, it becomes 20 W—twice as much as any other CPU model.