Efficiency Analysis: Core i3 Trumps Atom On The Desktop

Benchmark Results: Overall Efficiency

Let's look at overall efficiency defined in performance per watt-hours of power used.

The runtime needed to complete workloads differs considerably. The Core i3-530 took 36 minutes to complete our tasks. Our Atom D510 required two hours and 16 minutes, and the older Atom 230 system finished after three hours and 45 minutes. These differences are clearly more than cosmetic.

The average power required during the efficiency test was almost twice as high on the Core i3 than on the Atom D510.

The total power required for the entire workload (single- and multi-threaded applications) is lowest on the Core i3 machine.

Here is the overall result: Atom D510 almost doubles power efficiency (performance per watt-hours) when compared to the Atom 230 thanks to the fact that it offers more performance and two cores at decreased power consumption. But the Core i3-530 again provides almost twice the performance per watt-hours than the Atom D510.

A picture can convey a thousand words; this one conveys thousands of seconds. Our power diagram shows clearly that the Core i3-530 requires the most power when at work, but it finishes hours earlier.