The $750 Computing Challenge: Germany Versus USA
Power Consumption
This is the major disadvantage for the German system: it may dominate most of the benchmarks, but the results come at a price. The system idle power is almost twice as high on the Core 2 Quad Q6600 paired with the Radeon HD 4870 as it is for the US team’s Core 2 Duo E8500 and Radeon HD 4850. This difference is significant.
The results are similar at peak power conditions: The German system provides more performance, but it requires roughly twice the power to do so.
Average and Total Power for 3DMark Vantage
As a result of the extreme power consumption differences, the average power used during a 3DMark Vantage run was much lower on the US system as well.
This also applies to the total power used to complete a 3DMark Vantage run.
Check out this diagram if you want a visualization of the results. The power consumption level of the German system, running a Core 2 Quad Q6600 and a Radeon HD 4870, is much higher than what we measured for the US system, which is based on a Core 2 Duo E8500 and a Radeon HD 4850. Keep in mind that the power supply also has an impact on total system efficiency.
Average and Total Power for PCMark Vantage
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Average and total power required during a PCMark Vantage run show the same outcome.
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