Test Setup For Power Consumption Testing
| Platform | |
|---|---|
| CPU I | Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (45 nm; 3000 MHz, 6 MB L2 Cache) |
| CPU II | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (45 nm; 3000 MHz, 12 MB L2 Cache) |
| CPU III | Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (65 nm; 3000 MHz, 4 MB L2 Cache) |
| CPU IV | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 (65 nm; 3000 MHz, 8 MB L2 Cache) |
| CPU V | Intel Pentium D 830 (90 nm; 3000 MHz, 2 MB L2 Cache) |
| CPU VI | Intel Pentium 4 630 (90 nm; 3000 MHz, 2 MB L2 Cache) |
| Motherboard I | Asus P5E3 Deluxe, Rev: 1.03Chipset: Intel X38, BIOS 0402 (2007-09-19) |
| RAM | Crucial BL12864BA1608.8SFB2x 1024 MB DDR3-1066 (CL 7-7-7-20 2T) |
| Hard Disk Drive | Western Digital WD5000AAKS500 GB, 7,200 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA/300 |
| DVD-ROM | Samsung SH-S183 |
| Graphics Card | Gigabyte GV-RX385512HGPU: Radeon HD 3850 (670 MHz)RAM: 512 MB GDDR3 (830 MHz) |
| Sound Card | Integrated |
| Power Supply | Coolermaster RS850-EMBAATX 12V 2.2, 850 W |
| System Software & Drivers | |
| OS | Windows XP Professional 5.10.2600, Service Pack 2 |
| DirectX Version | 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904) |
| Platform Drivers Intel | Version 8.3.1.1009 |
| Graphics Drivers ATI | Catalyst 7.11 |
| Benchmarks and Settings | |
| Sysmark 2007 Preview | Version 1.02Official Run |
Power Consumption Test Results
All power-consumption tests involved different CPUs running at 3.0 GHz.
Idle And Maximum System Power Requirements
This difference is significant; using Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.0 GHz) instead of Core 2 Duo E6850 (3.0 GHz) results in a 5.2% decrease in the idle-system power draw (73 W instead of 77 W) and an amazing 18.2 decrease in the system-power requirement under maximum load. Keep in mind that all other system components including the power supply, the motherboard, the graphics card, the hard drive and the memory stay the same! As you could see in the overclocking benchmarks and in the first part of the Core 2 Duo Wolfdale review, the E8000 series provides even better performance while saving a lot of energy.
Average Power Requirement During SYSmark 2007
Clearly, the 45 nm Wolfdale makes a huge difference; if you use it to replace a Core 2 Duo E6850 (65 nm), it will decrease the average power requirement of the test system from 90.3 to 80.8 W for the duration of an entire SYSmark 2007 Preview run. This results in a total decrease of 10.5% for the entire system. Again, keep in mind that we only changed the processor from 65 nm to 45 nm.
