Power Consumption
Rated for 69 W, the Xeon E3-1280 v2 is even more power-friendly than the Ivy Bridge-based Core i7-3770K.
The blue bar in the logged power consumption chart illustrates the Xeon E3-1280 v2 using less power, and the preceding pages proved that it delivers more performance in the process. In fact, on average, the -1280 v2-based system consumes 150 W with a Quadro 5000 skewing the power number higher.
In contrast, the slower last-generation Xeon E3-1290, rated for 95 W, drives the system averaging 161 W of power use. Meanwhile, the -1275-based configuration, which is slower still, sips 153 W, on average.
Yanking the Nvidia card would likely give Intel’s Xeon E3-1280 v2 a larger advantage, since the GPU adds a constant, higher draw. However, the -1280 v2 has no processor graphics, necessitating our platform upgrade.