Updated: Tuning C'n'Q: Maximize Power And Performance, Part 2

Benchmark Results: 3DMark 2001

Pay attention to the red line--it indicates total utilization of all cores. There are only two because we were using an Athlon X2 7750 when we recorded the data for this graph. Why a dual-core processor? There's a very good reason for this. If a benchmark cannot use two cores, it probably won't be able to use three or four.

You'll notice that only one core really gets utilized at any given time throughout the benchmark. The situation will likely stay the same with more than two cores. So, having more cores isn't going to help here. In fact, having too many idle cores is bad. Why? Idle cores still consume some power (an issue Intel aimed to rectify with its Nehalem architecture, capable of almost completely shutting down idle cores). If the application doesn't use the cores, there's really no need for additional compute resources in that title.

How well do the processors we tested fare in this old benchmark? Let's see the results.

Now, let's look at the power consumption during the benchmark.

As we noted earlier, 3DMark 2001 doesn't fully utilize all available cores. It's also more of a graphics benchmark, so the integrated ATI GPU comes into play here. That's the reason we're seeing such a big difference between the Biostar TA790GX 128M (with DDR2-based SidePort memory) and the Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H and GA-MA790GP-UD4H (both with DDR3 SidePort cache).

There are some interesting points to pull from the results. Power management does result in a performance penalty, though it's hardly noticeable in the real world. Since performance isn't directly comparable here, it's hard to gauge which processor is the most efficient. To make matters worse, the level of performance differs depending on the motherboard used.

  • nzprogamer
    GO AMD go
    i am telling you my next build AMD/ATI
    """I WILL BE BACK"""
    Reply
  • jedimasterben
    I'd be interested to see the tests performed on Windows 7 to see what the effect of reducing thread "jumping" would be.
    Reply
  • cnox
    Dammit...how can this part 2 article be posted before the Building the Balanced PC Part 2?

    Cumon....
    Reply
  • melangex3
    Great Stuff. Keep up the good work. This is the type of review that will keep me coming back. How about throwing in the ever popular 720 BE and the new 620 or 630 just for giggles?
    Reply
  • Ryun
    jedimasterbenI'd be interested to see the tests performed on Windows 7 to see what the effect of reducing thread "jumping" would be.
    I was thinking the same thing as well.

    Also, were the BIOSs all updated? The asynchronous clocks problem you're experiencing with Athlon II X2 was supposed to be fixed with updated CPU microcode.
    Reply
  • Summer Leigh Castle
    620 and 720? :D
    Reply
  • redgarl
    I must admit that lately AMD is impressive. I got a PII X3 720 BE unleashed at PII X4 20 fully stable with an Asus M4A78T-E latest BIOS. Let simply add that my 2 radeon 4850 OC in Crossfire are running as fast as 2 stock 4870...

    If you take into account that the 2 cards only cost 82$ each for a total of 165$ for the two... I can hardly believe that so little money can give so much results.
    Reply
  • JimmiG
    With my Phenom X4 9650, I found Cool n Quiet to be pretty much worthless without tweaks. There were huge performance drops across the board, especially with tasks that didn't use all four cores, or only loaded cores partially. Videos and games would stutter and skip every couple of frames, compressing files would take longer etc. I basically had a 1.1 GHz CPU that would sometimes run at 2.3 GHz, if it felt like it. Too bad there was no tweak guide available then. I just disabled CnQ which solved all problems but made the system use more power and run hotter.

    With my 955BE, I haven't really had a need to tweak CnQ. It might cause a slight performance hit in some rare cases, but generally when I need a 3.2 GHz CPU, that's what it delivers.
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    Nice, amd owns in the graphics department now with that $1.2 billion im sure amd is heading to pwn BOTH markets.
    Reply
  • saint19
    Good!!!, I have my 955 to 3.8GHz at 1.5V....
    Reply