Before we bring this analysis to a close we wanted to give you an idea of how much power each of the system configurations we tested used, while idling and while under a workload.
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| Power Characteristics |
| Processors and Platforms | |
Please keep in mind that we are looking at total system power consumption here at the electrical outlet, not just the power being drawn by the processors alone. In this test, we're showing you a ramp-up of power from idle on the desktop to 100% processor load. We tested with a combination of Cinebench 9.5 and SANDRA XII running on the CPU.
While idling, all of Intel quad-core processors consumed a similar amount of power, with the new Core 2 Extreme QX9650 falling right in between the QX6800 and QX6850. Under load, however, the 45nm Yorkfield-based QX9650 consumed significantly less power than its Core 2 Extreme branded counterparts. The most direct comparison between the QX9650 and QX6850 has the newer QX9650 using 49 fewer watts under load; a huge improvement. As you can see, the QX9650 even consumed less power than the dual-core Athlon 64 X2 6000+ and only a few watts more than the E6750, which is a testament to the power-friendly design of Penryn and Intel's 45nm manufacturing process.
