Power Consumption

In tests that are more CPU limited, we have thus far seen that Merom (Core 2 Duo) is at worst no slower than Yonah (Core Duo) and in most cases it's 5 - 15% faster. The fact that equivalent clock speeds carry equivalent prices is also great, as there won't be any extra cost associated with the new CPUs. The big question then is: what happens to battery life? If battery life drops with the new CPU, some people might still prefer the older design. If it can match Core Duo, we have a clear win and there's no reason for Intel, manufacturers, and consumers not to make the transition as quickly as possible. Let's see how the two CPUs compare with some power and battery life benchmarks. All of our battery/power tests were done with Microsoft's USB power draw patch applied.

Idle System Power Consumption

Load System Power Consumption

Starting with power tests, we find immediately that there has been no change that we can detect. There's a large grey area between idle and 100% CPU load, however, so let's turn to MobileMark 2005 to check battery life, as it will cover a broader range of CPU utilization.

Gaming Performance using Oblivion Battery Life - Business Applications
Comments Locked

46 Comments

View All Comments

  • IntelUser2000 - Saturday, August 5, 2006 - link

    quote:

    It was interesting to compare the numbers in this review with the previous Core 2 Duo desktop review where 2MB vs 4MB L2 cache was examined (although at 1,83GHz/1066)

    http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...">http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...

    Its not a perfect comparison but from what I can gather, there are significant improvements performance wise coming from the core, even in the non-FP/SSE related benchmarks. A favorite argument among some people is that the extra cache makes all the difference, I hope this will shut them up! (tho I really doubt it)


    Correct. Lots of the benchmarks show 10% advantage for Core 2 Duo over Core Duo. The only 10% advantage 4MB L2 over 2MB L2 is in a single app.
  • bob661 - Thursday, August 3, 2006 - link

    Video makes ALL the difference in the world.
  • monsoon - Thursday, August 3, 2006 - link

    I'm in the market for a mini PC to do video trancode, and I was considering the MEROM chip to compare to YONAH...

    ...in the end, given the right graphic card ( add ATI X1400 series or higher here ) with hardware embedded transcode features, i guess the YONAH fits my bill just right.

    And i get to pay 100$ or 200$ less than the same computer with a MEROM which could not offer me better on the video side...

    What do you think ?
  • bob661 - Thursday, August 3, 2006 - link

    I would get the best video you can get with the cash saved from getting the Memron.
  • Tiamat - Thursday, August 3, 2006 - link

    Whats the difference between the Intel Core Duo T2300E* and the Intel Core Duo T2300E?

    I see a difference in price, but not specs. The page in the article does not address the asterisk...
  • Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, August 3, 2006 - link

    The asterisk means that the CPU lacks support for Intel Virtualization Technology (VT). I had the note on Page 3 but I forgot to include it on Page 2 :) Thanks for the heads up :)

    Take care,
    Anand

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now