AMD's 65nm Brisbane Core Previewed: The most energy efficient AMD CPU to date

3D Rendering Performance & Power Usage

Looking at 3D rendering performance, Intel's Core 2 Duo still comes out on top in performance, but once again our focus this time around is on power consumption, so let's have a look at that.

There's a noticeable reduction in total system power consumption with the move to 65nm, but AMD's EE/EE SFF and Intel's Core 2 processors all draw less power than the new 5000+. 

Looking at efficiency however, Brisbane is the best AMD has got to offer.  It is still no where near the performance per watt you can get with Intel these days, but it's a step in the right direction.  If AMD's updated micro-architecture can narrow the performance gap next year, we may see some competition in the performance and performance per watt space once again.

The performance under Cinebench is far closer between the E6600 and the X2 5000+, with the slight nod going to the Core 2 CPU. 

Power consumption is also relatively close between the two CPUs, with Intel once again coming in a bit lower at 195.1W.  The move from 90nm to 65nm shaves off about 15W of total system power consumption, which isn't bad given that there's no change in processor pricing. 

Performance per watt is close between Intel and AMD, closer than in any of our other tests, but Intel ends up with the overall win.  Looking just at AMD CPUs, the Brisbane core continues to offer better performance per watt than even the most efficient 90nm X2s AMD had previously offered.