IGP Power Consumption - 780G, GF8200, and G35
by Gary Key on April 18, 2008 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
Test Setup
| Gigabyte MA78GM-S2H Testbed | |
| Processor | AMD Athlon LE1600, 4850E X2, Phenom 9550 |
| CPU Voltage | 1.250V |
| Cooling | AMD Retail |
| Power Supply | Corsair CMPSU-520HX |
| Memory | OCZ PC2-6400 ATI Edition (4x1GB) |
| Memory Settings | DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12 1.90V |
| Video Cards | On-board HD3200 |
| Video Drivers | AMD 8.3 |
| Hard Drive | Samsung HD501LJ |
| Optical Drives | Sony BDU-X10S, LG GGW-H20L |
| Case | Silverstone CW03S-MT |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit |
| . | |
| ASUS P5E-VM HDMI Testbed | |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 & E7200, Intel Core Quad Q9300 |
| CPU Voltage | 1.250V |
| Cooling | Intel Retail |
| Power Supply | Corsair CMPSU-520HX |
| Memory | OCZ PC2-6400 ATI Edition (4x1GB) |
| Memory Settings | DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12 1.90V |
| Video Cards | On-board X3500 |
| Video Drivers | Intel 15.8 |
| Hard Drive | Samsung HD501LJ |
| Optical Drives | Sony BDU-X10S, LG GGW-H20L |
| Case | Silverstone CW03S-MT |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit |
| . | |
| Biostar TF8200 A2+ Testbed | |
| Processor | AMD Athlon LE1600, 4850E X2, Phenom 9550 |
| CPU Voltage | 1.250V |
| Cooling | AMD Retail |
| Power Supply | Corsair CMPSU-520HX |
| Memory | OCZ PC2-6400 ATI Edition (4x1GB) |
| Memory Settings | DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12 1.90V |
| Video Cards | On-board GeForce 8200 |
| Video Drivers | NVIDIA 174.74 / 18.11 Platform |
| Hard Drive | Samsung HD501LJ |
| Optical Drives | Sony BDU-X10S, LG GGW-H20L |
| Case | Silverstone CW03S-MT |
| Operating System | Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit |
| . | |
Our tests today will concentrate on platform power requirements when playing back High Definition content and taking a leisurely flight around the Honolulu harbor with Flight Simulator X. We utilized PCMark Vantage to track power requirements for general office/home applications. The results were very similar to our HD playback scores so we omitted them for this particular article. We are not providing overclocking or discrete GPU numbers in today's article; this is all about the base setups we utilized for testing these chipsets.
Based on the 780G's penchant for HD playback and casual gaming, we figured the natural competitors in this particular segment would be the Intel G35 and NVIDIA GeForce 8200. Fortunately, we had several GeForce 8200 retail boards arrive this week. NVIDIA provided WHQL platform (18.11) and GPU (174.74) drivers on their website last week. However, these drivers still do not provide Hybrid SLI or HybridPower capabilities. We have already noticed several problems ranging from HDMI synchronizing to the inability of PowerDVD 8.0 or WinDVD 9.0 to recognize the driver set for playback capabilities in certain situations.
We selected identical components for our three testbeds, with the obvious exception of the motherboard and CPU. Our choice of processors represents three different levels. Our minimum spec processors consist of the AMD Athlon LE1600 and Intel Core 2 Duo E2200. Both of these processors are the recommend minimum we would use on these platforms in order to provide acceptable results with HD playback, general applications, and casual gaming. Our 2.5GHz capable AMD 4850e X2 and upcoming Intel E7200 represent a middle ground in performance. These two processors are the ones we would most likely purchase for our platforms. Our final selection consists of the latest entry-level quad-core processors from AMD and Intel, the Phenom 9550 and Core 2 Quad Q9300.
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Darth Farter - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
awesome, over here where it's US$ 30cents/kWH you can understand that it will start to make a difference. Only thing I would like to see is Undervolting tho that like overclocking depends on the mileage. I'm running a G1 brisbane at 2Ghz with 0.975vcore on a 690g for 24/7 download/internet box. I wonder what it costs me/monthJarredWalton - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
Given our earlier calculations of $0.10/kWh, tripling the cost of energy means you're looking at savings of up to $30 per year for 24/7 use and a difference of 10W. If you're running a 100W PC 24/7 for a whole year, that PC would cost $262.80 at $0.30/kWh or $87.60 at $0.10/kWh.royalcrown - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
What is going on with the fried mosfets also, we never did get that weekend update ;) ?royalcrown - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
Why don't you have ANAND buy you guys some meters and on EVERY GFX card or PROCESSOR review list the actual wattage used by the systems. This NEEDING of at LEAST a 550 watt ps is BS for those of us that will never use dual cards.I just calculated that my new system on FULL load should draw about 280 watts with an 8800gt, so a 400 watt supply with 450 peak is fine for me . I read than Nvidia claims 125 watts on their page and the real draw is a lot less when they use the meter.
I for one am sick of these companies pushing monster PSU when they AREN'T needed in every case, and sites like Anandtech should give us the scoop instead of plastering ads for 1200 watt psu and not telling readers that we may not need even 550.
Zaranthos - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
That's a fact. I'm so sick of seeing insanely large power supplies shoved down peoples throats. I keep upgrading my computer and my 300W power supply keeps running my computer just fine. You'd think that wasn't even possible by most of the reviews/ads/propaganda. I'd like to see tests showing what the minimum power supply requirements are.JarredWalton - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
You mean like our PSU reviews where we repeatedly state that the only way you can even come near the point where a 1000W PSU is required is if you're heavily (i.e. water- or phase-cooling) overclocking your quad-core CPU and running 3-way or 4-way GPUs?Most PSUs are at maximum efficiency around the 50% load mark, but even at 30% load the good PSUs are above 83% efficiency. Couple that to the fact that a 600W PSU is generally quieter delivering 150W than a 300W PSU delivering the same wattage, and there are reasons to buy higher-spec PSUs. The biggest reason to buy a higher spec PSU, of course, is that it's very difficult to find good quality PSUs rated under 400W. (Seasonic and the Seasonic-built PSUs are about the only option.)
All that is totally overlooking the fact that *testing* with a highly-rated 520W PSU is not the same as saying the PSU is required. What's important is consistency, and here we are using the same PSU for all tests. It should have an 80-85% efficiency across the tested power requirements, which is well within the margin of error. If we drop to a 300W Seasonic, power draw might change slightly, but proportionately the results should be nearly identical to what we see in this article.
Perhaps Gary can chime in here with some comments; I know that he sent me an initial configuration table for this article on Thursday and then changed the PSU and case later that night. The original PSU was a Seasonic unit, so perhaps he ran into some difficulties. Again, not that it really makes a difference.
Wirmish - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
Flight Simulator X Test:nVidia vs AMD -> 0W to 3W, or ~2%.
Ok... nVidia win by 2%.
And "watt" about the FPS during these benchs ?
Did nVidia 8200 have -2% FPS vs AMD 780G ?
And if the 780G is faster, can you underclock it, or overclock the 8200 ?
Try it... just to compare the consumption at the same performance level.
Esben - Saturday, April 19, 2008 - link
Thanks for shedding light on the current IGP situation. It's great to see Nvidia is still competitive in the IGP-business, consumption wise. Now we eagerly await the performance numbers.Please keep writing about IGPs and power consumption. I'd find it very interesting if you made an articles about maximizing performance per watt, and how far in performance you can push the IGP.
An IGP-system is fitting most peoples needs, so the interest is definitely there.
jacito - Friday, April 18, 2008 - link
The artical is very well written, and this is going to sound rather stupid, but what does IGP stand for?JarredWalton - Friday, April 18, 2008 - link
IGP = Integrated Graphics Processor