H.264 HD Test

We once again have the same test setup and the Vista power profile is set to Balanced. One of our favorite movies last year and one that provides some stress for playback is The Simpsons Movie. It features a video bitrate up to 40Mbps with a 5.1 DTS-MA soundtrack rated at 3960+Kbps.

Power
Consumption - Minimum Spec CPU

Power
Consumption - Dual Core

Power
Consumption - Quad Core

Following in the footsteps of our Crank test, the GeForce 8200 chipset once again shows its strength, saving earth's resources one small step at a time. The results are a 5W and 24W advantage with the low-end CPUs, 7W and 27W improvement with the dual cores, and 8W and 28W difference with the quad cores.

No matter how good the E7200 (details coming shortly) is as a low budget 45nm dual-core CPU, the G35 chipset hampers it since H.264/VC-1 offloading is not available. We will have to wait for the next generation G45 for a fair fight between these chipsets. Of course, by that time, AMD will have the 790GX and NVIDIA will be launching the GeForce 8300 series. In the meantime, the G35 is perfectly capable as an HTPC choice when paired with the right CPU, driver set, and playback application. Just don't expect it to be the coolest running green machine on the block.

Cranked Take Off and Landing
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  • spinportal - Friday, April 18, 2008 - link

    Hey Gary, shouldn't the last paragraph title be "Final Thoughts" instead of "First Thoughts"? Or did I read the article backwards? :)
  • Visual - Friday, April 18, 2008 - link

    They do this very often - I understand it as "the product is very new, just launching, and a lot more testing is expected; so far, this is what we think", but I've been confused by it too.
  • Visual - Friday, April 18, 2008 - link

    i am way out of the info loop now.
    are there no current nvidia igp chipsets for intel cpus?
  • smn198 - Friday, April 18, 2008 - link

    Thanks for the article. I found it interesting and glad that a better performing IGP doesn't have to mean worse power efficiency.

    I'd like the performance per watt stats I've seen you do before and also it would be good to get an indication of how much a difference in running costs each platform would have over the year having made some assumptions on typical usage.

    As you mentioned you focused on power which is important but there are many more considerations such as the materials and processes involved in making these components and the impact at EOL.

    Hope to see more like this!

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