The x86 Power Myth Busted: In-Depth Clover Trail Power Analysis
by Anand Lal Shimpi on December 24, 2012 5:00 PM ESTPower During Boot
For the next test I measured power during a cold boot process. Here we're looking at power consumption from device off to hitting the Windows Start Screen:
Now we get our first glimpse of active power and there's a definite advantage here for Intel. Peak power consumption for the entire tablet tops out at just over 5W compared to 8W for Surface RT. Let's dig deeper to find what is responsible for the added power consumption:
The difference in average CPU power consumption is significant. Tegra 3 pulls around 1.29W on average compared to 0.48W for Atom. Atom also finishes the boot process quicker, which helps it get to sleep quicker and also contributes to improved power consumption.
GPU power is a big contributor as well with Tegra 3 averaging 0.80W and Atom pulling down 0.22W.
Launching Word 2013
As another simple test, I looked at power consumption while launching Microsoft Word 2013 on both platforms:
Here both tablets seemed to finish in about the same time but if you look at the power consumption graph you'll see that the W510 actually took a little bit longer. The difference wasn't great enough to really change the power profile: NVIDIA consumed 0.60W on average for its CPUs, while Intel pulled 0.48W on average:
Once again, there's a pretty stark difference on the GPU rail which makes me wonder if we're not looking at more than just GPU power here. Either that or Tegra 3's GPU implementation isn't all that power efficient compared to Imagination's. For the raw averages you're looking at 0.73W for NVIDIA compared to 0.23W for Intel.
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yyrkoon - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
"The real deal will come with the complete new uArch for Atom and if they manage to "pull off a Core 2" again (which I believe) it won't look pretty for Team ARM."Maybe, but also keep in mind that android device sales have already eclipsed that of the x86 PC based market( in total numbers sold ). Which means things are not looking pretty for Intel already. Granted, it is a low cost market, which has less revenue potential.
"Core 2 based atom" would be pretty cool. If they managed to keep the performance up. We'll see how that works out. in a few years ( maybe ).
beginner99 - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
I would say phones always outsold PC in the last decade ( I have no proof) but then they were just that phones with pathetic ARM cores. Now they are more like computers.I did not mean Core 2 based, but just shocking your competitors and basically making them irrelevant overnight. It's a new uArch that will be way better than current design.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4333/intels-silvermo...
coolhund - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
There have been reports before that stated the super duper uArch (OoO) would become reality with 32 nm Atoms, but it didnt. Now the same crap is assumed (!) again with the 22 nm ones.I dont believe it.
wsw1982 - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
The different is assumed vs. official...coolhund - Wednesday, December 26, 2012 - link
Oh really?Show me that official statement then.
coolhund - Thursday, December 27, 2012 - link
Thought so.yyrkoon - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
My conclusion that android device sales eclipsed that of the total x86 PC sales came from an Article in an embedded trade magazine. It does make sense however as well.Personally, I feel that Intel is going about the idea of Atom all wrong. Lower powered versions of the latest processors they have now would make more sense. Say another tier under their current mobile line. While perhaps re-tasking Atom to embedded duties.
As it stands now. Atom is a processor that can not make up it's mind what it wants to be. In a few ways it is competitive, but in terms of cost it has a ways to go yet.
coolhund - Wednesday, December 26, 2012 - link
Well at least they are trying ULV versions now of Sandy and Ivy Bridge.IMO the much better way to go.
InsGadget - Sunday, January 6, 2013 - link
Your conclusion concerning Android vs PC sales is wrong. While Android is approaching (and perhaps, this year, surpassing) total PC sales per year, more PCs are sold right now than Androids. Source: http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/01/16/its-a-mobi...Exodite - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
The iPhone 5 review contains some nice tables that includes both the Motorola RAZR M and Motorola RAZR i, even then the general performance category favors the RAZR i.Battery life is a more difficult proposition, as the RAZR M has LTE while the RAZR i does not.
Still, the A15 will make for a interesting comparison when available. Both for Intel as well as Qualcomm's Krait-based SoCs.