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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powerarmour - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
This is apples to oranges in some respects, the 5th companion core is disabled in Windows RT for Tegra 3, plus it's GPU is faster than the PowerVR core in the Clover Trail also.sonelone - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
Once an A15 gets put in a Windows tablet, I would like to see an updated comparison.skiboysteve - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
I'm a long time reader and and engineer at national instruments. I have used that usb-6259 and signalExpress many times. Very cool to see it on my favorite siteBeenthere - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
AMD is the one who has been preaching the "User Experience" for years because their products in fact have been delivering a better User Experience when you run real apps and cut thru all the marketing B.S. and tainted benches that Intel spends fortunes on each year to manipulate hacks and consumers.It's no surprise that Intel is now trying to mislead the sheep on power consumption also, seeing as though AMD has had better power saving features in their CPU for years. Naturally Intel and certain hacks will proclaim this as an "Intel breakthrough" when in fact AMD has been leading the way in power reduction consumption in actual use - for years.
It's pretty easy to dupe the naive and gullible and Intel is really good at buying the media reporting they desire be it with ad dollars, invites to "special" events or other "perks" to gain a psychologically favorable interpretation of their latest marketing ruse-of-the-week.
The sheeple will buy into it all hook, line and sinker. If you're that technically challenged, you deserve to get fleeced.
puppies - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
Don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel!Claiming AMD "leads the way" on power consumption and intel just follows is stupid.
Have you been in a coma since "I" series cpus were released. They beat AMDs CPUs on performance, power usage and performance per watt. I'm surprised you can see to type properly with your head that far up AMDs butt.
B3an - Friday, December 28, 2012 - link
It's Beenthere. He posts nothing but THE most stupid sh*t. He takes stupid to another level.I just hope he's mentally retarded in some way because if he's not, and is actually this stupid, then i feel embarrassed for him.
CeriseCogburn - Friday, January 25, 2013 - link
He is just the average amd fanboy. He is what all you'all ( u know whom ui r) have been for years here, he has just kept hanging on this past few months or half year instead of moving with the masses politically correct mindset change.Thus, we should all treat him as any other recently yet former and now scared to remain the same amd fanboy should be treated.
He was the majority here, he still is the majority here, he's just the last one with the guts to keep the charade going... perhaps forever. A nice landmark outlining the years of abuse the amd fanboys have delivered. Hopefully he will never change, a solid reminder and future melding point for the large amd fanboy base that will re-emerge ASAP when some opportunity presents.
yyrkoon - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
Maybe on some level what you're saying is true but I find that both brands have their uses Depending on what a user wants / needs.Mostly the distinction I find is value vs reliability. Intel being slightly more reliable, while AMD offers more value. In this day and age, I think it is a mixed bag on which is more power efficient between the two.
It is hard to claim that AMD is more power efficient compared to Intel when AMD is offering 60w, 90w, and 120w desktop TDPs, where Intel is offering 35w, 45w, and 90w TDP variants. In the mobile arena, there is less distinction.
skiboysteve - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
I'm a long time reader and I'm an engineer at national instruments. Very cool to see our stuff show up in an article!Tunnah - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
I don't normally post comments, as I'm not smart enough to be able to figure into the usual conversations here, but I just had to post this to say this is an absolutely amazing article.I'm a high school drop out from the age of 15 with no further education, all my teaching has been done on my own accord, so what I know isn't indepth, it's just the broad strokes. I
I just wanted to let you know that your articles help me so much in my quest to educate myself, they're absolutely AMAZING, so easy to understand, and although I can only grasp the concepts of the things you're talking about, you propose them in a way where it doesn't go over my head.
I suppose this is just a drunken thank you message from a very grateful reader, who, without you, would be a lot more clueless about the things he really wants to understand :)