The x86 Power Myth Busted: In-Depth Clover Trail Power Analysis
by Anand Lal Shimpi on December 24, 2012 5:00 PM ESTGPU Workload
NVIDIA's only performance advantage on the SoC side compared to Clover Trail at this point is in its GPU. Tegra 3's GPU is faster than the high clocked PowerVR SGX 545 in Clover Trail. While we don't yet have final GPU benchmarks under Windows RT/8 that we can share numbers from, the charts below show power consumption in the same DX title running through roughly the same play path.
NVIDIA's GPU power consumption is more than double the PowerVR SGX 545's here, while its performance advantage isn't anywhere near double. I have heard that Imagination has been building the most power efficient GPUs on the market for quite a while now, this might be the first argument in favor of that heresay.
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vvv - Wednesday, January 2, 2013 - link
Idle power comparisons on a sample size of one should not count. You would think that binning makes all samples look alike but you will be surprised.Wolfpup - Thursday, January 3, 2013 - link
This is just so impressive...since at least the late 90's I've been wanting exactly this-an actual x86 PC in a mobile form factor. And...it's actually here.Heck, this Atom could go in today's CELL phones no problem (the bigger, higher end ones anyway). It's better than Vita's CPU (although granted, wasn't available at the time).
An actual tablet that can be SMALLER than ARM tablets even, real Windows, real x86...same price. Soooo impressive!
Granted the hardware will keep getting better and the software kinks will get worked out, but...it's actually happening!
shriganesh - Saturday, February 9, 2013 - link
Very nice comparison! x86 does seem to be very power efficient! Except the Tegra 3's companion core isn't working. Compare an x86 Android tablet/phone with ARM tablet/phone. That will be more of an apple to apple comparison.All the guys rooting for Intel. Beware! Intel crushed AMD with Core CPUs. But when AMD lost the battle, there were no more moderately priced intel CPUs! Intel is like Apple! They always charge a premium.
I hope Intel looses to the armada of ARM CPU designers (Samsung, nVidia, Quailcomm) just for the sake of cheap CPUs. With the world heading towards internet of everything, the last thing we need is COSTLY intel CPUs!