AMD's 0.13-micron Thoroughbred - Cool but Slipping at 2200+

You'll notice that there is a small decrease in transistor count when going to the Thoroughbred core. AMD was able to accomplish this by optimizing the core during the die shrink similar to what happened with the Palomino. You'll also notice that the Thoroughbred core requires much higher voltages to hit much lower clock speeds than Intel's Northwood, keep that in mind especially when we talk about the overclocking potential of the new core later on in the review.

Thermal Comparison

Note: AXDA denotes Thoroughbred core

The main thing to take away from this chart is that the Thoroughbred puts out around 12% less heat than an equivalently clocked Palomino core. Despite the reduction in heat dissipation the core still puts out more heat than Intel's Northwood core which is understandable because of the Athlon XP's higher IPC. You'll also notice that the Northwood draws more peak current (Intel didn't provide Max thermal power or typical current data) than the Athlon XP; it does so at a lower voltage and thus gets away with less heat.