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TEST RESULTS
Our test system is fairly basic, featuring a notebook hard drive and Blu-ray
drive. The CPU is a Core 2 Duo E6400, an older processor with modest power requirements
(65W). It is cooled by an Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 Pro CPU cooler connected to
a variable DC fan controller (so the fan's power draw does not come into play).
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Test Results: Intel DG45FC
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Test State
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CPU Usage
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System Power (AC)
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Mean
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Peak
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Off
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N/A
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2W
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Sleep (S3)
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N/A
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7W
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Idle
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1%
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2%
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49W
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Rush Hour
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34%
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53%
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58W
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Coral Reef
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27%
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33%
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63W
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Flight Sim.
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40%
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56%
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68W
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Drag Race
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44%
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60%
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66W
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Prime95
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100%
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97W
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Prime95 + ATITool
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100%
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98W
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The X4500 graphics chip did not have any difficulty with our video test suite,
passing with flying colors. Power consumption was slightly lower than we typically
we see with LGA775 boards, except the 7W recorded in Sleep mode which was unusually
high. Normally we see a 1W difference on most systems between Off and Sleep.
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Comparables
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Test State
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Asus P5E-VM HDMI
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Zotac NF610i-ITX
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Intel DG45FC
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Mean CPU Usage
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System Power
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Mean CPU Usage
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System Power
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Mean CPU Usage
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System Power
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Off
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N/A
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3W
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N/A
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2W
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N/A
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2W
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Sleep
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N/A
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4W
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N/A
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48W*
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N/A
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7W
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Idle
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1%
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56W
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1%
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50W
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1%
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49W
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Rush Hour
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36%
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~65W
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33%
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~61W
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34%
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~58W
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Coral Reef
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29%
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~64W
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28%
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~58W
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27%
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~63W
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Flight Sim.
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47%
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~71W
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46%
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~70W
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40%
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~68W
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Drag Race
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54%
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~69W
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55%
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~65W
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44%
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~66W
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Prime95
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100%
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96W
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100%
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102W
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100%
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97W
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Prime95 + ATITool
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100%
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97W
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100%
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103W
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100%
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98W
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*Lacks S3 suspend-to-RAM feature.
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Compared to other LGA775 motherboards, the DG45FC looks pretty good. It is
very close in overall power efficiency to the nVidia-based Zotac NF610i-ITX,
and noticeably more efficient than the Asus
P5E-VM HDMI, based on the G45 chipset's predecessor, G35. High definition
playback was marginally better in terms of CPU usage. The system only drew one
extra watt when the GPU was stressed with ATITool, so the X4500 IGP's power
requirements are about the same as X3500.
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System Power Consumption: Comparisons with E7200
Processor
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Test State
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Asus
P5E-VM HDMI
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Zotac NF610i-ITX
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Intel DG45FC
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Gigabyte MA74GM (X2 4850e)
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Idle
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47W
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35W
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35W
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31W
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Rush Hour
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52W
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43W
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42W
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58W
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Coral Reef
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52W
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42W
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43W
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58W
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Flight Sim.
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55W
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48W
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46W
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63W
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Drag Race
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56W
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48W
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47W
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66W
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Prime95
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73W
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65W
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64W
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92W
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Prime95 + ATITool
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75W
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67W
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65W
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97W
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With the DG45FC registering the lowest idle power consumption we've seen for
an Intel board (without an embeded processor), we installed a newer, more efficient
Core 2 Duo E7200 processor manufactured using 45nm process (code name "Wolfdale") to see if we could lower the power consumption. The E7200 runs at
2.53Ghz with a 1066 Mhz front side bus and has 3MB of L2 cache. The stock settings were used as the board is incapable of underclocking or undervolting.
Surprisingly, despite the fact the E7200 and E6400 have the same 65W TDP rating,
using the E7200 caused the power draw to drop by 14W at idle, 16-22W during
video playback and 33W on full load. The Zotac NF610i-ITX performed similarly,
but the P5E-VM HDMI was much more power hungry than our E6400-equipped test
platform.
The most efficient AMD mATX mainboard we've tested, the Gigabyte
GA-MA74GM-S2 (paired with a 45W AMD processor) has a small though
4W advantage at idle. However with any kind of load, the two Intel
mini-ITX boards were more efficient by 15W to 32W when paired with
the E7200 processor. The E7200 however, is a much more expensive processor,
retailing for $120 compared to the X2 4850e's $70. A good alternative may be
the recently released $85 Pentium Dual-Core E5200. It is also a Wolfdale processor
but is clocked slightly slower at 2.5Ghz and is hampered further with less L2
cache and a slower front side bus; it's likely to perform similarly.
While these results are profound, we won't be changing our Intel motherboard
test bed to include the E7200 as getting the absolute lowest system power consumption
isn't our main testing goal. A slower processor is ideal for judging an IGP's
video playback efficiency — if the E7200 ran at around 2GHz, we would not
hesitate to change our methods. So while we won't be changing our test bed,
this little experiment gives us something to keep in mind: AMD is not the undisputed
king of CPU power efficiency any longer. If other G45 and/or Geforce 7 series
mATX boards generate similar results, Intel could very well be the new energy
efficiency champion.
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