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TEST METHODOLOGY
Common Test Platform:
Intel LGA775:
AMD AM3:
- AMD
Phenom II X4 810 processor - 2.60 GHz, 45nm, 95W
- AMD Athlon II X4 630 processor - 2.80 GHz, 45nm, 95W
- AMD Athlon II X4 620 processor - 2.60 GHz, 45nm, 95W
- AMD
Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition processor - 2.80 GHz, 45nm,
95W
- AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition
processor - 3.10 GHz, 45nm, 80W
- Asus M4A78T-E motherboard
- 790GX chipset (onboard video disabled)
Measurement and Analysis Tools
- CPU-Z
to monitor CPU frequency and voltage.
- CPUBurn
processor stress software.
- Prime95
processor stress software.
- Cyberlink
PowerDVD to play H.264/VC-1/Blu-ray video.
- Eset NOD32 as
an anti-virus benchmark.
- WinRAR as an
archiving benchmark.
- iTunes
an audio encoding benchmark.
- TMPGEnc
Xpress as a video encoding benchmark.
- PCMark05
as a general system benchmark.
- Seasonic
Power Angel AC power meter, used to measure the power consumption
of the system.
- Custom-built, four-channel variable DC power supply, used to power
and regulate the CPU fan.
Benchmark Test Details
- Eset NOD32: In-depth virus scan of a folder containing 32 files of
varying size with many of them being file RAR and ZIP archives.
- WinRAR: Archive creation with a folder containing 68 files of varying
size (less than 50MB).
- iTunes: Conversion of an MP3 file to AAC.
- TMPGEnc Xpress: Encoding a 1-minute long XVID AVI file to VC-1 (1280x720,
30fps, 20mbps).
Our testing procedure is designed to determine the overall system power consumption
at various states (measured using a Seasonic Power Angel). To stress CPUs we
used Prime95 (large FFTs setting) or CPUBurn (which produced the higher power
draw). We also performed a short series of benchmarks featuring real-world timed
tests and synthetics.
Cool'n'Quiet and/or Intel SpeedStep were enabled (unless otherwise noted).
The following features/services were disabled during testing to prevent spikes
in CPU/HDD usage that are typical of fresh Vista installations:
- Windows Sidebar
- Indexing
- Superfetch
Undervolting
Testing was also conducted with the main processors undervolted as low as possible
while remaining stable enough to survive Prime95's torture test for 10 minutes.
Power savings from undervolting can be significant and the reduction in thermal
dissipation also makes for easier cooling. We managed to undervolt our X4 630
from 1.325V down to 1.200V. Our X4 620 sample had a higher stock voltage, 1.400V,
which we were able to decrease to 1.1625V.
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CPU-Z screenshot: X4 630 undervolted to 1.200V from 1.325V.
CPU-Z screenshot: X4 620 undervolted to 1.1625V from 1.400V.
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