AMD 45nm Deneb Consumes up to 12% Less Power Compared to 65nm Agena

Wednesday, July 23 2008

The newest fleet of quad-core desktop processors from AMD, the Deneb series is tested by Chinese website Zol to consume up to 12 per cent less power compared to equally clocked 65nm Agena parts, add to that, the fact that the 45nm Deneb comes with three times the amount of L3 cache, 6 MB.

The 45nm and 65nm parts were compared on a MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 card, a single 320 GB HDD, two modules of 1GB DDR2 1066 MHz memory, the test-bed was powered by a Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W PSU. Power consumption was calculated in idle and load (the CPUs were stressed using instances of Orthos).

In idle, the 45nm CPU-based system's power consumption was measured to be 147W compared 154W of the 65nm CPU-based setup. In load, the margin increased with the 45nm CPU-based system running at 176W compared to 200W of the 65nm CPU-based setup.

Sources: Zol, ITOCP

posted by btarunr - 3:27 PM | Related News |

User comments

by wolf2009 (July 23rd - 3:28 PM) - Reply

nice, i hope they will be faster than current amd processors

by yogurt_21 (July 23rd - 3:34 PM) - Reply

yeah it's faster than the current ones, but we don't know yet if it can compete with current intels.

but 12% less would mean that the 2.6GHZ variant would consume 124watts vs 140 on the 9950 0r 110w for the 2.5GHZ one vs 125w on the 9850. not great but better.

by Darknova (July 23rd - 3:35 PM) - Reply

Assuming this allows them to unlock higher speeds AMD may finally have a chance.

by kurik (July 23rd - 3:37 PM) - Reply

Wasn't these processors tested with the same cpu voltage, 1,224V i think i read somewhere. If so the new 45nm processor still consumes less power even tho it shouldnt need that much voltage to operate at the same GHz. I guess it can only get better when the voltage is dropped yes?

by btarunr (July 23rd - 3:37 PM) - Reply

Yes, they do seem to OC well. Some unlocked multipler based chips did 3.60 ~ 3.80 GHz in some beds by Chinese websites.

by InnocentCriminal (July 23rd - 3:49 PM) - Reply

I'm hoping they'll make a dent, but it's more likely to be a scratch. Looking forward to some reviews.

by Yokozuna (July 23rd - 4:20 PM) - Reply

by: yogurt_21
yeah it's faster than the current ones, but we don't know yet if it can compete with current intels.

but 12% less would mean that the 2.6GHZ variant would consume 124watts vs 140 on the 9950 0r 110w for the 2.5GHZ one vs 125w on the 9850. not great but better.

The 12% reduction was in the overall system power consumption. That means the reduction in the CPU's TDP is more than 12%.

by xfire (July 23rd - 4:21 PM) - Reply

by: btarunr
Yes, they do seem to OC well. Some unlocked multipler based chips did 3.60 ~ 3.80 GHz in some beds by Chinese websites.

Wasn't it a similar case with Phenom's?

by Mussels (July 23rd - 4:23 PM) - Reply

by: btarunr
Yes, they do seem to OC well. Some unlocked multipler based chips did 3.60 ~ 3.80 GHz in some beds by Chinese websites.

good AMD can finally catch up. its a little sad seeing rigs which cost more than mine powered by AMD CPU's, that even massively OC'd (3.2GHz+) just cant touch mine due to the CPU holding everything else back.

its good that they use less power AND have more cache. speed wasnt compromised.

by btarunr (July 23rd - 4:25 PM) - Reply

by: xfire
Wasn't it a similar case with Phenom's?

Huh? 45nm Deneb core will be sold as Phenom X4.

by PCpraiser100 (July 23rd - 5:37 PM) - Reply

Hmm, interesting. This might solve their overclocking problem if they put in a lower voltage core, due to their power consumption. Therefore less heat. Anyway, since the biggest siblings of today's Phenom line like the 9850BE consumes about 125W, the 45nm line will replace the 9850 with the power consumption of about 110W, which is 1W more than the Q6600. This could be a big step if AMD really makes their mark, especially when the Phenom line truly has four cores, while Intel quads like the Q6600 has two dual-cores linked together.

by xfire (July 23rd - 5:43 PM) - Reply

by: btarunr
Huh? 45nm Deneb core will be sold as Phenom X4.

What I meant was that the samples of phenom's overclocked well too but the final product didn't.

by [I.R.A]_FBi (July 23rd - 5:46 PM) - Reply

by: PCpraiser100
Hmm, interesting. This might solve their overclocking problem if they put in a lower voltage core, due to their power consumption. Therefore less heat. Anyway, since the biggest siblings of today's Phenom line like the 9850BE consumes about 125W, the 45nm line will replace the 9850 with the power consumption of about 110W, which is 1W more than the Q6600. This could be a big step if AMD really makes their mark, especially when the Phenom line truly has four cores, while Intel quads like the Q6600 has two dual-cores linked together.

Your nubmers are wrong, as well AMD doesnt do TDP any more, they use a different method

by Rurouni Strife (July 23rd - 5:53 PM) - Reply

I'm holding out for these processors. Not expecting them to do anything magical aginst intel's nahelem, MAYBE compete but more on a price/performace field. I just want a quad that isn't going to melt my 780G mobo and still has a decent clock speed (2.6+ hopefully)

by Viscarious (July 23rd - 5:58 PM) - Reply

This isnt going to blow intel away. That day will come with the G34 socket that AMD is designing.

by [I.R.A]_FBi (July 23rd - 6:08 PM) - Reply

by: Viscarious
This isnt going to blow intel away. That day will come with the G34 socket that AMD is designing.

remember that youre aiming at a moving target.

by Gallatin (July 23rd - 6:56 PM) - Reply

by: [I.R.A]_FBi
remember that youre aiming at a moving target.

.... with nothing more than a bb-gun.

i just continue your phrase. don't take me the wrong way i like amd but it seems far from performance competition with intel:toast:

by Millenia (July 23rd - 8:01 PM) - Reply

I'll probably get one when they come out, I haven't had Intel in my rig since the 233MHz P2 and I'm totally still not getting one :P

by Viscarious (July 23rd - 8:24 PM) - Reply

Im fairly certain the G34 will surprise us. But you are right too. Its only a blueprint we've seen with very few details on production, however, I have strong faith with AMD on this one. I mean cmon! Its code named 'Bulldozer'!

by [I.R.A]_FBi (July 23rd - 8:26 PM) - Reply

Hope its not a load of bull*steaming pie*

by DanTheBanjoman (July 23rd - 8:28 PM) - Reply

by: yogurt_21
yeah it's faster than the current ones, but we don't know yet if it can compete with current intels.

but 12% less would mean that the 2.6GHZ variant would consume 124watts vs 140 on the 9950 0r 110w for the 2.5GHZ one vs 125w on the 9850. not great but better.

124W still isn't something I'd put in my PC. Besides it says "up to", so on average the gain is lower.

by KieranD (July 23rd - 8:55 PM) - Reply

124W is a lot and if amd want to capture market share they need to get out lower power quads

i think that the low power new x2s are a great start but really they need low power quads too even then it should only be double the power of the low power x2s

since amd do everything now from cpu graphics to the south and north chips on mobos i think the plan was it would be cheap for the customer and allow amd to get better performance still didnt work that way

by mullered07 (July 23rd - 9:03 PM) - Reply

fantastic, im gonna hold out for one of these instead of a phenom X4 if the price is right (the test rig there using is my board so no problems there ;)), will go nice with the rest of my rig when i get a 2nd 4850 :toast:

btw anyone else think that psu was a tad bit overkill 1200w and why the hell with a gtx 280 on an amd crossfire board :shadedshu

by imperialreign (July 23rd - 10:32 PM) - Reply

it's looking like AMD will defi have something to offer in the near future -

even if it doesn't go over too well in the retail market, Deneb is starting to look like it'd be mighty appealing to OE manufacturers, especially if the CPU also performs quite well at stock speeds.

by TheGuruStud (July 24th - 3:21 AM) - Reply

Check out this nifty feature AMD pulled out of their ass http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3360&p=1

The NB actually clocks higher! Can I quit complaining? Only benchies can do that.

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