Socket AM2+ explained | Power Consumption

Socket AM2+

The Athlon X2 Series 7000 processors make use of socket AM2+, an improved socket design based on socket AM2. There's no added pin count. so this processor theoretically will work in an AM2 mainboard as well (BIOS update required). The difference however has to do with the integrated memory controller and voltage routing. Voltages for the cores and memory controllers can be set independently from each other on Socket AM2+, which in the end has everything to do with power consumption. With socket AM2+ you'll also be able to make use of DDR2-1066 MHz memory, while on socket AM2 you'll be limited towards 800 MHz. Last but not least the socket change was needed for HyperTransport bus 3.0. which supports speeds up-to 2.6 GHz.

Athlon Series 7000 processors may be used on motherboards with socket AM2 +, make sure though you installed the latest BIOS upgrade before installing this processor, however this processor will not fit on Socket AM3 motherboards (DDR3).

Power Consumption

We already touched the subject a little. The Athlon X2 Series 7000 processors have a TDP (peak wattage) of 95W. Now that's by itself interesting as it's the same as the mid-range specced Phenom X3 and X4 processors. Now we should have two active & independent cores here, but I'm 99.99% certain that two other cores are to be found in there yet are disabled. This explains the transistor count and TDP.

Native independent cores are cool though.  Each core can be clocked down independently if not utilized, saving heaps of current. There's also a new status called C1E (check in the BIOS of your mainboard). If the processors are temporarily inactive, they can pretty much put themselves in sleep-mode (clocking down). Hyper Transport will power down and a low-power stage is activated on the memory. Good stuff in this more aware green world.

Let's examine:

For this particular power consumption test we used an AMD 790GX based chipset, we have the advantage of an integrated GPU, so no dedicated graphics card was required or installed. This makes 790GX in combo with a modern processors, very energy efficient. In an idle state the entire computer will consume less than a 100 Watts. With the 7750 BE processor at standard clock, with the two CPU cores 100% stressed we max out at roughly 170 Watt.

Once we start to overclock the processor towards say 3300 MHz, the power consumption gradually increased, 115 Watt in idle, and the PC drew 185~190 Watt with the 4 cores stressed (Prime95 test). Talking about overclocking, let's do just that. next page please.