Power Consumption and CPU temperatures
Power Consumption and CPU temperatures
The new Clarkdale based processors are a bit of a redesign with accompanying die-shrink and as result they are quite energy friendly processors. A processor like the Core i3 530 for example consumes just 73 Watts, and that is with both cores stressed. Clever power management allows the internal voltage and processor multiplier to drop, core independent.
The processor tested today has a TDP of 73W, and that's quite an improvement and it shows this during our measurements:
As you can see, these are really respectable numbers. Mind you that this was done with an H55 motherboard, one SSD, optical drive, 4GB memory and for the last entry, Radeon HD 5870 graphics card.
For even more optimal power consumption make sure you have BIOS features like EIST and C1E enabled and within Windows set your performance mode to balanced (allows the processor to clock down).
Temperatures are very good as well. With an air cooler you can expect temps like below:
| Temperature in Degrees C | idle | 100% |
| Core i3 530 2,93 GHz | 15c | 49c |
| Core i5 661 3,33 GHz | 31c | 60c |
Now I need to mention that these temperatures are managed with a stock reference cooler -- you'll reach roughly 50 degrees C / 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Try to imagine what happens when you slap proper cooling on there, the overclocking potential will become fabulous. Of course results will vary with different motherboards and cooling solutions. But as a baseline the temperatures definitely are promising, especially with overclocking in mind.
Have a peek below, 100% CPU load on the 2/4 cores 100% stressed with Prime 95, voltages are left at default, processor Turbo mode is disabled as the processor doesn't support it.
