System Power Consumption

The four result values are as following:

• AMD Cool'n'Quiet / Intel SpeedStep: Windows Vista with Aero off, sitting at the desktop (1920x1080 32-bit) all windows closed, drivers installed. Processors have their power saving technology enabled, left in idle until power draw is stable.
• Idle: Windows Vista with Aero off, sitting at the desktop (1920x1080 32-bit) all windows closed, drivers installed. Processors have their power saving technology disabled, left in idle until power draw is stable.
• Load: Prime95 is used to increase load on all available cores and measurements are taken when power draw is stable.

AMD's Athlon II X3 425 ranks high on the power consumption board. AMD's Cool & Quiet manages to improve the idle power draw a bit, but without it Athlon II X3 425 draws considerably more power than its competitors, especially when under load. Numbers are still okay for this kind of processor, but AMD needs to improve this in future versions.



Undervolting capabilities were tested as well. As it turns out, our sample can maintain stable operation at 2.70 GHz with just 1.150 V core voltage, while stock core voltage is set by AMD to 1.425 V. Under idle this lower voltage brings ~10 W lower power draw, while under load low voltage Athlon II X3 425 can save up to ~35 W of power compared to the stock model.

Temperatures

During tests AMD Athlon II X3 425 was cooled with the stock heatsink provided in the packaging. Although operating temperatures are very good, the noise that the stock cooler produces is sometimes unbearable.