Just reading *another* site and theres a big hoo ha about how one chip im interested in is less energy efficient than another. Now I get the running hot issue, but is that just it? Surely if your PC has porper ventilation and a good PSU the only downside is a couple more £ per year? For people who spend hundreds on the latest graphics cards all this seems, well, daft. What am I missing?
Why be energy efficient?
- Thread starter Devlish
- Start date
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 27 Sep 2004
- Posts
- 25,821
- Location
- Glasgow
Energy efficient chips run cooler so you don't need such extreme (and not infrequently noisy) cooling, you can therefore usually overclock them further because of this too if that is of interest, you don't need such a hefty PSU.
There are probably more reasons, those are just the most obvious ones to me.
There are probably more reasons, those are just the most obvious ones to me.
dual core
Got maself the amd athlon x2 6400+ 3.2ghz black edition, i can say it could probably be critically acclaimed as THE hottest running dual, with 125w output as described in a few reviews, i can definately believe that, when playing with a full load of crysis (all high, 8xaa 1440x900 @ 20fps but no frame dragging)
it reaches around 65, then after about 2 hours of this, it reached 70 and i started getting serious frame dragging, its obviously the cpu that was overheating as my gfx card barely touched 60 degrees, normally idling at 50c
so lets have a look at the deal on ocuk, for the 2.70ghz black edition, if i overclocked that, id probably get the same output, use less cooling and be able to play crysis a lot longer before problems occur? (if at all, but maybe with my little 8800gt i shouldnt be adventurous with anti aliasing and gfx on the elusive crysis!)
so this is one story of why you should choose energy efficiency over anything else!
*edit* i bought my pc last january and did not know much about pc's compared to what i do now, the company did not state that the black edition was mainly used for extreme overclocking, therefore i ended up with a stock amd cooler that id paid extra for without knowing (very bad service) had constant problems with overheating, ram getting fried, mobo blew at one point, kept sending them all the broken parts though and they did replace them, all but my psu, which was lucky as i found ocuk just prior to it blowing, bout a new one from here and ive pretty much been replacing the old parts with ocuk items ever since, the reason black editions are sold without a heatsink is they are intended to be used with a tough heatsink that costs more then standard stock fans, and are meant for serious overclockers, being the noob i was with no guidance, i just bought it because it looked nice, its a decent piece of kit but i would be better off with a 3.0ghz or less overclocked to the same 3.2 offered here.
Got maself the amd athlon x2 6400+ 3.2ghz black edition, i can say it could probably be critically acclaimed as THE hottest running dual, with 125w output as described in a few reviews, i can definately believe that, when playing with a full load of crysis (all high, 8xaa 1440x900 @ 20fps but no frame dragging)
it reaches around 65, then after about 2 hours of this, it reached 70 and i started getting serious frame dragging, its obviously the cpu that was overheating as my gfx card barely touched 60 degrees, normally idling at 50c
so lets have a look at the deal on ocuk, for the 2.70ghz black edition, if i overclocked that, id probably get the same output, use less cooling and be able to play crysis a lot longer before problems occur? (if at all, but maybe with my little 8800gt i shouldnt be adventurous with anti aliasing and gfx on the elusive crysis!)
so this is one story of why you should choose energy efficiency over anything else!
*edit* i bought my pc last january and did not know much about pc's compared to what i do now, the company did not state that the black edition was mainly used for extreme overclocking, therefore i ended up with a stock amd cooler that id paid extra for without knowing (very bad service) had constant problems with overheating, ram getting fried, mobo blew at one point, kept sending them all the broken parts though and they did replace them, all but my psu, which was lucky as i found ocuk just prior to it blowing, bout a new one from here and ive pretty much been replacing the old parts with ocuk items ever since, the reason black editions are sold without a heatsink is they are intended to be used with a tough heatsink that costs more then standard stock fans, and are meant for serious overclockers, being the noob i was with no guidance, i just bought it because it looked nice, its a decent piece of kit but i would be better off with a 3.0ghz or less overclocked to the same 3.2 offered here.
Last edited:
It just sounds like you need better cooling to me. If it's frame dragging then it's probably throttling so the cpu doesn't damage itself. You should be able to play more than just a couple of hours of crysis without it locking up!
I'd get a bigger heatsink and see if that helps.
gt
Associate
- Joined
- 21 Oct 2008
- Posts
- 189
- Location
- UK
To save the planet from anthropogenic global warming obviously!
No, but seriously...it's all about temperatures more wattage is going to mean more heat generated as already mentioned. However in general I only look at whether or not a chip has a good reputation for over clocking and neglect the energy efficiency entirely. I'd only look at energy efficiency before over clocking potential if I were looking to build a low noise, always on (server, HTPC) or limited airflow PC.
No, but seriously...it's all about temperatures more wattage is going to mean more heat generated as already mentioned. However in general I only look at whether or not a chip has a good reputation for over clocking and neglect the energy efficiency entirely. I'd only look at energy efficiency before over clocking potential if I were looking to build a low noise, always on (server, HTPC) or limited airflow PC.
Basic enginneering, save power on operating one component and you either have more margin for something else or you can use cheaper supporting compoennts (psu, fans and cooler) to get the same result and save money
Of course if you ignore the benefits of power saving and use the same size other components then you have over-engeered or not engineered your system and all you will save is a little thermal wear and tear from lower temp and a smaller bit of money
Of course if you ignore the benefits of power saving and use the same size other components then you have over-engeered or not engineered your system and all you will save is a little thermal wear and tear from lower temp and a smaller bit of money
As i pay my bill, being energy efficient is soooo important. If i can get a more energy efficient component for my pc, well then its a no-brainer. I surf and do small tasks on my sammy nc10 and only turn on my relatively power hungry gaming pc when i game.
Apart from a selfish money point of view, it is something we need to do more in the west.
How can we expect the developing world to be more logical when it comes to power consumption when we dont "give a monkeys".
Apart from a selfish money point of view, it is something we need to do more in the west.
How can we expect the developing world to be more logical when it comes to power consumption when we dont "give a monkeys".
I'd get a bigger heatsink and see if that helps.
gt
ordered one from ocuk, came and it seemed pretty cream crackered, the heatpipes were damaged, this was during the snow days i spose the royal mail team are responsible, it came in a jiffy bag so i expect thats why it got damaged, i sent it back in a box full of wonderful padding lol, hopefully theres no problem with the use of the card to apply heatpaste (card that says product info etc, the packaging) as it doesnt work anyway.
when i used that in my system, it just let the cpu fry, it went 50 51 52 53, got to 80 before i turned it off! obviously faulty, fan was spinning but the sink just wasnt dissapating heat.
but obviously 95nm needs good cooling is my point, thats why energy efficient 65nm are probably a better bet!
Associate
- Joined
- 27 Mar 2005
- Posts
- 319
- Location
- Scotland
I just updated my rig from an old 939 DFI Ultra LANParty with AMD 4400x2 and 7800-GTX and the new rig runs way way cooler.
I havent had the graphics card above 70 and the cpu above 58. And that was after leaving on a 3dMark burn-in overnight.
Very impressed with the effeciency of the smaller cpu and gpu die's.
I havent had the graphics card above 70 and the cpu above 58. And that was after leaving on a 3dMark burn-in overnight.
Very impressed with the effeciency of the smaller cpu and gpu die's.