Realistic power consumption of 785G + Athlon X4 630

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alex2035
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Location: Sydney

Realistic power consumption of 785G + Athlon X4 630

Post by alex2035 » Sun Nov 29, 2009 4:22 pm

Hi,

I am going to build a new system mostly for video editing, Photoshop, HD video, very occasional gaming. Currently looking at this config:

Motherboard: Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H
CPU: Athlon II X4 630
RAM: 2x2GB DDR3
Video: built-in

The only thing that concerns me is power consumption. In different reviews that I have come across power consumption for the similar systems varied from 40W to 100W idling and from 80W to 200+Watts under full load. It was also suggested that a similar Intel based system would draw up to 50W less under the load.
Just wondering what would be the realistic power consumption figures? And also how hot North bridge is on MA785GT-UD3H?
Thank you very much.

Chocolinx
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Post by Chocolinx » Mon Nov 30, 2009 10:05 am

I would safely assume less then 150W under load. A good 350W power supply would power this easily. A Pico 120W probably would too.

noee
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Post by noee » Mon Nov 30, 2009 12:42 pm

I have a similar setup:

Asus 785TD-M EVO
Athlon II 620
2 hard drives
BD rom
3 fans (Yate Loon), on a TR SI-128, in Antec Solo

I have CnQ on, but I have it o/c'd to 3.5Ghz, NB @ 2.6Ghz

Using Kill-a-watt at the wall, fwiw

Idle: ~70watts
Full Load: ~165watts

I test full load encoding a DVD using x264, 2nd pass, all 4 cores @99%.

Running Win7 Ult x64

ymmv

hans007
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Post by hans007 » Tue Dec 01, 2009 4:35 am

i've used a 630 on my 780g based itx setup.

at default voltages using orthos load it hit something like 125 watts from the wall with a kill-a-watt.

idle was around 70 watts.

this is with ddr2 ram though, and 1 hard drive and 1 slim optical drive that

alex2035
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Location: Sydney

Post by alex2035 » Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:16 pm

Thank you all for the feedback. Power draw seems to be reasonable and not so scary as some reviews show.
Cheers.

ava__
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Post by ava__ » Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:51 pm

Read this article on tomshardware dot com about what you can do with your AMD CPU with a little voltage tweak:

(edit: it looks like i can't post URLS yet since i'm new and i dont have at least 3 posts. The mentioned article is named "Tuning Cool'n'Quiet: Maximize Power And Performance" - part1 and part2, and you can find it in the CPU section)

There was also an interesting article at ixbtlabs dot com about a 785G motherboard from MSI, but the site is down at the moment, i'll be back with the link later.

Unfortunately most review sites just put in default voltage settings (a little on the conservative side), and/or use high wattage 1000+ Watts PSUs, power hogging motherboards and chipsets, and that's why they are getting such high power requirements. Adding insult to injury, usually they are comparing high end AMD platforms with mainstream Intel , and then wondering how much lower is power draw from Intel. Sadly this is happening at SPCR too, lately ....

alex2035
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Location: Sydney

Post by alex2035 » Wed Dec 02, 2009 12:01 am

Interesting reading. However ixbtlabs measurments for MSI 785GM-E65 look unrealistically low: 10W - idle, 39-56W - Far Cry. And this is with Phenom II X4 810.
Tom's Hardware came up with 85W idle / 128W under load for the same board and Phenom II X2, X3 CPUs. Go figure, might depend on the measurment method.

hans007
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Post by hans007 » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:36 pm

also i'd like to add, i undervolted the 630 to 1.175 voltes from stock, and load draw fell to about 105 W

ilovejedd
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Post by ilovejedd » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:06 pm

ava__ wrote:Unfortunately most review sites just put in default voltage settings (a little on the conservative side), and/or use high wattage 1000+ Watts PSUs, power hogging motherboards and chipsets, and that's why they are getting such high power requirements. Adding insult to injury, usually they are comparing high end AMD platforms with mainstream Intel , and then wondering how much lower is power draw from Intel. Sadly this is happening at SPCR too, lately ....
I understand using the default voltage settings. More people tend to run at stock volts and clocks. The use of 1000W PSU's kinda frustrate me, though. As for the comparisons, thing is, the high end AMD platforms are usually the same as mainstream Intel when it comes to price.

alex2035
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Post by alex2035 » Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:04 am

I will add my own stats here.

MA785GT-UD3H
Athlon X4 630
DDR3 2x2GB

Default voltages
idle 75W
load, Prime95 165W

VCore 1.15V
idle 70W
load, Prime95 122W

loimlo
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Post by loimlo » Sat Dec 26, 2009 1:34 am

Well, I guess I can contribute my system figures for people who might be interested in mediocre results: :oops:

* Athlon II X4 620 oc 3.15G
MSI K9A2 Neo2 -- 770+SB700
Powercolor 4670 with fan mod
2x2GB DDR2 800 oc 968 at 1.88V
3x3.5' HDDs
3xDVD Burners
4x120mm fans
Seasonic S12 430W -- served me for almost 3 years.
Win7 Ultimate X64


* I've it OCed to 3.15G at 1.42V and idled around 968Mhz at 0.85V.

Power figures measured by Seasonic Powerangel:
Prime95 4cores: 215~220W
Furmark: 190~195W
Internet surfing: 105W

All in all, it is relatively energy-inefficient compared to most systems in this discussion thread.

elpibe10
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Location: Out of this world !

Post by elpibe10 » Sat Dec 26, 2009 3:32 am

AMD processor-based systems are generally power inefficient (even taking into account their Energy Efficient processors)

A couple of comparisons :

- AMD Phenom II X3 705e
- Asus M4A78-Pro
- 2 x 1GB DDR2-800 CL4
- XFX GT 240 1GB
- Win 7 Ultimate x86

Idle : 90W (excl. monitor & speakers)


- Intel i7-860
- Asus P7P55D mobo
- 2 x 2GB DDR3-1600 CL8
- Asus 4670 512MB
- Win 7 Enterprise x64

Idle : 62W (excl. monitor & speakers)

jhhoffma
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Post by jhhoffma » Mon Dec 28, 2009 7:07 pm

Hardly fair to compare power of systems with two different video cards.

However, the Phenom processors will not be as efficient as the Athlon II series (particularly the new 45W models). My HTPC (see sig) idles around 60W with integrated GPU.

elpibe10
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Post by elpibe10 » Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:24 pm

jhhoffma wrote:Hardly fair to compare power of systems with two different video cards.

However, the Phenom processors will not be as efficient as the Athlon II series (particularly the new 45W models). My HTPC (see sig) idles around 60W with integrated GPU.
Difference in power consumption between GT 240 and 4670 is just a few watts at most on idle.

Note that i7-860 is a really fast hyper-threading quad-core processor and the entire rig is only taking 62W (with a discrete 4670 gfx card) really shows the prowess (in terms of power efficiency) of Intel processors.

... that's just 2W more than your HTPC btw :wink:

Vicotnik
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Post by Vicotnik » Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:45 pm

Undervolted 605e and not a 630 in my system, but I thought I'd post my results in this thread anyway.

My current sig (pasting it here in case I change it):
GA-MA785GMT-UD2H | X4 605e w/ Minja | 2 x 2GB DDR3 | 4670 w/ S1 | 2405FPW | M-Audio Audiophile 192 | PicoPSU 120W w/ Dell DA-2
Antec NSK1380 | Scythe Slipstream 120mm | Intel X25-M G2 80GB | WD GP 2TB (in a Scythe Quiet Drive) | Idle ~52W AC

Still playing around with the voltage. Now it's at -0.1V set in the BIOS which with this motherboard affects both normal and CnQ voltages.

Greg F.
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Location: Seattle

Post by Greg F. » Tue Dec 29, 2009 6:27 am

Biostar 785GE
AMD 3600X2 (2.2 w/220FSB) Brisbane UV'd to 1.01v. Cool n' Quiet
Asus Triton 75 w/Yate Loon1200(usually @ 0-350rpm)
Case Fan: Slipstream 800
2x2G Adata Vitesta DDR2 800
Corsair 400CX PS
XP 32 Home
USB AverMedia Volar
USB M Audio Transit
USB Saitek keyboard
USB Logitec Trackball Marble
SAMSUNG HD502H
SAMSUNG HD321KJ
WDC WD2500KS-00MJB0

This is at 33w when i get up in morning. Surfs the net at about 57w. Plays HD 1080i tv tuner at about 62. Running a 1080P file (Coral Reef) with MPC full screen the same 62w. I don't know orthos or furball, I don't use them.

srbliss
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Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2005 9:55 am

Realistic power consumption of 785G + Athlon X4 630

Post by srbliss » Thu Jan 07, 2010 11:39 pm

My system is a little slower than what you are looking at but what the heck - it's a reference point. AMD 5050e in an Asus M3A78-CM (780G) 8 gig of ram 320GB 2.5" drive with a Pico 120 watt power supply running XP 64. This idles at 30-31 watts and maxes out at 95 running 2x prime 95 and furmark at the same time. I would think a 630 system would be at worse +50 watts at the top end and +10 at idle. I am thinking of going back to a real power supply and a 965 quad as I use a photo processing program that takes a ton of power and can use all 4 cores.
Steve

Thomas
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Location: Denmark

Post by Thomas » Fri Jan 08, 2010 1:32 am

jhhoffma wrote:However, the Phenom processors will not be as efficient as the Athlon II series (particularly the new 45W models). My HTPC (see sig) idles around 60W with integrated GPU.
I got a Phenom II 925 revision C3, and undervolted, it idles @ 54-55 watts.

Other specs:

Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H (integrated graphics)
2 x 2 GB RAM DDR2
Seasonic S12 380
1 x Samsung F2 EcoGreen
2 x Hitachi 5K160 2,5"
1 x optical disc 7240s
1 x card reader

idale
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Location: Austin, TX

Post by idale » Fri Jan 08, 2010 7:31 am

alex2035 wrote:I will add my own stats here.

MA785GT-UD3H
Athlon X4 630
DDR3 2x2GB

Default voltages
idle 75W
load, Prime95 165W

VCore 1.15V
idle 70W
load, Prime95 122W
While people are still sharing, I recently set up a 785G/630 living room PC (LRPC -- will be handling media viewing, gaming (eventually), and transcoding, so isn't quite a standard HTPC). Basic stats are similar:
  • MSI 785GM-E65
  • Athlon II X4 630
  • 2x2GB DDR3-1333
  • D-Link DWA-552 802.11n PCI adapter (for the record, I don't recommend it but it'll contribute to power consumption)
  • 3.5" 320GB Caviar Blue (7200rpm)
  • 3.5" 1.5TB Caviar Green
  • old DVD+-R/W drive
My desktop idle is around 63W with the leftover Corsair TX650W PSU I've got in there right now. I haven't done anything with Prime95 or Furmark or anything, but when doing transcode duties (100% CPU utilization by x264) it's pulling around 140W from the wall. Haven't gone through the process of trying to undervolt yet, other than a quick check of "CPU VDD" at 1.1V (minimum for that field) which rebooted after about 30 seconds at the desktop. While it was up, though, it didn't seem to affect the idle power very much, though in-BIOS consumption fell from around 104W to around 80W (I think idle was only something like 60-61W).

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