Encoding Performance & Power Usage with DivX/WME9

In our DivX encoding test there's about a 10% gap between the Intel 975X and NVIDIA's nForce 570 SLI, with the P965 falling in line closer to its older brother than NVIDIA's offering.

DivX 6.1 Encoding Test  

Power consumption is as expected, with the P965 consuming the least and the nForce 570 SLI consuming the most. 

DivX 6.1 Encoding Test  

The performance per watt chart has the 975X and P965 tied, thanks to the 975X's higher performance.  And given the nForce 570 SLI's lower performance and higher power consumption, it falls to the bottom of the chart.

DivX 6.1 Encoding Test  

Windows Media Encoding has all three platforms equal in performance:

Windows Media 9 Encoding Test  

...and power consumption is very similar to our DivX test:

Windows Media 9 Encoding Test

Windows Media 9 Encoding Test

3D Rendering Performance & Power Usage Encoding Performance & Power Usage with Quicktime/iTunes
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  • jonp - Saturday, October 14, 2006 - link

    Whoops. Intuitive logic doesn't always pay off. See the following chart which gives energy costs/BTU for 2006: http://www.npga.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=914">DOE Energy Costs . You can see that energy cost from electricity is almost double that of natural gas. You may help heat the building, but it will cost you more. And remember that a lot of electricity comes from coal fired power plants (CO2 producing) and every wire consumes it's own share of energy released as useless heat. Ok probably too much off the chipset topic, sorry.
  • DigitalFreak - Thursday, October 12, 2006 - link

    Quick, call Al Gore!

    Thanks for the good laugh.
  • Lonyo - Thursday, October 12, 2006 - link

    10w is not all that inconsiderable, look at it over multiple components and it becomes significant.
    10w just for the mobo is, IMO, quite a chunk.
  • smn198 - Friday, October 13, 2006 - link

    Could you measure the power draw of just the chipset by increasing the voltage of the northbridge by 0.2V and then re-running the tests? Take the difference between +0.2V and normal and then you would have isolated the power draw for the chipset and can work out the power draw for the chipset alone.

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