[MakeLV] Question on power usage of multicore CPUs

[Keith Erekson]

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Modern multi-core CPUs have the ability to disable unused cores (as
long as the OS supports it?), and also to overclock a core (or two?)
if it's the only one being used.

A quick google turned up this article, from about 2 years ago, that
seems like it has a good overview of the different tech behind Intel's
and AMD's versions of this concept:

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Processors/AMDs-Turbo-Core-Technology

~Keith

On 04/03/2012 12:30 PM, Randy Kramer wrote:
> I don't see much traffic on the old LVLUG lists, so I thought I'd
> try asking my question here, first.
>
> A few months ago, I got a really good deal on a motherboard for an
> AMD AM-3 socket CPU. ($15 after rebate.)
>
> I had intentions of watching for a low power CPU with maybe 2 cores
> come on sale. So far, almost everything I've seen on sale is rated
> for 95 watts, which is more than I'd like to use. (Btw, 95 watts
> is the maximum rating for the board.)
>
> So, I got to thinking--I don't think most software takes full
> advantage of multicore CPUs, so I'm guessing that even if I bought
> something with 4 or more cores, most of the time I'd be using only
> 1 or 2.
>
> Thus, if I bought a 4 core CPU rated at 95 watts, most of the time
> I'd be using significantly less than 95 watts.
>
> I realize there would be some logic that would be energized on
> those cores even if not used, as well as more "infrastructure"
> logic than if I had a one or two core CPU, but I'd still expect
> substantially less power usage.
>
> Am I way off base?
>
> Randy Kramer
>
> _______________________________________________ Makelehighvalley
> mailing list Makelehighvalley at makelehighvalley.com
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>
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