Replies to post #24174 on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[chipguy]

Isn't AMD not far behind, even with a lower-frequency chip?

Bingo!

To execute an x86 instruction takes a certain amount of
logic gate wiggling. Regardless of whether a given level
of performance is obtained by wiggling many logic gates
relatively slowly or fewer gates faster, the amount of
power consumed won't vary greatly for a given process
feature size and supply voltage.

[wbmw]

Tenchu, Re: Isn't AMD not far behind, even with a lower-frequency chip?

I think AMD has a lot of knobs to turn on their current core. Their datasheet indicates a mobile part that has an intermediate power mode with a TDP of around 35W at 1.6GHz. That same processor is ~65W at the full 2GHz and up to 85W with the leakier desktop bins. Yeah, that's pretty close to Intel's power dissipation with the Northwood core, but that just illustrates how positive a move to the mobile core would be for Intel's competitive position. AMD would only be in the same power range by binning their chips at low and uncompetitive frequencies or by binning lower volume low-leakage parts.