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AMD Llano Desktop A8-3850 review: banging on Intel's door

by Tarinder Sandhu on 30 June 2011, 05:00 4.0

Tags: Gigabyte (TPE:2376), AMD (NYSE:AMD)

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Power consumption - IGP PC

So how does it all play out from a power-efficiency angle? We swapped out the standard 1kW PSU for a Zalman 400W for this test.

Wonderfully low idle power-draw figures. It's notable that adding a discrete GPU to the Intel system increases power-draw by 36 per cent.

The AMD chip has a higher-rated TDP than the Intel Core i3 - 100W vs. 65W - but that's based on full APU usage. Focussing in on the CPU part, the pull from an at-mains meter is decent for all four configurations.

As is gaming, though, repeating ad nauseam, adding in a low-end discrete card pushes up power-draw on the Core i3 system.