Looks like AMD marketing is not doing a good job.
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The next test is to show how hot the northbridges on these motherboards get. On the AMD side the northbridge contains the HT controller, the integrated graphics portion, and the PCI-E lanes. On the Intel side it contains the memory controller, the FSB controller, integrated graphics, and the PCI-E lanes. The Intel chip, due to the memory controller, is a bit more complex than the AMD part. I took temperature readings directly off the heatsink covering the chips. The heatsink on the AMD board is relatively small, while the heatsink on the Intel board is actually much larger.
Northbridge Temps
690G G965
Idle
101.4 F 150.2 F
Load
110.6 F 152.0 F
Even though it has a smaller heatsink, the 690G runs much cooler than the G965. The G965 heatsink would get so hot that I was unable to keep my finger on it for more than a second without experiencing pain. The AMD part kept relatively cool, and I could keep a finger on it indefinitely. The G965 is a hot, hot running part, and probably should be actively cooled.
For the power tests I plugged the power supply into a P3 Kill-a-Watt power meter and read the maximum power pull on each of the systems.
Power Consumption
AMD Platform Intel Platform
Idle
75 watts 81 watts
Load
134 watts 126 watts
Here we see things switch around a bit. While the AMD platform is able to clock lower at idle, and pull less power, the opposite is true when the systems are under load. Once we are under load the Intel platform is slightly more efficient with power consumption.
Luckily for AMD, that is not always the case when looking at the entire picture. We can see with these results that the X2 5600+ is competitive with the Intel products in its price range. When we introduce the integrated 690G motherboard, the performance advantages for the Intel product disappears. The vast majority of computer users have a desktop or notebook computer that features integrated graphics, and for them such ideas as overclocking are foreign and not entirely welcome. While enthusiasts are the loudest users, the silent majority simply buy their computers from the Dells, HPs, and Gateways of the world. More often than not, those computers will feature integrated graphics.
For consumers and OEMs, the advantages of buying an “all AMD” product are pretty compelling. Consumers will get a full featured product with the ability to play older games and many current “casual” games with good speed and compatibility. OEM’s will see a decrease in support calls because their products will simply play most games without support intervention.
AMD may not have the performance crown anymore, but they do have a very competent product that can address the needs of a good majority of users. AMD is not dead, and the 690G certainly shows the promise of a platform-centric philosophy. Within the next few months we will see AMD release the next generation of integrated parts which are based on the Radeon HD 2400 architecture. It is very likely that AMD will have the first DX10 based integrated platform, and offer performance close to that of budget standalone cards. |
