AMD 790GX Chipset Platform Launch

Before we bring this article to a close, we'd like to cover a few final data points. Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we monitored how much power our test systems were consuming using a power meter. Our goal was to give you all an idea as to how much power each configuration used while idling and under a heavy workload. Please keep in mind that we were testing total system power consumption at the outlet here, not just the power being drawn by the motherboards alone.

In comparison to the other chipsets for the AMD platform, the 790GX proved to be a relatively low-power solution, besting the nForce 780a and obviously the 790FX (which requires a graphics card) in both idle and peak power consumption.  In comparison to the G45, however, even with a much higher clocked and better performing processor at the heart of the system, the G45 puts up significantly lower power numbers, which is a testament to Intel's Core 2 architecture and 45nm manufacturing process.