Gigabyte goes "Green" with DES software
by Rajinder Gill on January 23, 2008 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Results
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We used four instances of Folding@Home to load each CPU core individually. The DES power savings column shows that savings of 7W per hour is possible if the CPU is loaded 100%. Around 20,000 users worldwide currently participate in the Stanford Folding@Home program, which is used to help protein related disease research. Many of the participants run quad-core processors at a 100% load, almost 365 days a year. Based upon current 1kWH unit pricing in the US, a DES setting of 3 would equate to an approximate $6.63 dollar saving over the course of one year - if the processor retains a 100% load throughout this time.
Okay, these numbers are not exactly substantial, but they are better than no savings at all. To an individual, the power savings shown here may seem miniscule. The broader picture is that the DES software will be available on most of Gigabyte recent boards. It's just a matter of how many people decide to put the software to use. As with most forms of power economy, it takes a global effort to instigate meaningful power consumption reductions. A further look into why the power savings are minimal with our setup is that Intel's QX9650 - and their 45nm processors in general - are very power economical by design, especially at stock settings. Again, the Hafnium based 45nm technology shows the virtues of incredibly low power leakage at stock speeds. That is why the difference in wall power draw is so small, even when reducing Vcore at stock speeds.
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For word processing or web browsing, there is absolutely no harm in using DES level 3 with CPU throttling enabled. An approximate saving of almost 4W per hour is possible; again, this is not massive but every bit of savings is still worthwhile in the grand scheme of things.
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In this test we decided to manipulate Vcore levels manually to DES levels without using DES. We also took this a step further (the bottom row in the table) and reduced Vcore to the lowest level that we could run our QX9650 at 3GHz stable. The 45nm process allows these processors to run incredibly low levels of Vcore at 3GHz. What has become clear at this point is that switching off some of the phases does not really benefit the user by reducing system power consumption from the wall. Further, as there is no user VCore control in DES, manual Vcore tuning to lower values than DES level 3 brings the prospect of increased overall power savings.
It is important to note that Gigabyte's Easy tune 5 software allows manual Vcore adjustment within the OS. Okay, so it's not quite as easy as the 1-click feature of DES, but Easy Tune 5 is almost as easy to use for manual Vcore adjustment (two clicks to be precise). The only rub here is that it does take a little bit of time running stability software to work out just how low you can take the Vcore whilst retaining system stability. Of course, the QX9650 is currently the best processor that money can buy and represents top speed binned silicon. The lower binned processors should still allow users to undervolt the Vcore quite effectively, obviously at the cost of a lower overall CPU speed.
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Nihility - Thursday, January 24, 2008 - link
Doesn't EIST offer better power savings over what DES does?The Q9650 has a multiplier of 9 meaning that when EIST is on, its clock speed will be reduced by 1000 Mhz. I'm just curious if that's not a better power saving option for a computer that is mostly idle (internet, word processing mentioned in the article). As I understand it, EIST needs to be shut off.
Rajinder Gill - Thursday, January 24, 2008 - link
Not really, these processors are now so efficient at idle that the core speed reduction does little to save extra power. Gigabyte have sorted out the EIST/C1E and DES issue in the latest BIOS. You can now have all 3 on simultaneously. Unlike the previous releases..regards
Raja
Cardio - Thursday, January 24, 2008 - link
Rather he would do his Lemming imitation.emenk - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - link
You said at the very top "Our initial reaction to Gigabyte's DES (Dynamic Energy Saver) software was stated in the GA-X48T-DQ6 review a few weeks ago." Where exactly did you say that? What did you say?I've searched for any mention of it, and I can't find it. I've even used Google!
I'm getting the impression that this is yet another example of Anandtech bullshitting us by saying they said something that they didn't say. If I just can't read, then point out where you said something about the DES software in GA-X48T-DQ6 review. Otherwise, stop printing bullshit. I'm sick of wasting my time trying to track down stuff that you claim you said in different articles.
emenk - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - link
Nevermind. I just found it on the second page. You called it by the wrong name, though. No wonder I couldn't find it! So did you screw up or hadn't Gigabyte settled on the name yet?If you called it by the wrong name, why didn't you point that out or fix it? Even if Gigabyte changed the name, why didn't you point out that you used the old name in the previous article?
Rajinder Gill - Thursday, January 24, 2008 - link
Emenk,I have corrected the misname in the last review. In terms of trying to deceive readers - i think you could not be further from the truth. We are human and sometimes mistakes do slip through. In this case the results of the mistake are not likely to have caused a massive misconception that brings harm to the end user. I have searched the web for both GA-X48T-DQ6 reviews and DES write ups. Needless to say, the depth of our articles is far in excess in all instances and actually tells the truth as we see it. I have not seen anyone else get to grips with the DES or the BIOS in a way that we have managed at Anandtech. Sorry for the mistake, thanks for pointing it out.
regards
Raja
emenk - Friday, January 25, 2008 - link
Sorry, I did not mean to suggest that you were intentionally deceiving your readers - just that you were being careless with the mundane, simple facts. I'm not as experienced as some of your readers, but little mistakes can cause big problems for me trying to get started understanding the articles.I don't doubt that. For me, your article starts out too deep, though. (Well, actually, it starts out with fluff about Al Gore, etc., then suddenly goes too deep.) Someone in the forums pointed me to http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1272/gigabyte_s_...">this TweakTown article, which is a good introduction for me. Maybe you are targeting readers who would already know everything that was said in that article, but I didn't. Now that I have read that article, I am in a much better position to understand yours. I wasn't before.
I was frustrated earlier because I had been hoping to find basic background information about DES in the previous Anandtech GA-X48T-DQ6 review, but couldn't find the comment about DES (due to the mistake in the software's name) at first, then found it wasn't that helpful to me once I did find it.
I'm sorry if the mark-up codes I'm using here aren't the correct ones. I'm uses the same mark-up codes that work in the forum. The javascript isn't inserting them here for me.
slashbinslashbash - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - link
Why is it that motherboard manufacturers' overclocking software must always look like it comes out of a 3rd-rate sci-fi movie? Bulbous, way too colorful, with all kinds of buttons in odd places and not at all looking like a normal program that a normal person would want to use. It looks SO amateurish. All of the "real" software companies realized long ago that as long as we have 2D displays, it's going to be most efficient to have windows in the shape of rectangles instead of circles or other odd shapes. Give me a simple gray box with a few sliders, and the close/minimize/etc. buttons in their right positions, please!legoman666 - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - link
I agree whole heartedly. Enough of these "slick" apps. I want a box with some sliders and dials.mindless1 - Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - link
I third that notion, though Gigabyte seems to be worse in this respect than some others.