Intel Core i5-750 and Core i7-870 Processors

Power Consumption

Since power consumption is a big deal these days, we ran some simple power consumption tests on our test beds. The systems ran with the power supplies, case fan, video card and hard drive model. To measure idle usage, we ran the system at idle for one hour on the desktop with no screen saver and took the measurement. For load measurements, POV-Ray 3.7 was run on all cores to make sure each and every processor was at 100% load. Both processors were tested on a system using identical hardware.

Results: The power supply that we have dedicated to just our CPU testing systems recently failed and is no longer in production. Since we had to the change power supply all the power consumption results of the processors will have to be re-tested. The Intel Core i7 870 and Core i5 750 processors both idle around 132-134W, but the peak power consumption at 100% CPU load was very different. The Intel Core i7 870 consumed 233W at load, while the Core i5 750 consumed just 199W.