You can probably shave off another .2W by disabling the HDMI and LEDs, but an RPi3 at load will probably be at 4+W from the wall. At the same time, you're comp

You can probably shave off another .2W by disabling the HDMI and LEDs, but an RPi3 at load will probably be at 4+W from the wall. At the same time, you're comparing the power consumption of lets say 10 whole RPis/platforms to the consumption of a single processor. Stick that processor in a platform (laptop), and it's going to use much more than 40W. Like you said, you get a lot more with the laptop, but given your benchmark (10x difference), my guess is that 10x RPis would still be more power efficient than a laptop with a 6700HQ at that specific task.