Yes. For my desktop, I only care if it's possible to make it quiet overall. For a laptop, I care about performance given the more restrictive cooling restrain

Yes. For my desktop, I only care if it's possible to make it quiet overall. For a laptop, I care about performance given the more restrictive cooling restraints of the form factor, and battery life (but that's secondary since I can usually use it plugged in anyway.) So efficiency matters (including under load), but it can't be your only deciding factor in deciding what to buy and use.