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Higher idle power consumption is more common on AMD CPUs (I think it's inherent to their design). I don't think intel CPUs consume nearly as much power when idl

Higher idle power consumption is more common on AMD CPUs (I think it's inherent to their design). I don't think intel CPUs consume nearly as much power when idle. Oddly enough, AMD GPUs also have the same problem under certain conditions (multiple monitors, or high refresh rates can result in 100w idle GPU power ) But I agree that the power consumption figures under load are a bit nuts, and intel/amd now seem to be eager to double max power use if it means they can squeeze 5% more performance out of the die.

neogodless 4y ago
Anecdote: With me using my computer, 2 x 27" QHD 144Hz monitors, my AMD GPU is using 28W, while the CPU is using 18W. (Radeon RX 6700XT 12GB, Ryzen 9 5900X 12-core) I know the Zen 4 / Ryzen 7000X use a lot more power, as they are designed to pull power and use all available thermal headroom all day!
- formerly_proven 4y ago
  Which number are you looking at? 18 W idle for a 5900X is very low. 30-40 W is typical for these. Your system is probably not configured correctly, is using slow RAM or you're looking at something other than package power. GPU idle power seems quite high though, but as I understand most AMD GPUs struggle with power management with more than one monitor connected (no experience here, last AMD GPU was 2012).
  - neogodless 4y ago
    If you mean PPT then yes, that's closer to 40W. CPU Power is 15-20W. SOC Power shows 17W. The RAM is DDR4-3600 CAS16 running at 1800Mhz, which I don't believe is slow. GPU is "relatively" idly but just having Ryzen Master or Adrenaline open and displaying these values means it is not truly idle.
  - AshamedCaptain 4y ago
    18w idle is rather normal for what the ryzenmaster monitoring software will report (which I believe is PPT) . On Intel for PPT you will usually measure 0-5W -- AMD idle power consumption is really bad on desktops.
- AshamedCaptain 4y ago
  A 6700xt should idle at 6-7w with only one monitor. If it idles at 28w it means there is something it doesn't like about your monitors that forces it to keep the memory clocks at max. Try setting them at the same resolution, refresh rate, and depth/bpc).
  - neogodless 4y ago
    The monitors are nearly identical (slightly different Acer models) but the settings are identical (same resolution, refresh rate, depth/bpc.) VRAM clocks are 1990Mhz.
    - AshamedCaptain 4y ago
      I had a similar situation with two identical monitors except for some reason one of them was a slightly newer revision (same model!) and had an EDID that made it look as an 10bpc panel instead of 8bpc like the older revision. Setting both to 8bpc reduced the idle power consumption by 4x. If you are on windows, you may need some additional tool to be able to change the bpc (the AMD control panel applet works too).
brokenmachine 4y ago
They're very close actually, at least at stock frequency. https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_ryzen_9_7900_processor_review,6.html https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_ryzen_9_7900_proce... Both Intel 12900k and AMD 7900 are 78W idle. So it's basically neck-and-neck on idle power because those CPUs are around the same performance. Where the power usage is crazy different is multicore load, 320W for the Intel vs 158W for AMD. edit: actually an AMD 7900X is 299W on MC load. A 7900X is 15% faster on MC than a 7900. So Intel and AMD seem quite similar on power usage.
justinclift 4y ago
> Higher idle power consumption is more common on ... On that note, the new-ish ATX12VO standard Intel has been pushing apparently allows for motherboards with much lower idle power consumption: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX#ATX12VO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX#ATX12VO https://hackaday.com/2021/06/07/intels-atx12vo-standard-a-study-in-increasing-computer-power-supply-efficiency/ https://hackaday.com/2021/06/07/intels-atx12vo-standard-a-st... Sounds like a win if it becomes reasonably widely used.

neogodless 4y ago

Anecdote: With me using my computer, 2 x 27" QHD 144Hz monitors, my AMD GPU is using 28W, while the CPU is using 18W. (Radeon RX 6700XT 12GB, Ryzen 9 5900X 12-core) I know the Zen 4 / Ryzen 7000X use a lot more power, as they are designed to pull power and use all available thermal headroom all day!

formerly_proven 4y ago
Which number are you looking at? 18 W idle for a 5900X is very low. 30-40 W is typical for these. Your system is probably not configured correctly, is using slow RAM or you're looking at something other than package power. GPU idle power seems quite high though, but as I understand most AMD GPUs struggle with power management with more than one monitor connected (no experience here, last AMD GPU was 2012).
- neogodless 4y ago
  If you mean PPT then yes, that's closer to 40W. CPU Power is 15-20W. SOC Power shows 17W. The RAM is DDR4-3600 CAS16 running at 1800Mhz, which I don't believe is slow. GPU is "relatively" idly but just having Ryzen Master or Adrenaline open and displaying these values means it is not truly idle.
- AshamedCaptain 4y ago
  18w idle is rather normal for what the ryzenmaster monitoring software will report (which I believe is PPT) . On Intel for PPT you will usually measure 0-5W -- AMD idle power consumption is really bad on desktops.
AshamedCaptain 4y ago
A 6700xt should idle at 6-7w with only one monitor. If it idles at 28w it means there is something it doesn't like about your monitors that forces it to keep the memory clocks at max. Try setting them at the same resolution, refresh rate, and depth/bpc).
- neogodless 4y ago
  The monitors are nearly identical (slightly different Acer models) but the settings are identical (same resolution, refresh rate, depth/bpc.) VRAM clocks are 1990Mhz.
  - AshamedCaptain 4y ago
    I had a similar situation with two identical monitors except for some reason one of them was a slightly newer revision (same model!) and had an EDID that made it look as an 10bpc panel instead of 8bpc like the older revision. Setting both to 8bpc reduced the idle power consumption by 4x. If you are on windows, you may need some additional tool to be able to change the bpc (the AMD control panel applet works too).

brokenmachine 4y ago

They're very close actually, at least at stock frequency. https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_ryzen_9_7900_processor_review,6.html https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_ryzen_9_7900_proce... Both Intel 12900k and AMD 7900 are 78W idle. So it's basically neck-and-neck on idle power because those CPUs are around the same performance. Where the power usage is crazy different is multicore load, 320W for the Intel vs 158W for AMD. edit: actually an AMD 7900X is 299W on MC load. A 7900X is 15% faster on MC than a 7900. So Intel and AMD seem quite similar on power usage.

justinclift 4y ago

> Higher idle power consumption is more common on ... On that note, the new-ish ATX12VO standard Intel has been pushing apparently allows for motherboards with much lower idle power consumption: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX#ATX12VO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX#ATX12VO https://hackaday.com/2021/06/07/intels-atx12vo-standard-a-study-in-increasing-computer-power-supply-efficiency/ https://hackaday.com/2021/06/07/intels-atx12vo-standard-a-st... Sounds like a win if it becomes reasonably widely used.