>I thought (bigger die ^ bigger wires -> more current -> higher consumption). All things being equal, a bigger die would result in more power consumption, but

>I thought (bigger die ^ bigger wires -> more current -> higher consumption). All things being equal, a bigger die would result in more power consumption, but the factor you're not considering is the voltage/frequency curve. As you increase the frequency, you also need to up the voltage. However, as you increase voltage, there's diminishing returns to how much you can increase the frequency, so you end up massively increasing power consumption to get minor performance gains.