Legit Processor Reviews

Intel Core i3-2120 3.3GHz Sandy Bridge Processor Review

Manufacturer: Intel
Product: BX80623I32120
Date: Thu, Jul 07, 2011 - 12:00 AM
Written By: Nathan Kirsch -
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Power Consumption

CPU 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 identical power supplies, Solid-Sate Drives, Memory kits and motherboards from the same company. 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, Prime95's in-place large FFT's were run on all cores to make sure each and every processor was at 100% load for maximum power consumption and heat. Curious about other test  scenarios, we decided to 3DMark Vantage the performance preset and took the maximum power consumption during the first GPU test. We also tested a video transcode using HandBrake 0.95 to see how the power draw on that was.

ASUS F1A75-M Pro System Power Consumption

Benchmark Results: Power consumption shocked us a bit as we found that the Intel Core i3-2120 used less power than the Core i3-2105 processor in all four of our test scenarios.  Both Core i3 processors have a maximum TDP of 65 Watts, so the only logical conclusion that we can come to is that the Intel Core i3-2120 uses less power due to the use of Intel HD Graphics 2000. The Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU uses 12 execution units versus the 6 used on Intel HD Graphics 2000. Since there are twice as many execution units on the Core i3-2105 it makes sense to why it uses more power than the Core i3-2120 even though is has a higher CPU clock frequency. 

Next Page - Intel Core i3-2120 Overclocking


Review Index
Page 1 - Intel Core i3-2120 CPU - BX80623I32120
Page 2 - The Test System
Page 3 - CPU-Z, GPU-Z and Windows Index Score
Page 4 - Sisoft Sandra 2011 SP3
Page 5 - x264 HD Encoding
Page 6 - Handbrake
Page 7 - CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5
Page 8 - POV-Ray 3.7 RC3
Page 9 - Cinebench R11.5
Page 10 - Hyper Pi
Page 11 - PCMark 7
Page 12 - 3DMark Vantage
Page 13 - Resident Evil 5
Page 14 - H.A.W.X. 2 Benchmark
Page 15 - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
Page 16 - Power Consumption
Page 17 - Intel Core i3-2120 Overclocking
Page 18 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions