Core Duo power electric power usage

I had to auto shut down my old imac G5 every night to keep my electric bill from swelling. Now I have the Intel Core Duo imac and do the same thing. I was wondering;
Does having 2 processors use more or less electricity?
All things being equal will I see my electric bill go up or down?
Thanks;-)

For an otherwise-identical processor, two cores would take more power than one. But the new Intel chips, even with dual cores, use less power than the older PowerPC G5 processors. So your Intel-based Mac should, under identical setup (screen size, RAM, hard drive, peripherals), circumstances and usage, consume less power. Whether or not it will be enough for you to notice any change on your electric bill I can't say, though I'd rather doubt it since your computer is (unless you have an unusual household) a relatively small part of your overall electric usage.

Similar Messages

Macbook (not pro) Core Duo power management

Hey,
I pretty new to Arch, but not new to linux. I fell in love with Arch the first time I booted it of the CD for installation.
I decided to install Arch on my macbook, because I need linux for work. It works well, I don't have fan-speed problems or touchpad problems, but I do have power management issues. I have install and configured CPUFREQ, laptop-more, acpid and kpowersave and I made sure that all of those daemons are running and working. Powertop reports that with turned down backlight the wattage never drops below 17.8 which is too high. OSX uses about 11.
Now I expect the wattage to drop to 11watts but I just don't understand what hardware is causing trouble. Even with the pure, standard installation of ARCH I still get 17-18 watts of power consumption without any programs running (except for cpufreq and backlight-control).
It's driving me completely nuts. I recompiled kernels with all kinds of patches. Please, someone help me!
Kenny
P.S.: Now I heard that the new version of ubuntu uses fewer watts... what the hell is that all about??!
Last edited by knysng (2008-05-11 01:19:41)

CPU freq-scaling is working perfectly. I included cpufeq-info output while idling (doing absolutely nothing) and compiling a Kernel. The ondemand governor scales each CPU individually; sometimes CPU 1 is at 1.67 - 2.0 while CPU 2 is at 1.00 and visa versa every other second.
I don't think frequency scaling is the answer to this problem I'm having. I think it's other hardware that is not properly supported by this flavor of linux at the moment. Here is a list of things I looked at:
1. Bluetooth - subsystem removed from kernel; no modules running/installed that would interact with this piece of hardware
2. Touchpad - Mactel patch removed the high number of interupts
3. Wireless - uses about 1.7 - 2.2Watts; I don't want to/cannot turn this one off!
4. Graphics - Intel 950G on board; xf86-Video-Intel driver installed. I know about the DRI issue eating up Watts. Would like to keep this on because of compiz. about 1.5 - 1.9 Watts... unsure about this one.
5. iSight Camera - No drivers installed, not activated??!?!
6. FireWire - Doesn't make a difference. Nothing attached to any of the ports!
7. ......
IDLE:
cpufrequtils 002: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2006
Report errors and bugs to [email protected], please.
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 0
hardware limits: 1000 MHz - 2.00 GHz
available frequency steps: 2.00 GHz, 1.83 GHz, 1.67 GHz, 1.50 GHz, 1.33 GHz, 1000 MHz
available cpufreq governors: ondemand, powersave, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 1000 MHz and 2.00 GHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 1000 MHz.
analyzing CPU 1:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 1
hardware limits: 1000 MHz - 2.00 GHz
available frequency steps: 2.00 GHz, 1.83 GHz, 1.67 GHz, 1.50 GHz, 1.33 GHz, 1000 MHz
available cpufreq governors: ondemand, powersave, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 1000 MHz and 2.00 GHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 1000 MHz.
KERNEL COMPILATION:
cpufrequtils 002: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2006
Report errors and bugs to [email protected], please.
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 0
hardware limits: 1000 MHz - 2.00 GHz
available frequency steps: 2.00 GHz, 1.83 GHz, 1.67 GHz, 1.50 GHz, 1.33 GHz, 1000 MHz
available cpufreq governors: ondemand, powersave, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 1000 MHz and 2.00 GHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 2.00 GHz.
analyzing CPU 1:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 1
hardware limits: 1000 MHz - 2.00 GHz
available frequency steps: 2.00 GHz, 1.83 GHz, 1.67 GHz, 1.50 GHz, 1.33 GHz, 1000 MHz
available cpufreq governors: ondemand, powersave, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 1000 MHz and 2.00 GHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 1000 MHz.
LSMOD:
Module Size Used by
ipv6 250052 10
wlan_wep 6144 1
i915 28160 2
drm 72344 3 i915
firewire_ohci 16512 0
firewire_core 36928 1 firewire_ohci
crc_itu_t 2304 1 firewire_core
tpm_infineon 8744 0
i2c_i801 9232 0
tpm 12352 1 tpm_infineon
ohci1394 28720 0
pcspkr 2816 0
tpm_bios 6144 1 tpm
ieee1394 79160 1 ohci1394
appletouch 9088 0
i2c_core 19348 1 i2c_i801
video 16656 0
output 3200 1 video
intel_agp 23740 1
agpgart 28116 3 drm,intel_agp
sg 27572 0
joydev 10048 0
evdev 9344 13
hfsplus 73476 0
acpi_cpufreq 7564 1
snd_seq_oss 30208 0
snd_hda_intel 335896 1
snd_seq_midi_event 6656 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 48240 4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device 6796 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_hwdep 7428 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm_oss 38304 0
snd_pcm 68868 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 19848 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 8072 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
snd_mixer_oss 14720 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd 46244 11 snd_seq_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mixer_oss
soundcore 6240 1 snd
wlan_scan_sta 13440 1
ath_rate_sample 14336 1
ath_pci 231608 0
wlan 224368 5 wlan_wep,wlan_scan_sta,ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
ath_hal 249824 3 ath_rate_sample,ath_pci
sky2 40964 0
rtc_cmos 9248 0
rtc_core 15388 1 rtc_cmos
rtc_lib 3072 1 rtc_core
ext3 123400 1
jbd 40724 1 ext3
mbcache 7044 1 ext3
usbhid 42944 0
hid 39168 1 usbhid
ff_memless 5128 1 usbhid
sd_mod 23192 3
sr_mod 15172 0
cdrom 34080 1 sr_mod
ehci_hcd 33932 0
uhci_hcd 22288 0
usbcore 129904 5 appletouch,usbhid,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
ata_piix 17412 2
ata_generic 5636 0
pata_acpi 4992 0
libata 141840 3 ata_piix,ata_generic,pata_acpi
dock 7952 1 libata
Last edited by knysng (2008-05-14 11:57:43)

Core Duo 2 vs. Core Duo - Battery Power

Hey all,
I was wondering about battery power. Yes, they just upped the MB's so soon after they came out ut whatever, the only two things I'm concernend about are architecture, and battery power.
After I ran the fan augmentng firmware update I'm lucky to get 3:40 out of my MB. And they were advertised at what...5? The new ones are advertised at 6. So what do you all think, any real difference there?

Actually the battery power of a MacBook was advertised at around 4. I think you might have been getting mixed up with battery power, and how many times faster the MacBook Core Duo and the MacBook Core 2 Duo, are faster than the iBook.
The MacBook Core Duo is 5 times faster than the iBook. The MacBook Core 2 Duo is 6 times faster than the iBook. Also I am not quite sure about the battery life on the C2D's.

Power PC vs Intel Core Duo

Hi guys, I am in a process of buying a new computer... here are the two choices I am considering.
iMac G5
$1,499.00
Specifications
20-inch widescreen LCD
2.1GHz PowerPC G5
512MB memory (533MHz DDR2 SDRAM)
250GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load 8x double-layer SuperDrive
ATI Radeon X600 XT with 128MB DDR video memory
what I like
20 inch screen
big 250G hard drive
Price (1,699.00 for a Core duo w/ a 20in is over my budget)
iMac 1.83Ghz Intel Core Duo
$1,299.00
17-inch widescreen LCD with 1440x900 resolution
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo with 2MB shared L2 cache
512MB (single SO-DIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
160GB Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load 8x double-layer SuperDrive
ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB GDDR3 memory
Built-in AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
what I like
Best Price for an iMac
newer technology - Airport Extreme, Graphics Card etc.
Now the problem
I can't decide! Screen Size and HD space are important to me... but new technology at a cheaper price is VERY tempting!
Question is.... is Intel Core Duo THAT superior to PowerPC?
Please iMac gurus ....help me out!
Windows XP

well, how critical and powerful is your rig? i only use my imac g4 (soon to be the G5) for ideas and such, also to trade logic files back and forth w/ a friend of mine. live I don't use, nor do i have experience with that app. my buddy, however, has dual g4's and records live music, drums, guitars, etc and really needs that added power, so ask yourself, how much will you be running. if going for the whole live band thing, i would go with the power mac. currently the system has been reliable and proven and fast enough to handle most of your tasks. the intel is fast, but still has kinks and bugs in it, and not all apps, especially 3rd party are univeral yet. that my friend, will cause your music to suffer, and you do not want that.
the m-audio oxygen 8 is what i use, in addition to the tascam us-122. neither are unversal yet, and like i said i couldn't wait for them to be released, it was interuppting my productivity. and i didn't want to go with the firewire 410 (an excellent unit by the way) because it meant more money for me to spend!

Mac Mini Core Duo or Power Mac G5?

Ok, so I'm very excited that I'll be making another Mac purchase soon, but I don't have a lot of money.
What I would like to know, is basically whether to get a Mac Mini Core Duo (hooray for todays update) or a little older Power Mac G5 1.6 or 1.8 GHz.
Why the G5 you say? The case is beautiful! Also, it's a bit more upgradable.
I won't be doing a lot of demanding things, mostly internet, some light Photoshop CS, and other OS X features. With the G5, I won't get Boot Camp but that's why I have 3 other PCs.
So which seems more logical or sensible? Both are pretty close price-wise once I configure the Mini.
Thanks for any input! Just want to get some opinions.
(I also know what model G5 to look for with the increased FSB, RAM, etc. I'll only go for the 1.6GHz if the 1.8 offers a substantial performance boost.)

I have a G5 dual 2.0 (one of the original models) and while I don't own a dual core mini, I've had the chance to test a few of them as they have been bought and added to the networks I support. In my experience, the mini has been noticeably faster in pure processing terms, but the limitations of the slower drive speed makes a considerable difference when comparing systems running disk-intensive tasks.
Add that to the fact that as yet Photoshop is not universal and will thus run under Rosetta on the mini, and is in itself an application that uses considerable 'paging' activity (swapping data to and from the hard drive) and you would find that all else being equal, the G5 would generally surpass the mini's performance. The same would not be true of less disk-intensive applications running in native mode on the intel system, where sheer performance of the dual core system would beat out the G5.
Bear in mind however that RAM is a critical factor. Common experience at present suggests that Intel-based Macs typically require rather more RAM than PPC Macs, and you cannot afford to loose track of the fact that with software such as Photoshop, large, fast hard drives and lots of memory are often more critical than sheer power.
Also bear in mind when making a choice, that a G5 system will consume considerably more power and generate more heat as well as requiring more space. If these considerations are not important to you, then in my view at this time the drive speed, expandability and performance of a G5 running non-native power applications would make the older system a more attractive proposition - certainly for the short term.
To me, the real question would be how soon I would be anticipating replacing the system. Neither would cease to be viable in the next few years, but the more the system would cost to buy, the longer it would typically need to remain in service. If the G5 cost significantly more, it would generally be needed to stay in active service long after Photoshop has gone native and the power of a cheaper intel Mac outstripped the capabilities of the G5.

Mac Pro power usage (W)

I'm looking for an UPSi for my Mac Pro. Does anyone know how much power (watts) does Mac Pro uses when it's working full CPU load? I have 8-core 3GHz with X1900 XT graphics card.

You could use APC SMART-UPS 1000VA or the RS1500VA. There are lots of threads on UPS needs and demands.
The more RAM and drives, and PCIe cards, the higher.
Power Usage of Mac Pro It requires 410 watts to start up, idles at 300 watts, and peaks at 430 watts when running Doom 3, the most demanding power wise of the ten apps we tried.
The Mac Pro had 16GB of RAM, four internal hard drives, and a Radeon X1900 XT. We're confident the Mac Pro's 980 watt power supply can handle just about everything you can do to upgrade or expand a Mac Pro.
Mac Pro: Power consumption and thermal output (BTU) information
Update: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304378
Mac Pro (Late 2006) Quad Core 2.66 Ghz Mac Pro
Idle and max consumption:
171 W 445 W
854 BTU/hr 1,519 BTU/hr
Notes
*Power consumption data (Watts) is measured from the wall power source and includes all power supply and system losses.
Additional correction is not needed.
*"CPU Max" is defined as running a compute-intensive test application that maximizes processor usage and therefore power consumption.
*These numbers reflect a 23° C (73.4° F) ambient running environment. Increased ambient temperatures will require faster fan speeds which will increase power consumption.
At 35° C (95° F), 50 W should be added to reflect increased power consumption.
*1000W PSU do not deliver more than 500-600W effectively

PowerTop - no ACPI power usage estimate available

Hi,
I installed powertop package to find out what my power usage is. But when I start powertop and wait (hours..), it gives me no information about my power usage, of course I'm on battery:
PowerTOP version 1.13 (C) 2007 Intel Corporation
Cn Avg residency P-states (frequencies)
C0 (cpu running) ( 0.0%) 2.27 Ghz 1.6%
polling 31.8ms ( 0.3%) 2.14 Ghz 0.0%
C1 mwait 0.1ms ( 0.0%) 1466 Mhz 0.1%
C2 mwait 1.1ms ( 1.4%) 1333 Mhz 0.3%
C3 mwait 6.0ms (108.6%) 933 Mhz 98.0%
Wakeups-from-idle per second : 193.9 interval: 5.0s
no ACPI power usage estimate available
Top causes for wakeups:
34.7% ( 62.4) [i915] <interrupt>
12.8% ( 23.0) kworker/0:1
11.9% ( 21.4) kworker/0:0
10.9% ( 19.6) [ath9k] <interrupt>
6.2% ( 11.2) [kernel core] hrtimer_start (tick_sched_timer)
5.6% ( 10.0) kworker/u:1
btw. What about my wakeups, is it OK ?
My laptop is Asus A52f.
Thanks in advance.

I've been affected too and the proc -> sysfs 'reaffirmation' of sorts was my first thought.
Still my issue lies somewhere in between. Powertop simply displays wrong output, now saying my old laptop lasts around 47 hours @ 1 Watt when fully charged -- either that, or my laptop did found the key to ultimate power consumption efficiency while I was sleeping. Damn Transformer.

Looking for a power usage app..

Seems like I have done everything I know of or could find in fourms to reduce the apps that are using up power on my iPhone 3GS.
Does anyone know of an APP that will tell me what APPS or services are using up power?
Thanks...
~Charlie

Hi Charlie,
Many misunderstand how multitasking actually works on iOS. Although you will see apps on your Multitasking tray (when you double press the home button), those are not actually running as they are in a "suspended/saved" state. Be advised that once an app is in this state, it uses virtually no battery power.
Here's an [extremely good rundown by another user of how Mutlitasking works|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12719950#12719950].
Perhaps you have worn down the battery in your phone. Battery capacity eventually degrades, but you can slow or reduce the process by following [some basic care steps|http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html].
To answer your question directly, there is no such app that will provide you with information on the power usage of another app as it would really all be zero. There are some services, such as location services, that can reduce your battery if turned on and being actively used though.
-SM

K8MM3 and Sempron 3300+, power usage

Setup (in an old box) : I am using a K8MM3-V mainboard with a Sempron 3300+ with an older power supply (for a P4 and 300W) that rates 12V at 12A, Maxtor 250G SATA HDD, RAM 512 Kingston, floppy and a DVD player.
Anyway, after booting on a Windows XP Pro disk and installing the provided SATA drivers, XP happily copies the setup files etc to the HDD and reboots (as it is supposed to). Once the box reboots I get the XP running screen and then get the dreaded blue screen of death. Checking the HDD with another computer shows that the HDD and data appear fine.
Previous emails to this forum with similar problems seemed to indicate that the PSU was the problem. All the information I can find on power usage seems to be pretty vague, so after checking various web pages it appears that the Sempron uses roughly 62W which is very close to the Pentium4 1.6 (that I previously ran) at 61W. Also, the 144A (is that correct Amps x Voltage ?) available on 12V rail should be enough, so I am stumped at where the problem could be, or have I totally missed the point on PSUs ?. Any other clues where the problem could be ?

Try something with at least 24a on the 12v rail. A64's are notably power hungry. For that matter so are all the newer CPU's no matter what brand.

Monitoring Switch Power Usage with SNMP

Hello everyone,
I have searched high and low, and yet I am still confused as to how to do this... Is there a uniform MIB that can be interrogated, regardless of the switching platform? Or are there specific MIB's for each switch family..?

Monitoring overall power usage may depend on platform and software. There are MIBs such as the CISCO-ENERGYWISE-MIB (if you are using EnergyWise), CISCO-ENVMON-MIB (for voltage information), and CISCO-ENTITY-FRU-CONTROL-MIB (for volatage sensor information).

Why I change the energy level of port in PoE switch, the power usage of port no anyt change

I am enable the EnergyWise on a 3560, plug a IP Phone to a port, the result of the power usage read by SNMP is 6kw, when i change the energy level from 10 to 0 by SNMP, the LCD on IP Phone is goes to dark and phone cannot be use, but when I get the power usage of port by SNMP again, the result still is 6kw. Can anyone tell me why?

This project is just a short animation so every time I import the stills they are of the wrong duration so I try changing the duration by the other methods described previously, fail to be able to do that, erase everything from the project, restart and start again, initially with the preferences. So there's nothing for the still frames to conflict with. It's not the fact that there is a batch of stills that is the problem either as I keep experimenting with with single or small groups of stills in that context. I've also tried importing a variety of still formats into other projects. This is fairly new software. Could this be an incurable fault?
1.25GHz Power PC G4 1MB L3 cache Mac OS X (10.4.9) 80GHz hard drive 1.5 GHz Ram plus Firewire 400 250 GHz la Cie external hard dri

What version of FCP runs best on a PRE-INTEL dual core G5 Power-Mac?

What version of FCP runs best on a PRE-INTEL dual core G5 Power-Mac?

FCP 5.0, 5.1 or FCP 6 will work fine with your G5 and OS.
-DH

10.4.9 increases sleep power usage from 2 to 3 watts

I installed 10.4.9 on an Intel Mac mini 1.66 GHz. After the update was installed power usage displayed by the Kill-a-Watt shows that the Mac mini now uses 3 watts in sleep mode. Before the update it used 2 watts.
Does anyone know what changed in 10.4.9 that would require more power usage in sleep mode?
Thank you!

Based on your response, I removed all USB devices except the keyboard and tried sleep again. It was back to 2 watts. I then attached a single USB card reader and tried sleep mode again. It is still at 2 watts now. Apparently, removing the USB devices and plugging them back in after a few minutes changed the sleep mode power usage back to the old 2 watts.
Something in the 10.4.9 update seems to have impacted power usage if USB devices are connected during the update. It is nice that the power usage goes back to normal after unplugging all the USB devices.

Safari and Mapquest Power Usage

I have noticed that when I am using Safari and surfing through the Mapquest website, the power usage of Safari goes up to 90%. Anybody else noticing this?

I get about 40-45% CPU load here. I looked at the site's code, and it's abhorrent. The javascript is all over the place, malformed, and needs a total rewrite to even resemble something similar to reasonable (X)HTML.
..k

IPod Touch - Adapter Power Usage

Hi everyone. I was wondering how much power (in Watts) is required to power an iPod through a USB wall adapter. In addition, if I'm just using a USB cable from my iPod to a car power adapter, how much is power (in Watts) is required through that source? The reason I need to know this information is because I will have a Macbook Pro plugged into a car power inverter and an iPod Touch as well either through another wall adapter or through the USB port located on the power inverter. If anyone can provide some information regarding the power usage, it'll be greatly appreciated!

That's all I could find with any information about power usage. Even the specifications page mentions nothing:
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP496
Unless you've got one of those plug-in energy usage monitors and can test it yourself, I don't know how else you'll find out, as Apple don't seem to publish the figures.
Other links I found are these:
http://www.apple.com/environment/resources/calculator.html
http://www.apple.com/environment/resources/environmentalperformance.html
but nothing specific to the iPod touch there.

Core Duo power electric power usage

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for