Test System, Power Consumption

Intel Sandy Bridge-EP System Specs
  • Intel Xeon E5-2670 (2.6GHz - 3.3GHz)
  • Intel Xeon E5-2670 (2.6GHz - 3.3GHz)
  • Asrock Rack EP2C602
  • G.Skill 64GB DDR3-1866 RAM
  • GeForce GTX 980 Ti
  • Crucial MX200 1TB
  • Corsair RM Series RM100x 1000w
  • Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
AMD Vishera System Specs
  • AMD FX-8350 (4.2GHz - 4.40GHz)
  • Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional
  • G.Skill 8GB DDR3-2400 RAM
  • GeForce GTX 980 Ti
  • Crucial MX200 1TB
  • Corsair RM Series RM100x 1000w
  • Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Intel Haswell System Specs
  • Intel Core i5-4670K (3.4GHz - 3.8GHz)
  • Asrock Z97 Extreme6
  • G.Skill 8GB DDR3-2400 RAM
  • GeForce GTX 980 Ti
  • Crucial MX200 1TB
  • Corsair RM Series RM100x 1000w
  • Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Intel Haswell-E System Specs
  • Intel Core i7-5960X (3.0GHz)
  • Asrock Z97 Extreme6
  • G.Skill 16GB DDR4-2400 RAM
  • GeForce GTX 980 Ti
  • Crucial MX200 1TB
  • Corsair RM Series RM100x 1000w
  • Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Intel Skylake System Specs
  • Intel Core i7-6700K (4.0GHz - 4.2GHz)
  • Asrock Z170 Gaming K6+
  • G.Skill 16GB DDR4-2666 RAM
  • GeForce GTX 980 Ti
  • Crucial MX200 1TB
  • Corsair RM Series RM100x 1000w
  • Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

With all cores active, the Xeon E5-2670's operating frequency is 13% lower than that of the Core i7-5960X. Keep in mind that the 5960X is built around a much newer and more power-efficient CPU architecture - yet the E5-2670 consumed 18% less power in the Prime95 stress test. Of course the motherboard can also account for quite a bit of power usage, but even so, this is an impressive result for the E5-2670.

Throwing in a second E5-2670 for a 16-core load, we see the power consumption jump to 343 watts, which is just over 80% more than what we saw with the single Xeon.

The Hybrid power consumption results are similar to those seen when testing with Prime 95. That said, the dual Xeons aren't being stressed quite as much, though we still see a 75% increase in power consumption when moving to dual processors. Still, the 302 watt draw isn't all that crazy, as the dual Xeons only consumed 33% more power than a single 5960X.

Finally, we see a 74% increase in power consumption when adding a second Xeon E5-2670 processor and the duo consumed 40% more power than the 5960X.