Overclocking, Power Consumption

The Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 proved to be an exceptional overclocker as we were able to push the processor to 4.0GHz using a basic air-cooled setup. In order to reach this frequency the FSB speed was increased from 333MHz to 400MHz, leaving the clock multiplier intact at 10x, and then using a slight CPU voltage adjustment (up to 1.4375v). While this may sound a bit extreme, the processor stress temperature went from around 55 degrees at 3.0GHz to just 65 degrees at 4.0GHz with the extra voltage.

We found the QX9650 to consume 23% less power when compared to the QX6850. In fact the QX9650 used 7% less power than the Q6600 which carries 4MB less of cache and operates 600MHz slower. We also saw the QX9650 using only 12% more power than the X6800 despite featuring a similar operating frequency and two more cores! So we can safely say that the efficiency of the QX9650 (and the Penryn architecture) is by far the best we have seen out of any Core 2 processor thus far.

If you enjoy our content, please consider subscribing.
  • Ad-free TechSpot experience while supporting our work
  • Our promise: All reader contributions will go toward funding more content
  • That means: More tech features, more benchmarks and analysis