Intel Shows Off Broadwell's Low-Power Consumption

Though we're still waiting on many Intel 4th Generation Core "Haswell" systems to arrive, Intel has already moved on and is preparing its next-generation Broadwell CPU. While yesterday at IDF, CEO Brian Krzanick held up a fanless Broadwell laptop and showed that it had "Cut the Rope" running on it, today executive Kirk Skaugen showcased the upcoming platform's low power ability.

During his keynote address this morning, Skaugen showed a lightweight notebook with a low-power Haswell Y chip in it next to an identical system with a Broadwell Y chip inside. While running the CPU-intensive Cinebench test on both systems, he projected a power meter on screen, which displayed both processor's power consumption. While the Haswell Y chip was using around 6.8 watts while the 14nm Broadwell chip was using only 4.8 watts for the same task.  

Skaugen noted that this test was conducted on a Broadwell laptop that hasn't been tuned for power efficiency in any way so the actual numbers will be even better when the platform launches next year.

Note enough chips for you? Intel also unveiled its new Bay Trail mobile CPU at this year's IDF. During our hands-on time with a tablet running the 22nm Atom chip proved that it will offer impressive performance. 

Avram Piltch
Online Editorial Director
The official Geeks Geek, as his weekly column is titled, Avram Piltch has guided the editorial and production of Laptopmag.com since 2007. With his technical knowledge and passion for testing, Avram programmed several of LAPTOP's real-world benchmarks, including the LAPTOP Battery Test. He holds a master's degree in English from NYU.