9. Representative Office Application

By playing the identical PowerPoint presentation in a loop and simultaneously logging the aforementioned CPU parameters along the way, we produced the values shown in the following charts.

The paths of these curves show unambiguously how AMD's energy-saving Powernow technology works. When the application needs more CPU power, the processor raises the core clock and core voltage with lightning speed. This behavior shows clearly in the peaks on the traces for core voltage and core clock in our diagrams. More performance is needed during presentation playback when graphics and text must be merged or when transition effects cause slide contents and images to move into position from the edges of the display into its center. When the application requires less computing power, both parameters return to their typical minimum values. The mean for the CPU load for all three CPUs runs at about 16%. But it's also clearly noticeable that the Mobile Sempron 2800+ must switch clock and voltage rates more often. This is most likely a result of managing its L2 cache, which is significantly smaller than the Turion 64's, and forces the Sempron to access RAM more frequently for input data. This behavior also requires additional power, which thereby shortens battery life. Anybody who runs lots of animated presentations on a notebook will presumably be in a slightly better position with a Turion 64 notebook at his or her disposal.