Intel Woodcrest to feature better performance and power consumption than Opteron

The test compared current Opteron systems from Sun and Monarch based on an Opteron 285 (2.6 GHz) processor with a 3.0 GHz Woodcrest system. The systems apparently were comparable, however, the Woodcrest system used 4 GB FB DIMMs instead of the 4 GB of DDR memory of the Opterons, which would it at a slight disadvantage from the start in terms of power consumption - DDR2-based FB DIMMs consume more power than their DDR counterparts. The specifications - based on thermal design power (TDP) ratings - of the systems suggested that Woodcrest will ask for more and was put at a 261.6 watt to 241.2 watt disadvantage. Interestingly, the system used substantially less power in the tests that Eric Gomberg from Thomas Weisel Partners conducted.