Despite being an integral part of Intel's product stack, reviews of the lower power models are few and far between. For those of us that have no interest in overclocking, the lower power parts can offer similar stock performance to the big boys but at 65W and 35W. Today we are testing three chips available from Newegg at $135, $215 and $315.

Not All CPUs are Alike

While Intel's CPU naming scheme is finally starting to make sense to home system builders, their product stack consists mainly of generic numbers in either Celeron, Pentium, i3, i5 or i7 format unless someone sits down and explains the trend to the individual. These models are clearly defined whereby a bigger number tends to mean more frequency. With this general stack of names, there are sometimes models that come with extra letters. Overclockers already know the K and the X models as having their multiplier unlocked for extra potential, but for other CPUs we have T and S destinations. (Xeons also use the letter L, and mobile chips have H/Y/U.)

Simply put, T is used for 35W/45W models and S is for 65W models. The S models tend to have similar single core performance to their normal cousins, but reach 65W by reducing the multicore frequency when the CPU is loaded. The T models reduce both single core and multicore frequency to hit their 35W or 45W, but tend to be a little more esoteric in their position in the stack.

In general there are two ways to reduce the TDP on a CPU. We can either reduce frequency (easy) or reduce voltage (difficult). Reducing the voltage results in more of a change in power consumption, but the best way to tackle this is when Intel performs its binning process.

When a manufacturer creates a wafer of CPUs, these have to be tested for accuracy of calculations, functions, and the voltage/frequency response. It is this latter characteristic which matters most when determining what product in the stack it should be. The units with the highest frequency for the lowest voltage (on a scale) tend to be reserved for the fastest processors or Xeons. Note that it is not only a single data point being tested, but a whole scale from low frequency to high frequency. The unit has to match an entire line to be sufficient for that designation. Where the low power CPUs come in is that they follow a particular line at a potentially lower voltage range than expected.

There have been reports of the regular branding of CPUs being reduced in frequency and matching the stability of the S/T processors. That is entirely possible, as a unit can be a member of many bins at the same time. At the end of the day, when you purchase a lower power processor, you are essentially guaranteed that level of performance and TDP by the processor manufacturer.

The Product Stack

To represent Intel's Haswell line-up, I want single out where the S and T processors stack up against their normal counterparts. Thus is made somewhat difficult by the Haswell refresh earlier this year which caused a frequency bump in most models, but both pre-refresh and post-refresh processors are still up for sale in most markets.

Intel Haswell T CPUs
  Cores / Threads TDP L3 Base
Frequency
Turbo
Frequency
OEM Price
i3-4130T 2 / 4 35W 3MB 2900   $122
i3-4150T 2 / 4 35W 3MB 3000   $117
i3-4160T 2 / 4 35W 3MB 3100   $117
i3-4330T 2 / 4 35W 4MB 3000   $138
i3-4350T 2 / 4 35W 4MB 3100   $138
i3-4360T 2 / 4 35W 4MB 3200   $138
i5-4460T 4 / 4 35W 6MB 1900 2700 $182
i5-4570T 2 / 4 35W 4MB 2900 3600 $192
i5-4590T 4 / 4 35W 6MB 2000 3000 $192
i5-4670T 4 / 4 45W 6MB 2300 3300 $213
i5-4690T 4 / 4 45W 6MB 2500 3500 $213
i7-4765T 4 / 8 35W 8MB 2000 3000 $303
i7-4770T 4 / 8 45W 8MB 2500 3700 $303
i7-4785T 4 / 8 35W 8MB 2200 3200 $303
i7-4790T 4 / 8 45W 8MB 2700 3900 $303

 

Intel Haswell S CPUs
  Cores / Threads TDP L3 Base
Frequency
Turbo
Frequency
OEM Price
i5-4430S 4 / 4 65W 6MB 2700 3200 $182
i5-4460S 4 / 4 65W 6MB 2900 3400 $182
i5-4570S 4 / 4 65W 6MB 2900 3600 $192
i5-4590S 4 / 4 65W 6MB 3000 3700 $192
i5-4670S 4 / 4 65W 6MB 3100 3800 $213
i5-4690S 4 / 4 65W 6MB 3200 3900 $213
i7-4770S 4 / 8 65W 8MB 3100 3900 $303
i7-4790S 4 / 8 65W 8MB 3200 4000 $303

If we do direct comparison with a few of the S processors with their non-S counterparts, we see their main difference is just the multicore frequency to drive the TDP down.

Intel Haswell S CPU Comparison
  Cores / Threads TDP L3 Base
Frequency
Turbo
Frequency
OEM Price
i5-4590S 4 / 4 65W 6MB 3000 3700 $192
i5-4590 4 / 4 84W 6MB 3300 3700 $192
i7-4770S 4 / 8 65W 8MB 3100 3900 $303
i7-4770 4 / 8 84W 8MB 3400 3900 $303

With the T processors, we see a more aggressive trend especially with the i7 range.

Intel Haswell T CPU Comparison
  Cores / Threads TDP L3 Base
Frequency
Turbo
Frequency
OEM Price
i3-4160T 2 / 4 35W 3MB 3100   $117
i3-4160 2 / 4 54W 3MB 3600   $117
i7-4770T 4 / 8 45W 8MB 2500 3700 $303
i7-4770 4 / 8 84W 8MB 3400 3900 $303

The i7 35W processors have always been a fascination of mine (much like the 65W 12-core Xeon we reviewed earlier in the year). Ultimately these are best for work flow that can use multicore processing but the code has significant memory delays. This reduces the idle time per core and uses less power.

The purpose of this review is to see how these processors compare to those we have already tested. We currently have a good spread of the Haswell range, and all the results can be found in our online benchmark comparison database, Bench.

Test Setup

Test Setup
Processor
Intel Core i3-4130T 35W 2C/4T 2.9 GHz
Intel Core i5-4570S 65W 4C/4T 2.0 GHz / 3.0 GHz
Intel Core i7-4790S 65W 4C/8T 2.7 GHz / 3.7 GHz
Motherboards ASUS Z97 Pro
MSI B85M Eco
Cooling Cooler Master Nepton 140XL
Power Supply OCZ 1250W Gold ZX Series
Memory G.Skill RipjawsZ 4x4 GB DDR3-1600 9-11-9 Kit
Memory Settings 1600 9-11-9-27 1T tRFC 240
Video Cards MSI GTX 770 Lightning 2GB (1150/1202 Boost)
Video Drivers NVIDIA Drivers 337
Hard Drive OCZ Vertex 3 256GB
Optical Drive LG GH22NS50
Case Open Test Bed
Operating System Windows 7 64-bit SP1

Load Delta Power Consumption

Power consumption was tested on the system while in a single MSI GTX 770 Lightning GPU configuration with a wall meter connected to the OCZ 1250W power supply. This power supply is Gold rated, and as I am in the UK on a 230-240 V supply, leads to ~75% efficiency > 50W, and 90%+ efficiency at 250W, suitable for both idle and multi-GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency.

We take the power delta difference between idle and load as our tested value, giving an indication of the power increase from the CPU when placed under stress.

Power Consumption Delta: Idle to AVX

Power consumption for our i3 and i5 samples were near on the mark, whereas the i7-4790S scored 102W from idle to AVX. This is more than the i7-4770K, which might come across as a bit alarming.

We also have some full system power draw numbers from the MSI B85M ECO review, while using a Rosewill Silent Night 500W Platinum power supply. These are still in the 5% power used range for the unit, so efficiency is still around 70-80%.

Power Consumption w/Integrated Graphics

Load Delta Temperature on Intel Stock Cooler

At request from some of our readers on Twitter, we also measured the temperature delta from idle to load on the stock Intel cooler.

Temperature Delta: Idle to AVX

CPU and Web Performance
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  • Wolfpup - Friday, December 12, 2014 - link

    I'm actually looking at an HP all in one (for a kitchen computer) that has an S series CPU, and was wondering what the heck it was.

    35 watts for a dual core Haswell @ at least 2.9GHz is actually really impressive when you think about it. I still can't help but compare everything to my 125-watt single core 3.4GHz Prescott from ten years ago. That's a ton more performance crammed in to about 1/4 the power :) Also seems like the 35 watt parts are basically like the normal mobile parts are (before low end systems switched from 35 and 45 watt cpus to 15-19 watt ULV CPUs practically across the board)
  • samer1970 - Saturday, December 13, 2014 - link

    Hello,

    can you please run the benchmarks again for the xeons with HT disabled? i want to see how the 65Watts 12 cores compares to the 6 cores i7 with hyperthreading disabled on the 12 cores one.

    that is 12 cores xeon at 1.8 ht disabled versus 6 cores at 3.6 with ht enabled , which is lolgically 1.8 with ht but at 140w
  • FYoung - Saturday, December 13, 2014 - link

    It would be beneficial to Anandtech and its readers to edit articles like this more closely. It has multiple instances of confusing wording and wordiness.

    I mean this as constructive criticism in case it escaped your attention, in the hope that Anandtech will not let its standards slip.
  • LoneWolf15 - Sunday, December 14, 2014 - link

    For future articles like this, can you post the integrated graphics? It can be crucial to people building an HTPC.
  • LoneWolf15 - Sunday, December 14, 2014 - link

    Clarification: can you post the model of IGP (4400,4600) in your charts? This can be very useful for someone who is saving power by not having a discrete GPU but wants the best Intel offers.
  • coder543 - Sunday, December 21, 2014 - link

    I don't know why you're using Linux-Bench. Phoronix Test Suite (PTS) is *the* well-established benchmark suite for Linux, and it can test a wide range of applications and synthetic benchmarks in a completely automated fashion.

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