Intel Sandy Bridge E Debuts Core I7 3960X Reviewed System Power Consumption

When left to idle the Intel power saving features only got us down to 104 watts, which is also roughly the same amount of power consumed by the AMD FX-8xxx series. Still, when compared to LGA1366 processors like the Core i7-920 and Core i7-965 EE, the new Core i7-3960X appears quite fuel efficient. Against the original Sandy Bridge chips though, the Core i7-3960X consumes over 50% more power under load, and over 35% when idle.