Upgrading my PC from Intel i9-9900K to AMD 7950X3D halved the energy cost

[Steven P. Administrators]

You may remember my PC build post from late May

I finally managed to upgrade and switch in July to a 7950X3D build.

I can hardly believe it, but I have saved roughly HALF the amount of energy costs by upgrading from an Intel i9-9900K build to an AMD 7950X3D.

My previous system consisted of the following:

• Be quiet! Pure Base 600 ATX (black) with tinted glass and optional metal side panel
• Be quiet! Straight Power 11 550W, 80 Plus Gold (in hindsight this should have been 650W minimum)
• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO WIFI (with Gigabyte TPM Module 2.0)
• Intel Core i9-9900K
• Cryorig H7 CPU cooler
• 64 GB G.Skill DDR4 Ripjaws-V 3200Mhz (4 x 16 GB)
• KFA2 RTX 2070 SUPER (8 GB DDR6)
• C:\ Samsung 980 1 TB PCIe 3.0
• D:\ Intel 660P 1 TB PCIe 3.0
• E:\ Samsung 870 Qvo 2TB SSD
• F:\ LG BH10LS38 (CD/DVD/BluRay writer)

New PC

• Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic EVO (midtower ATX)
• be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850W
• ASROCK X670E Steel Legend
• AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
• NZXT Kraken 360 RGB (liquid)
• 64 GB Kingston FURY Beast RGB DDR5 6000MHz (in EXPO profile)
• GeForce RTX™ 4070 Ti VENTUS 3X 12G
• WD Black SN850X 1TB
• Lexar 2TB NM710 PCIe 4.0 Gen 4
• Samsung 870 QVO 4TB

I started using the new PC from July because I had to send it back in June due to a faulty MSI MAG B650 TOMAHAWK WIFI motherboard, which I swapped out for the Steel Legend.

In the (powerstrip) plug that is measured:

• Main PC
• Samsung Odyssey G9 Neo 49" Ultrawide
• Samsung wireless Fast Charger
• A spare extension I use to test review equipment that I reviewed (mostly Mini PCs and NAS)

Look at July and August which are typical where the PC is on between 09:00 and 01:00 and some days I might leave it on overnight, but not more than a couple of days in a month.

September is skewed because I changed the WiFi password and didn't update the smart plugs between Sep 6-18.

Side note: In July I had my old PC on a few times all day to set it up for resale, so I am looking forward to comparing the new build to more months.

Savings

Average per kWh cost right now is €0,39 which is roughly what I can expect to pay from Jan 1 2024 (I'm on a lower 3 year tarif right now that is coming to an end) but this translates to roughly saving €187.20 per jaar based on my average use.

[hellowalkman Reporter]

that's great considering you went from an 8 core to a 16 core. The equivalent 13900K/12900K from Intel would have seen it hover around the same as your 9900K, maybe a bit higher actually.

[norseman81]

What are you using to measure the power draw? 12700K user here.

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 27/09/2023 at 19:21, norseman81 said:

What are you using to measure the power draw? 12700K user here.

A smart plug that measures the kWs passed through it. I also have a APC SmartConnect UPS 1500 VA that I need to set up that will be connected to just the PC and Monitor and record it more accurately.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

yeah them i9's are power hungry. It's amazing how far AMD CPUs have come since their power hungry Bulldozer days lol

[hellowalkman Reporter]

for additional context: https://www.neowin.net/news/amds-new-windows-driver-already-paying-dividends-as-ryzen-7950x3d-murders-intel-i9-13900k/

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Good boy.. 😛

[LaP]

Are you running the 7950 in 105W eco mode? I think you're supposed to lose just 5-10% of performance for like 20-25% less energy.

If the energy consumption is important for you that might be worth checking out.

[hellowalkman Reporter]

can be done via Ryzen Master https://www.pcworld.com/article/1352253/how-to-enable-eco-mode-with-ryzen-7000.html

[Steven P. Administrators]

On 27/09/2023 at 20:03, LaP said:

Are you running the 7950 in 105W eco mode? I think you're supposed to lose just 5-10% of performance for like 20-25% less energy.

If the energy consumption is important for you that might be worth checking out.

Oh thanks for that I will check it out. Energy prices in Europe are insane right now, so it all helps™

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Pretty amazing change in just five years of hardware architecture.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky