Official HD 2900 Discussion Thread

[fornowagain]

Isn't TDP for AMD a maximum value and for Intel an average value?

No not the average, Intels are a bit short of maximum, maybe 10%. Neither are the maximum wattage a chip/card will draw in our world because we overclock/overvolt, taking them beyond TDP.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article169-page3.html

This means that TDP, as defined by AMD, is measured at the maximum current the CPU can draw, at the default voltage, under the worst-case temperature conditions. This is the maximum power that the CPU can possibly dissipate. Intel, however, has a different definition.

Intel’s TDP is actually lower than the maximum power dissipation of the processor (and as you’ll see later, it can be significantly lower). This is in stark contrast to AMD’s TDP numbers, which are higher than the respective processor’s maximum power dissipation.