Quote Originally Posted by ryboto View Post
They probably measured the current going through the 4-pin, or 8-pin power connector. Since it's just a 12v line, if you know the current, you know the power. Problem is, they'd have to be measuring the power required for the CPU+VRM. So, in reality, the CPU will draw less than the reported numbers. Say the VRM is like 75% efficient, then each processor is really only using 42.7W and 78W respectively. Which sounds more reasonable for the 95W 9650.
Yeah, that seems plausible.

Also: what percentage of the TDP can be reached when fully stressing an AMD Phenom? I've been hearing stuff about TDP, that it's not the average full stress power usage, but the utter limit the cpu can reach while doing the heaviest stressing session ever possible.

And what is the average efficiency of the VRM's? Does the number of phases have anything to do with that? Etc.