amp x volts = watts. just because the volts are higher doesn't mean the power consumption will be higher. my fan uses 12V but does that mean that it consumes more power than my cpu? no so stop using volts as a comparison. the volts have nothing to do with anything. phenom II uses more volts than i7 yet somehow from what we have seen so far it overclocks better. phenom II uses more volts than i7. yet somehow from what we have seen it has a lower power consumption. i don't believe you can use volts to compare different cpus. not even cpus of the same brand.