Originally Posted by
directhex
under absolute maximum load, a c2d t5600 draws 34W.
it'll idle at about half that.
under h264 playback, a radeon hd 2400 xt draws about 30 watts.
it'll idle at about half that.
so. a pure c2d system will be pulling, absolute maximum, 34W on video decoding ops. same CPU with a radeon, you're looking at about 45W (idle CPU plus loaded GPU). an you can imagine how much that figure goes up by if you use a desktop CPU, or, heaven forbid, an old CPU like a barton or prescott.
1080p playback would only conceivably stutter on a powerful CPU like a C2D if it's a very dodgy codec (e.g. older versions of the FFMPEG h264 decoder). you won't suffer when using any of the main codecs, e.g. coreavc, no matter how brutal a movie you throw at it