Gigabyte goes "Green" with DES software

CIA2 Overclocking

Both Easy Tune 5 and the BIOS have an automatic overclocking function known as CIA2. There are five available levels to CIA2. Each of these settings offers a percentage overclock that is dynamically engaged according to CPU load levels. As DES uses preset levels of Vcore at each stage, the only overclock CIA setting that works with all three levels of DES on our QX9650 is "Cruise". Although this only amounts to a 244MHz overclock that most performance oriented overclockers would eschew as "tiny" on a QX9650, it's better than nothing if you don't like fooling around with lots of BIOS settings. It is also worth noting that default voltage settings are used by the CIA function on all areas of the motherboard.

The user can override some of these settings by selecting manual values in the BIOS; however, Vcore control still reverts to the static presets when enabling DES. It is a little unfortunate that the DES GUI does not feature user selectable Vcore levels to allow a little more flexibility when using CIA2. The results do indicate that power saving and power usage levels are not drastically altered over stock figures. Still, a 244MHz overclock is free for the taking without a power consumption hit.

Does DES work with 65nm CPU's?

We decided to run a quick test to see how well a 65nm G0 stepping CPU would hold up to the Vcore reduction that DES employs to save power. At a setting of 2.66GHz, a DES level 3 under-volt of 0.082V does not affect processor stability at all. Obviously, the power consumption figures of 65nm processors cannot compete with the Intel's lower consumption/lower leakage 45nm process Hafnium technology. Still, it is good to know that users who own 65nm G0 stepping CPU's can expect some form of compatibility and power savings with Gigabyte's DES software.

Final thoughts

D.E.S. presents the average user with an easy method of small-scale power saving. The largest group of consumers is not those who are interested in overclocking or spending hours fiddling with BIOS settings. With this in mind, Gigabyte has taken a few steps in ensuring the DES software is installed on user systems during the initial OS setup. For example, the driver/software CD auto-installs all required system drivers including D.E.S. Most users will use the auto-install function on the driver CD, meaning the software will find its home in the Windows task bar. Once installed, the software auto-alerts the user if D.E.S. has not been set up or switched on.

There is still one hurdle though: all current BIOS releases for the GA-X48T-DQ6 enable C1E and EIST by default, and these have to be switched off manually for DES savings to be fully realized. Gigabyte will need to consider this and release future BIOS revisions without these functions enabled if DES is to be successfully used by the masses. Gigabyte would also do well to add an advanced tab to the DES GUI that allows altering the level of Vcore. With the 45nm process proving so responsive to reduced voltage levels, we are sure users can tune their processors for even lower levels of power consumption than DES level 3 currently offers - provided the users take the time to do the proper amount of testing; if not then DES is close enough in our opinion. Gigabyte are still refining the DES software and tell us that full C1E and EIST compatibility is possible. The CPU throttle function will also be improved in  future releases, so that performance under load is not drastically altered.

Okay, the power savings per user are not huge, but we have to take the prospect of thousands of users enabling DES simultaneously into account. Even if many people decide not to use the software, we have no hesitation in giving Gigabyte the thumbs up for attempting to make consumers more aware of power consumption and offering an initial solution to reduce it without much user intervention.