Hi there,

I am just surprised this machine I got from a refurbished sale has quite high power draw. Even when I remove all of the peripheral parts and just leave one CPU in the chassis, so remaining just:

- 1x Xeon Gold 6132 (14c/2.6 GHz, 140W TDP), 2x 32 GB RAM 2400 MHz

Even then, idling (no OS, just in UEFI mgmt.), the machine draws at least 112 Watts from the socket from which 64W go to the processor and 6 to the RAM (says iLo). The remaining 40 or so Watts are lost in the system.

When I install the 2nd CPU the CPU draw rises to ca. 120W, so I already got a good saving here.

Nevertheless I find this a bit too much, also considering some other testing labs results which seem to be significantly lower. For ex. see here, which supposedly not only shows CPU but the whole system consumption.

Do you have any explanation for this?

Thanks and cheers

-

  • murtoz@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    UEFI doesn’t have proper power management so your CPU’s will run in highest C states throughout, explaining the power usage.

    Install an OS or boot from a linux live cd and you should get much lower idle power usage.

    • CucumberError@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      11 months ago

      Adding to this, I’m assuming the PSU is around 1000watts, and there’s two of them. Operating a power supply at lower loads reduces the efficiency, having two would decrease the load more, making them less efficient. That missing 40 watts is 20 watts per PSU, which seems acceptable.