Energy consumption
What's more interesting than performance is the energy consumption, and we did three tests in this area. The chart at the top shows the idle usage on the Windows desktop, the average over a five-minute period. The second chart shows the average usage during a complete run of 3DMark Vantage on the integrated GPU. The third chart shows the maximum energy consumption during Cinebench 11.5.
There are some larger differences here, particularly for idle usage. The least efficient board uses twice as much as the most energy-efficient one. Since every chip on a motherboard needs power, the more features there are the higher the usage will be.
The new GA-Z77X-UP5 TH is a few watts more efficient than its predecessor, the GA-Z77X-UD5H. Gigabyte ends up in the middle of the charts, which is a nice results considering all of the features on this motherboard.
