Do you care about the environment? Buy an AMD APU!
When it comes to building a PC, energy savings is not a particularly sexy subject. Of course, it is more fun to talk about raw power and fun components. In other words, it would be quite rare to see two PC gamers arguing in a forum about who has the lower electric bill. Wouldn't it be sort of cool if they did discuss that though?
If you own a 6th Generation AMD "Carrizo" A-Series APU, however, you might be saving energy and being environmentally friendly without even knowing it. Today, AMD reveals a new study which shows its new APUs can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 50 percent compared to previous generations. In other words, upgrading your AMD APU will make both Mother Nature and Captain Planet happy. Huzzah!
You can read the full study here. AMD compared the new A12-8800B (Carrizo) to the previous-generation A10-7350B (Kaveri). Both processors feature a 2.1 GHz clock speed. Please note that AMD conducted the study itself, but it was privately validated by EarthShift.
"Reducing carbon emissions is the right thing to do for the environment, and it brings the additional benefit of reducing how much individuals and businesses spend on electricity as well. AMD made an audacious promise fifteen months ago to improve the energy efficiency of their processors by 25 times by 2020. A projected 50 percent reduction in usage-phase greenhouse gas emissions by the 6th Generation AMD A-Series APU is further proof the company is making serious progress in its commitment to a cleaner planet and lower energy bills", says Kevin Krewell, principal analyst, Tirias Research.
OK, but lets talk cheddar -- how much money can this potentially save? AMD explains, "an enterprise customer upgrading from 100,000 PCs using the previous generation AMD processor to the 6th Generation AMD A-Series APU could save an estimated 4.9 million kilowatt hours of electricity -- or roughly $495,000 -- and 3,350 metric tons of CO2 (equal to powering 461 homes) over a 3-year product service life".
That is considerable cost savings. AMD's Carrizo processors are very capable too, so you are not trading performance in an effort to save money.
The real winner here, however, is Earth. Saving money is great, but don't forget that we all must live together on this planet -- any opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is worth exploring. AMD deserves major kudos for not only pledging to make its processors more energy efficient, but actually delivering on that promise too.
Green may be a color used for NVIDIA products, but AMD has earned the right to be called a green company!
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