As a contrast, Core 2 Duo eats up 22 Watts while doing nothing and 65W when working under full load. With the new revision, power consumption in idle state (C1E) goes down to 12W. However, the methods Intel and AMD use yo express power consumption are not comparable, because AMD calls for Maximum TDP, while Intel declares Typical TDP.
In the end, both methods are so-so, because the TCO figure will differ by couple of cents of power consumption a year. The switch from 7W to 22W makes a big difference, especially for large organisations that keep their computers running 24×7. µ
New Lower Power Core 2 Duo CPUs on the Way
It appears that according this Inquirer article, Intel will be releasing a lower power consuming version of their Core 2 Duo E6300 and E6400 processors.
