Evidence has emerged which suggests that the newly launched 80 GB PS3 features the smaller 65nm RSX GPU - a feature which Sony is yet to confirm.

Overall, you can notice a consistent 15-25 watt savings average, which honestly does not amount to much. I did not open the Core unit to examine the internals (I'll leave that to someone else at the risk of voiding the warranty), but I've pretty much concluded that the 80GB Core unit includes some additional energy savings, albeit very slight and probably not worth the upgrade if you already purchased a 40GB system.

Is this enough to certify the 65nm RSX GPU exists? I'd say the slight energy savings would lead to that conclusion, although one cannot know for sure until one opens the actual board.

After running some detailed Kill-a-watt comparisons, I'm sending the 80GB PS3 back to BB. It was good to discover the energy savings, but 15-25 watts of a difference does not present a significant savings over the 65nm CPU/90nm GPU of the 40GB unit. Honestly, I think any speculation of dramatic efficiency with a 65nm GPU is greatly exaggerated if this is the tangible energy difference that's being observed.