In one embodiment of the invention an integrated circuit is provided including a sense amplifier to read data from a memory cell that has a first transfer gate, a second transfer gate, a comparator, and a control circuit. The first transfer gate has a first pole coupled to a positive power supply. The second transfer gate has a first pole coupled to a bitline of the memory cell. The comparator has a first input coupled to a second pole of the first transfer gate, a second input coupled to a second pole of the second transfer gate, and an output coupled to the second input. The comparator compares signals on the first and second inputs and selectively generates a greater differential signal there-between. The control circuit turns off the comparator responsive to a logical zero being read from the memory cell avoiding the generation of the greater differential signal.