Friday, December 27th 2019
Intel Enthusiast-Grade K Processors in the Comet Lake-S Family Rumored to Feature 125 W TDP
This piece of news shouldn't surprise anyone, except for the fact that Intel is apparently signing on a TDP of 125 W for even its K-series unlocked processors for their next-generation Comet Lake-S family. Intel's current Comet Lake 9900K CPU features a TDP of "only" 95 W - when compared to the rumored 125 W of the 10900K), whilst their current top offering, the i9-9900KS, features a 127 W TDP. Remember that Intel's 10900K should feature 10 cores and 20 threads, two extra cores than their current 9900K - this should explain the increased TDP, a mathematical necessity given that Intel can only count on marginal improvements to its 14 nm fabrication process to frequencies and power consumption of its CPUs.
A leaked slide from momomo on Twitter shows, if real, that Intel's future enthusiast-grade CPUs (likely i5-10600K, i7-10700K and i9-10900K) will feature this 125 W TDP, while other launches in that family will make do with the more traditional 65 W TDP (interesting to see that Intel has some 10-core CPUs with 65 W TDP, the same as their current 9900, despite two more cores). A footnote on the leaked slide shows that these K processors can be configured for a 95 W TDP, but this would likely come at a significant cost to operating frequency. Intel seems to be bringing a knife to a gunfight (in terms of core counts and TDP) with AMD's Ryzen 3000 and perhaps Ryzen 4000 CPUs, should those and Intel's future offerings actually coexist in the market.
Sources:
user momomo @ Twitter, via Videocardz
A leaked slide from momomo on Twitter shows, if real, that Intel's future enthusiast-grade CPUs (likely i5-10600K, i7-10700K and i9-10900K) will feature this 125 W TDP, while other launches in that family will make do with the more traditional 65 W TDP (interesting to see that Intel has some 10-core CPUs with 65 W TDP, the same as their current 9900, despite two more cores). A footnote on the leaked slide shows that these K processors can be configured for a 95 W TDP, but this would likely come at a significant cost to operating frequency. Intel seems to be bringing a knife to a gunfight (in terms of core counts and TDP) with AMD's Ryzen 3000 and perhaps Ryzen 4000 CPUs, should those and Intel's future offerings actually coexist in the market.
96 Comments on Intel Enthusiast-Grade K Processors in the Comet Lake-S Family Rumored to Feature 125 W TDP
Its easy
TDP intel = base clock
TDP amd = all core boost
Simple
if they can't get temp testing right,what are we even talking about.
the difference between 9700k and 3900x is 26 degrees,not 5 degrees.
it will affect noise levels substantially.
Intel's K-models have motherboard-specific "optimized" settings that generally mean disabled power limits. Non-K models generally perform as per spec - 25% increased power limit for 8 seconds. For example, a 65W Intel non-K CPU will do 81W for 8 seconds at load.
Any Intel 14nm CPU will lose out to AMD's 7nm CPU in all-core loads, especially at 6+ cores. Frequencies in these circumstances will not favor Intel CPUs any more. Not because they are not capable of it but because they hit power limits.
But you're right in one thing: pretty much all of energy consumed is emitted as heat.
So, you have a consumer CPU with TDP=65W. You run it as intended. It stays near base clocks most of the time and boost for few seconds from time to time. During that boost it consumes 200W.
So, what cooler do you need? A 95W one. Someone tested it on a 95W CPU and it was fine.
What PSU do you need? A 200W one (just for the CPU).
That's the difference.
You should not look at it as if Intel or AMD deceived you. They've sold you a CPU with 65W or 95W TDP. You can buy a cooler based on that TDP.
But they've also given you a bonus (not a lie!). Because they've made their CPUs so rapid and flexible, they can boost instantly for a short time when you need it in your typical consumer-ish PC using: to load a website, open a file, apply an effect in a photo editor etc. It's so short that the extra heat produced is tiny and your 95W cooler won't explode.
And if, during that short boost, your PSU can provide just 150W, not 200W? It won't explode either. The CPU knows when to stop pushing. It's all though out really well.
We test consumer CPUs by running hours of 100% load benchmarks, which is not how these CPUs are used in real life. Of course that's how we learn their performance limits (which is good), but the resulting average power consumption figures are unrealistic.
This is exactly the reason why workstation/server CPUs turn out (in similar tests) to be very conservative when it comes to TDP. Because their purpose is exactly to run at 100% all the time. That's how their TDP was calculated.
And now moving to 7nm Zen2 issue, which I really can't pass over.
The coolers we have today were tested on CPUs available before 7nm arrived.
It turns out that these CPUs, despite consuming under 150W, are so tightly packed that the heat concentration is much larger than we've seen earlier. That's why 3900X and 3950X are so hot.
And that's why AMD recommends to pair a CPU with TDP=105W with coolers that have TDP ratings 2-3 times larger.
So suddenly the TDP stops making any sense at all. It's lower than what these CPUs actually pull (140-150W) and has absolutely no meaning when it comes to choosing a sufficient cooler.
When Intel joins with desktop 10nm CPUs, the whole TDP rating will have to be adjusted. Dark Rock 4 will not be a 200W cooler anymore. It'll be called a 100W cooler, maybe less.
here is a link confirming that information
www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3525-amd-ryzen-tdp-explained-deep-dive-cooler-manufacturer-opinions
Ah and don't forget to buy your new motherboards too...
Eitherway tdp is a metric used by the manufacturers for coolers. It's not a viable determination for us to buy a cpu.
The cpu by intel is a potato.
Gamersnexus already explained both Intel and AMD TDP.
They are either calculated from base clock or cooler thermal resistance.
They are both OFF.