Talking about power has become a fad with many bandwagon jumpers.
As you say, power consumption can be anything you configure it to be, for one.
I've run HWInfo64 for multiple days on my old 10850K, and recently on this 12700KF OC'd to 5.3/5.2/5.1 and got the same result. Max around 150W, average 35W.
But even if we just use TPUs numbers at face value, and
- Assume you run a heavily threaded rendering operation 12hrs/day 300 days a year.
- 13900K vs 7950X, there is 48W difference at stock
- 48W * 12hrs = 0.576 KWH/day
- .576 KWH/day * 300 days = 172.8 KWH/year
- 172.8 KWH/year * 0.15c/KWH = $25.92 /year
So the difference in cost to operate is about $26/year if you do 100% all core load 12hrs/day 300 days per year.
None of which is realistic.
And even if it were, $26 is not worth talking about on a rig that costs $1000+++.
This is far more realistic of people actually using a computer all day - either idle, or single \ light thread loads. It's super rare for any normal user to use all core max, and even for professionals it's not the normal state. It takes a lot of work typically to get to a point where for example one is ready to render, or compile, or simulate.
Of course, nobody talks about this one.
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