Intel Alder Lake Doesn't Look Like an Overclockers Dream

[TheLostSwede]

Another day, another Intel Alder Lake leak, although this time it seems to be the same Core i9-12900K retail CPU that is being tested in China. Some additional details have been provided on its ability to overclock and although it's perfectly possible to overclock these upcoming CPUs from Intel, it's going to be hard to cool them, even for very small gains in clock speeds.

An all core P-core overclock, with the E-cores at default requires quite the Voltage bump as well, since according to the leaked information, going from 4.9 GHz and a power draw of 233 Watts, with a CPU Voltage of 1.275 V to 5.2 GHz, sees a jump of almost 100 Watts. The CPU Voltage also has to be bumped to 1.38 V in the sample used. However, pushing the CPU to 5.3 GHz requires 1.44 V and pushes the CPU power to a massive 400 W, which is high-end GPU territory. That said, we're hearing that not all CPUs need this high Voltage to hit 5.2 GHz, although we also understand that 5.3 GHz is not a speed that will be easily attained. Apparently the best way to get the most performance out of these news CPUs will be to tune the turbo settings, rather than to try and overclock them.



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[Ferrum Master]

Pretty much we already were skeptic and saw it coming.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Pretty much we already were skeptic and saw it coming.

Just spotted this as well, but it doesn't really tell a different story.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1451105188643672069

 

[Richards]

Just buy 1000 watts power supply... electricity is very cheap nuclear power plants are cooking

 

[Deleted member 185088]

Perfect timing, winter is coming.

 

[windwhirl]

NGL, I already accepted that "CPU overclock" is dead and buried for anything outside of merely demonstrating how far one can take a CPU, at least if you're not willing to invest in some very beefy cooling (step aside, 240 mm radiators, 360 mm is the new minimum for trying your hand at overclock.) Plus with the way the CPUs get smarter in handling their own clocks, it might as well become an exercise in futility soon.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

I'm bored of this now, all these inflated numbers which don't actually have anything to do with day to day use. Roll on launch day when we see how this chip actually performs in normal benchmarks with stable overclocks that don't require LN to cool.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Just spotted this as well, but it doesn't really tell a different story.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1451105188643672069

I was OCing my 5960X on X99 and it drew 300W+

It is a nightmare to cool down... Those who will state that the power doesn't matter as long it delivers speed don't understand how hard to sustain it really is. Like real world usage could be something different, synthetics will like this CPU and it will look better than AMD... but in reality? Well well well

 

[Crackong]

default and 92 degrees

 

[seth1911]

I have ony 1 CPU that work with more than 5.5 GHz (AiO) stable.

Its a A6 6400K @ 5.7 GHz, 1,625v

But its useless its still slower than a A8 5500

 

[Cobain]

Hardware discussions are so boring these days man...

Really no one cares if some ppl is trying to make intel look bad. I would be more interested in undervolt numbers, stock clocks and go as low as possible on voltage, or even 100mhz less.

I dont care if the cpu has 3% more performance using 300 or 400 watts, irrelevant to me. Plus, we dont buy CPUs to run Cinebench, Aida or any other useless benchmark all day long. Show me a single game using 225w even

Just wait for that bullzoid or frame chasers guy to make a 50 minute vídeo rambling about motherboards and telling you need to spend 400€ if you want to use a 12900k, like if anyone would need such a vrm

Boring

 

[ZoneDymo]

I mean....yeah? that was the reason why "siliconlottery" was ending their business was it not? both cpu vendors pushing their cpu's as far as they can go out of the box?

 

[seth1911]

Hardware discussions are so boring these days man...

Really no one cares if some ppl is trying to make intel look bad. I would be more interested in undervolt numbers, stock clocks and go as low as possible on voltage, or even 100mhz less.

I dont care if the cpu has 3% more performance using 300 or 400 watts, irrelevant to me. Plus, we dont buy CPUs to run Cinebench or any other useless benchmark all day long. Show me a single game using 225w even

Boring

im similar i downclock the CPU for a better efficency (but) and oc the IGP

Edit: I work with my 7870K and GPU Power is more needed than cpu on Solidworks, a I5 10600 is a lot slower in simulations

 

[Cobain]

im similar i downclock the CPU for a better efficency (but) and oc the IGP

I tune my RAM because XMP is too bad and limits a lot of performance. Altho I dont go crazy changing 80 sub timings. Just the main ones plus TRFC, enough for a 20% perf increase (instead of 21% if you tweak all of the timings)

Then l, like you, I always undervolt my hardware. Cpu and Gpu. Using less power, less heat, for same performance (more performance on the gpu side).

 

[WhoDecidedThat]

Isn't it far better to fix a power level (say 200 watts for 16 cores) and try to maximize performance (through lithography and architecture) within that power limit?
I run my 10500H at 100 milivolt undervolt offset, underclocked to 3200 MHz and I pretty happy. I get decent performance for 35 watts. Fast enough and cool enough to actually be a lap top.

 

[JustBenching]

Isn't it far better to fix a power level (say 200 watts for 16 cores) and try to maximize performance (through lithography and architecture) within that power limit?
I run my 10500H at 100 milivolt undervolt offset, underclocked to 3200 MHz and I pretty happy. I get decent performance for 35 watts. Fast enough and cool enough.

But then how can the amd shills complain that Intel cpu's consume 800 gigawatts, huh?

 

[freeagent]

What comes after AlderLake is what you guys should be interested in..

But I will tell you what is boring.. AMD and Intel fans calling each other shills, pretending wattage ain’t no thang.. and undervolting.. ugh

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Hold on, let me get my surprised look face on....




Nnow entire sure how much of this will be true at time of release, reviews will tell all in the end.

 

[Cobain]

What comes after AlderLake is what you guys should be interested in..

But I will tell you what is boring.. AMD and Intel fans calling each other shills, pretending wattage ain’t no thang.. and undervolting.. ugh

Sorry to disapoint you, but right now I am using a 5600X, from AMD, I´m such a bad fanboy:

And... undervolted aswell

 

[Franzen4Real]

I get that overclocking and tweaking is fun and many people enjoy it for multiple different reason, so I certainly wouldn't want to take that away from anyone (I used to be one of those people long ago). But to be honest-- the older I get, the more I just want the stuff to work to 98% potential out of the box with no fuss. I do like that Intel/AMD are attempting to maximize their silicone and not leaving much on the table.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Yeah, IMO it's more fun to find out what all architectures can do with some undervolting, incuding GPUs. I have CPUs and GPUs from all vendors and every one is undervolted except this 9700f which simply will not run stably at it's top turbo with any undervolt, the first pyrite sample I think I've ever received. Works at spec though so I can't complain, and with an .-05v it'll run all core 4.2GHz for a lot of power savings and a minimal performance reduction from it's typical 4.5 all core turbo.

 

[Object55]

DoA

 

[freeagent]

Sorry to disapoint you, but right now I am using a 5600X, from AMD, I´m such a bad fanboy:

And... undervolted aswell

I have a nice AMD system too, also overclocked but undervolted lower than yours, so I am not disappointed in the slightest.

I didn’t pledge allegiance to them or Intel though.. I have more Intel systems than AMD’s..

But honestly, if you are bored with hardware news take up a new hobby for awhile. I stepped away for a few years to play with other toys too.

 

[HenrySomeone]

Hardware discussions are so boring these days man...

Really no one cares if some ppl is trying to make intel look bad. I would be more interested in undervolt numbers, stock clocks and go as low as possible on voltage, or even 100mhz less.

I dont care if the cpu has 3% more performance using 300 or 400 watts, irrelevant to me. Plus, we dont buy CPUs to run Cinebench, Aida or any other useless benchmark all day long. Show me a single game using 225w even

Just wait for that bullzoid or frame chasers guy to make a 50 minute vídeo rambling about motherboards and telling you need to spend 400€ if you want to use a 12900k, like if anyone would need such a vrm

Boring

Exactly - I bet that you'll be able to tune the 12900k so that it will beat 5900x in multi thread (single will be a given one way or another) while consuming less power to boot and if past couple i9s are to be of any guidance, the price will be no higher either (at least after the first month).

 

[freeagent]

It had better beat the 5900X, if it doesn’t it will just be another meme.