Intel 10th Gen Core i9 Comet Lake-S Power and Thermal Figures Leaked: Hotter Than Previous Versions?

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    A photo released Oct. 8, 2018, shows a 9th Gen Intel Core processor packages. The processor family is optimized for gaming. (Source: Intel Corporation)

    Intel’s 10th Generation Comet Lake-S Desktop CPUs are rumored to be announced at the end of this month. Furthermore, the power and thermal figures for the Intel 10th Gen Core i9 Comet Lake-S Desktop CPU leaked out. The figures came from Weibo user Wolstame and posted on Twitter by a Twitter user, 9550pro.

    The figures were for a specific machine, Core i9-10900F which is similar to Core i9-10900. The only difference between them is the lack of integrated graphics on the F variant. Besides, it is a 10 core processor and officially it has a TDP of 65 watts. As the TDP was derived at the base frequency the outcome will be way different from it. Surely by increasing the base frequency, it will deliver much better results.

    Detailed Figures of Intel Core i9-10900F

    Coming to the specifications, The chip features 10 cores / 20 threads, and is based on the 14nm process. The chip’s TDP was derived at a base frequency of 2.80 GHz. However, For Single-Core it has a boost frequency of 5.2 GHz and for all-core it is 4.6 GHz. The chip features a TDP of 65W and will carry a cache sized 20MB.

    As said earlier, the TDP was derived at a base frequency which is also known as PL1. But the actual TDP will be higher which is known as PL2. The maximum power limits for Intel Core i9-10900F is 170W for PL1 and 224W for PL2. The power limit is more than 3 times the power consumption for the TDP derived at base frequency. Wccftech compared the Intel Core i9-9900KS with 8 cores and 5 GHz frequency and AMD Ryzen 9 3950X with 16 cores saying Intel did 170W at maximum load and AMD did 146W at maximum load. Intel ignored the efficiency of its 10th Gen lineup and focused on the brute force more. However, even after all that power it still has its own issues.

    It seems like the Intel Core i9-10900F is a super hot chip. With a 240mm cooler, it climbed to 93C at full load and stayed around 70-75C on average. The processor reported a temperature of up to 83C with a 120mm AIO cooler with the 170W FPU test. On the other hand, it reported a temperature of 80C with a high-end air cooler. The processor cannot hit its max 4.6 GHz all-core frequency at full load as for starting Thermal Velocity Boost the temperature should be 65C or below.

    A serious question is raised here that how will the unlocked 10th Gen Desktop CPUs perform if the 65W parts are more power-hungry and run hotter than 9th Gen chips. According to some reports, Intel Core i9-10900K has as PL2 TDP of 250W. Surely, that is not going to match with the results as the figures for Core i9-10900F suggests. The Core i7 and Core i5 series also have received a clock bump like the 10 core, 20 thread processors. In the future, we might see the surge in thermals on those parts too. As an instance, Intel is surely going to recommend high-end air coolers as the AIO coolers are not able to keep the system stable.

    By referring these benchmarks and the one which was leaked previously Wccftech pointed out the pros for Intel’s and AMD’s current-generation lineup. AMD’s 7nm Ryzen chips are way ahead than Intel’s Core i9-9900K and i9-10900K chips. As the Intel’s Core i9-9900K is a 95W and 210W chip and i9-10900K is a 125W and 250W chip.

    The motherboard vendors and Industry insiders have said that the Z490 boards are specifically designed for the higher power input of the Comet Lake-S lineup. Besides, they noticed that the chips broke after the 300W power barrier.

    We can expect the Comet-S lineup to hit the market next month. They still need to resolve some issues if we refer to the leaks. If the issues are not resolved then beating AMD will be very tough.

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