We already know that Intel’s 10th Gen processors are power-hungry beasts, but being that TDP values only tell part of the story, how much energy do they crave, really? Well, we’ve got the answer(s) to that now thanks to ComputerBase, which has published a list of official PL1 (TDP), PL2, and Tau values for Comet Lake-S. The potential power demands of both the Core and Xeon W family are as follows.
TDP, PL1, PL2 and Tau from Intel Comet Lake-S “Core” in the desktop
| CPU | PL1 | PL2 | dew |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overclockable K CPUs | |||
| Core i9-10900K | 125 watts | 250 watts | 56 seconds |
| Core i7-10700K | 125 watts | 229 watts | 56 seconds |
| Core i5-10600K | 125 watts | 182 watts | 56 seconds |
| Standard models | |||
| 10-core with / without graphics, Core i9-10000 (F) | 65 watts | 224 watts | 28 seconds |
| 8-core with / without graphics, Core i7-10000 (F) | 65 watts | 224 watts | 28 seconds |
| 6-core with / without graphics, Core i5-10000 (F) | 65 watts | 134 watts | 28 seconds |
| 4-core with graphics, Core i3-10000 | 65 watts | 90 watts | 28 seconds |
| 2-core with graphics, Pentium and Celeron | 58 watts | 58 watts | 28 seconds |
| Energy-saving T models | |||
| 10-core with graphics, Core i9-10000T | 35 watts | 123 watts | 28 seconds |
| 8-core with graphics, Core i7-10000T | 35 watts | 123 watts | 28 seconds |
| 6-core with graphics, Core i5-10000T | 35 watts | 92 watts | 28 seconds |
| 4-core with graphics, Core i3-10000T | 35 watts | 55 watts | 28 seconds |
| 2-core with graphics, Pentium and Celeron T | 35 watts | 42 watts | 28 seconds |
TDP, PL1, PL2 and Tau from Intel Comet Lake-S “Xeon W” in the desktop
| CPU | PL1 | PL2 | dew |
|---|---|---|---|
| 125 watt models | |||
| 10-core with graphics | 125 watts | 250 watts | 56 seconds |
| 8-core with graphics | 125 watts | 229 watts | 56 seconds |
| 6-core with graphics | 125 watts | 182 watts | 56 seconds |
| Standard variants | |||
| 10-core with graphics | 80 watts | 224 watts | 28 seconds |
| 8-core with graphics | 80 watts | 224 watts | 28 seconds |
| 6-core with graphics | 80 watts | 134 watts | 28 seconds |
| Energy saving models | |||
| 10-core with graphics | 35 watts | 123 watts | 28 seconds |
So, it appears that the Comet Lake-S family has peak, short-term power draws of up to 250 watts, which is quite an increase from the oft-marketed TDP values. In fact, certain 10th Gen SKUs can hit 3.5 times their rated thermal design power.
“So a CPU can no longer only put the factor 1.25 above the TDP for a short time, in the best case scenario this is the factor 3.5, as the example of the Intel Core i9-10900T shows, with 35 watts TDP has a PL2 value of 123 watts,” wrote ComputerBase. “Together with a suitable mainboard, which possible tau limits can be undermined by Intel’s tolerance, a completely different CPU is created.”
“But the regular 65-watt models are also allowed to consume a lot of energy, especially if they have eight or ten cores. 224 watts over the officially planned 28 seconds also correspond to a factor of 3.45. Ultimately, the Core i7-10700K is not as extravagant as originally thought, because it may only use five watts more, but over a longer period. However, as already mentioned, this is already levered out on many boards.”