Power and Temperature
To test the power and temperature, we broke up this testing into two parts, two scenarios. The first scenario is an “all-out” “maximum threads maximum performance” “full load” scenario. In this scenario, we run Cinebench R23 for 10 minutes and record the power and temperature. This shows the power and temp with the CPUs flat out, foot to the floor, pushing them as hard as possible. That provides one set of data.
Then, we run a more normal workload. YOu see, you aren’t always running your CPU flat out, full bore, all the time. You are doing other things, like just playing a game. So we also wanted to look at the real-world power and temperature when doing something like just playing a game. So we fired up Cyberpunk 2077 and played it for 10 minutes at 1080p and “Ultra” settings on a GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, to stress the CPU as much as possible, not the GPU. Both of these scenarios show very different results, and both are relevant.
Maximum CPU Usage Cinebench R23
In the above graph, we are poling the “CPU Package Power” gained from HWiNFO64 running Cinebench R23 for 10 minutes. The most power-hungry CPU turns out to be the Intel Core i5-11600K at 155W. The most efficient CPU turns out to be the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X at just 76W. Right in the middle is the new Intel Core i5-12600K at 124W. It’s 63% more power than the Ryzen 5 5600X, but 20% less power than the 11600K.
In terms of temperature, the 11600K got the hottest at a whopping 82c. However, check this out, the Ryzen 5 5600X and 12600K ran at a similar 62-63c degree temperature. The 12600K is consuming 63% more power, but it’s still running the same temp as the 5600X. It’s a vast improvement over the 11600K.
CPU Usage While Playing a Game
This graph shows why we wanted to include this data. When doing something like playing a game, the 11600K eats a tremendous amount of power at 114W. While the Ryzen 5 5600X is at 75-76W, so is the new Intel Core i5-12600K at 78W. Therefore yes, in Cinebench it’s consuming 63% more power, but when playing a game it most certainly is not. It’s on par with the Ryzen 5 5600X in terms of power usage!
It gets even better when you look at the temperatures. The Intel Core i5-12600K is actually returning the lowest temperature at just 50c while playing Cyberpunk 2077! That’s lower than the 56c of the Ryzen 5 5600X. The power has come down, and so has the temp. It means when you are playing games, the 12600K is by no means a hog, it is in fact better than the 5600X on temperature, and equal on power.