Intel disclosed the information about the power limitation of its 10th generation Core series Comet Lake-S CPUs. These additions were done on the updated datasheet of these 14nm chips. The PDF reveals PL1 (Power Level 1), PL2 (Power Level 2) and Tau. It is unknown if Comet Lake-s will be the only CPU family Intel will reveal these values. But its a start!
New information for the enthusiasts
These revelations are extensive since Intel usually discloses Power Level 1. The PL1 shows the CPU’s power draw at a base clock of the SKU. The PL2 shows maximum power consumption with turbo. Tau is variable time (in seconds) to stay within PL2 before reverting to PL1. As you can see, different SKU will have different valuables because of the variable differences between them. You’ll also notice the PL2 watts are roughly twice than PL1. This is affected by clock speeds and core/ thread count.
Intel’s motivation for the disclosure
Intel probably made this available either out of criticism for limited information for enthusiasts or out of pressure due to active competition- or both. Regardless, this is appreciated and hopefully, this information will be revealed for any upcoming processors. When that happens, Intel should have these numbers disclosed in its ARK database. Such information does bring the community base together and appreciate the effort.
Naturally, the Core i9-10900K has the highest due to its ten core flagship specification. The Pentium Gold and Celeron CPUs have the lowest. I wonder if manufacturers will advertise their motherboards based on PL2 watt ratings. But many who buy enthusiast-grade hardware manually overclock and well exceed max turbo clock speeds. It might have its usefulness, especially for those who are planning to buy a flagship spec mainstream CPU and pair it with a base model motherboard with limitations they’d usually not know about.
VIA: PC Perspective
