Earlier this week Intel stole the headlines at Computex 2018, by showing off a 28-core processor running at 5.0 GHz. This is a great achievement, clocked at 5.0 GHz it was able to achieve a Cinebench score of 7334. Well it turns out this CPU required an industrial chiller to run at that clock speed.
The above photo has been circulated across the web over the past 24 hours showing the actual cooling system that Intel was using. After their press event Intel quickly dismantled the demo systems used.
The industrial chiller is a Hailea HC chiller, which pumps 1500-4000 liters per hour and uses R124 refrigerant to cool down the coolant towards 4 degrees Celsius. It actually has a cooling power of up to 1770W! A 1600W power supply was also spotted in the unit. According to many reports the actual 28-core CPU was a Xeon Platinum Skylake-SP processor. That processor runs at 2.5 GHz at stock speeds and pulls just over 200W in stress tests. So to put that in perspective Intel was using a cooler capable of cooling 1770W to achieve 5.0 GHz on all 28-cores of the processor.
We understand that it takes a lot to achieve the 5.0 GHz, but this is no where near something even an enthusiast would have, even compared to the most high-end watercooling system. So it does not really seem like consumers are going to get anywhere near 5.0 GHz on that 28-core processor.
