It is clear that the Core i9 10900K is a very powerful processor. Its configuration of ten cores and twenty threads, together with its frequencies of up to 5.3 GHz in turbo mode and its high IPC make it one of the highest performance general consumption processors that currently exist, although it has a significant counterpart, and is that its consumption is very high and its working temperatures too.
Intel introduced the new Comet Lake-S processors at the end of last April, but their availability will not be a reality until the middle of May, which means that we will still have to wait until the publication of the first official analyzes. of this new generation of high-performance CPUs, although thanks to the “rush” of some media we have already had the opportunity to see some preliminary tests, and the truth is that things do not look too good.
As we have indicated the performance of the Core i9 10900K is beyond doubt. Intel has fine-tuned the 14nm ++ process to the utmost to design a 10-core, 20-wire chip capable of loosely overcoming the 5GHz barrier, but the result in terms of efficiency and temperatures has been more than questionable.
Core i9 10900K: 93 degrees at stock frequencies and 234 watts of consumption
As we can see in the attached image the Core i9 10900K reaches peaks of 93 degrees working at its default frequencies, that is, at 4.8 GHz in turbo mode with all the active cores, and the consumption shoots up to 234 watts. The user who did this test has confirmed that they used an all-in-one liquid cooling kit (AIO) with a 240mm radiator , which means that to keep the Core i9 10900K’s temperatures under control we are going to need very powerful cooling.
For the Intel Thermal Velocity Boost technology to work the chip has to be around 70 degrees , a temperature that, in this particular case, seems almost impossible to me, even if we mount a high-performance custom liquid cooling system. It goes without saying that a processor running at 93 degrees enters the thermal throttling range, that is, the working frequencies begin to be reduced to reduce heat and avoid damage at the silicon level due to excess temperature.
For comparative purposes, I remind you that a Ryzen 9 3950X, which has 16 cores and 32 threads, has a load consumption of 220 watts and with a liquid cooling kit of 240 mm it stays around 70-72 degrees without a problem. It is clear that the Zen 2 architecture is more efficient both in terms of consumption and temperatures.
The 14nm process has become a huge barrier for Intel in the high-performance desktop CPU market, and as our regular readers will know, it will still have future interaction on the Rocket Lake-S series, which will implement an adaptation of the Willow Cove nuclei (Tiger Lake in 10nm ++ process) to 14nm +++ process.
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