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The most power efficient gaming CPU you can get in early 2020

Islam Ghunym
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Go to solution Solved by Zando_,
1 minute ago, Islam Ghunym said:

Droping clocks by itself is a problem, this sucks. Idk what I should take.

I need a CPU that can boost well like intel.

Intel 9900T probably does that peaking high wattage each  time required, but since it does that for short duration ot won't suck much power. AMD chips could be better, but I need the benfit of boosting mechanism

 

1 minute ago, Islam Ghunym said:

Nope, I am totally right. If you can prove go head.

Not in the slightest. Intel Turbo Boost is pretty simple, it has a set multiplier it uses based off core load only. It never changes unless you hit throttling temps (around 100C), then it downclocks the CPU to protect itself. It's not "smart" at all, it's just a basic boost. 

AMD's PBO (precision boost overdrive) that now comes with every Zen 2 chip out there is much "smarter". It takes into account what voltage and thermal headroom it has, then sees what cores and how many cores are under load, and how heavily they are loaded, then boosts accordingly. It's a far, far better boost than Intel's. 

You've got them reversed, Intel has a basic boost function and mostly gains from manual overclocking, AMD's CPUs have a much, much better boost that usually results in the best performance for everything but a purely all core load with 80-100% on all said cores. 

You'll be using neither if you want the lowest power consumption possible, so it doesn't even matter. For the use case you've claimed, you need to downclock the CPUs to the lowest clock where they still run your games acceptably, then undervolt as low as you can while keeping it stable. You can use offsets to have voltage automatically drop further when the CPU isn't under load as well, so idle consumption will be barely affected. Ryzen chips on the Zen 2 arch will be much better here, they have a higher IPC (similar performance at lower clocks than an Intel chip) and a very low power consumption for their performance already, and you could manually tune them to pull even less. An Intel chip forced into a power consumption that small would likely clock - and therefore perform - much worse. Especially since Intel's current gen IPC is lower than AMD's, meaning they need noticeably higher clocks to compete performance wise. That and they're based on ringbus, which scales terribly at much above 4 cores (and the 9900 series CPUs are 8c/16t) on both heat and power consumption. 

Posted

I would suspect the absolutely most power efficient cpu might (and I could be wrong here) be some laptop variant of the 10nm intel 6 core.  Intel tends to be better with power than AMD.  I don’t know what is available though

Not a pro, not even very good.  I’m just old and have time currently.  Assuming I know a lot about computers can be a mistake.

 

Life is like a bowl of chocolates: there are all these little crinkly paper cups everywhere.

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1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

I would suspect the absolutely most power efficient cpu might (and I could be wrong here) be some laptop variant of the 10nm intel 6 core.  Intel tends to be better with power than AMD.  I don’t know what is available though

What? Where's your head been at since 2017? 

Intel HEDT and Server platform enthusiasts: Intel HEDT Xeon/i7 Megathread 

 

Main PC 

CPU: i9 7980XE @4.5GHz/1.22v/-2 AVX offset 

Cooler: EKWB Supremacy Block - custom loop w/360mm +280mm rads 

Motherboard: EVGA X299 Dark 

RAM:4x8GB HyperX Predator DDR4 @3200Mhz CL16 

GPU: Nvidia FE 2060 Super/Corsair HydroX 2070 FE block 

Storage:  1TB MP34 + 1TB 970 Evo + 500GB Atom30 + 250GB 960 Evo 

Optical Drives: LG WH14NS40 

PSU: EVGA 1600W T2 

Case & Fans: Corsair 750D Airflow - 3x Noctua iPPC NF-F12 + 4x Noctua iPPC NF-A14 PWM 

OS: Windows 11

 

Display: LG 27UK650-W (4K 60Hz IPS panel)

Mouse: EVGA X17

Keyboard: Corsair K55 RGB

 

Mobile/Work Devices: 2020 M1 MacBook Air (work computer) - iPhone 13 Pro Max - Apple Watch S3

 

Other Misc Devices: iPod Video (Gen 5.5E, 128GB SD card swap, running Rockbox), Nintendo Switch

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1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

What? Where's your head been at since 2017? 

2017? Intel 10nm 6 core isn’t even really out yet.

Not a pro, not even very good.  I’m just old and have time currently.  Assuming I know a lot about computers can be a mistake.

 

Life is like a bowl of chocolates: there are all these little crinkly paper cups everywhere.

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This whole thread / subject seems confusing to me. How do you even run a desktop with batteries? And if you want the lowest possible power consumption, I think 8 cores might not be what you're looking for. Best performance, yes, but that comes with the power draw. And I don't think you can magically get higher clocks while also undervolting and reducing power consumption, atleast not very much. Ryzens especially have been practically pushed to the limit in terms of clocks, can't do much manually there. Maybe you could underclock a little bit, I don't know. What kind of batteries are you running on btw? Tell us a little more about your setup? I don't quite understand, I thought only laptops can run on batteries.

 

I would go for 6 cores if I were you and wanted to play games from the current year smoothly, yet not drawing too much power. Seems like the best balance to me.

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Just now, Bombastinator said:

2017? Intel 10nm 6 core isn’t even really out yet.

Yes (confused as to why you're recommending a non-existent CPU with unknown power consumption tho tbh). I was referring to this:

4 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Intel tends to be better with power than AMD.

They tend to be far worse, as I explained in an earlier post on this same thread, ringbus does not scale well with more cores, it consumes even more power and creates more heat. 

Intel HEDT and Server platform enthusiasts: Intel HEDT Xeon/i7 Megathread 

 

Main PC 

CPU: i9 7980XE @4.5GHz/1.22v/-2 AVX offset 

Cooler: EKWB Supremacy Block - custom loop w/360mm +280mm rads 

Motherboard: EVGA X299 Dark 

RAM:4x8GB HyperX Predator DDR4 @3200Mhz CL16 

GPU: Nvidia FE 2060 Super/Corsair HydroX 2070 FE block 

Storage:  1TB MP34 + 1TB 970 Evo + 500GB Atom30 + 250GB 960 Evo 

Optical Drives: LG WH14NS40 

PSU: EVGA 1600W T2 

Case & Fans: Corsair 750D Airflow - 3x Noctua iPPC NF-F12 + 4x Noctua iPPC NF-A14 PWM 

OS: Windows 11

 

Display: LG 27UK650-W (4K 60Hz IPS panel)

Mouse: EVGA X17

Keyboard: Corsair K55 RGB

 

Mobile/Work Devices: 2020 M1 MacBook Air (work computer) - iPhone 13 Pro Max - Apple Watch S3

 

Other Misc Devices: iPod Video (Gen 5.5E, 128GB SD card swap, running Rockbox), Nintendo Switch

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