Why there is PL1 and PL2 with Intel CPU?

[Islam Ghunym]

Intel's I9-11900K boost to PL2 250W for a short period of time and goes max clocks all cores when it is underload then drop down to PL1 125W or less untill it goes idle again.

 

The question is why PL2 is even there? What does it do to make things better as long as it is only for a short period of time. Why not boosting to PL1 only from the begining. Does it have something to do with tweaking clocks as needed for the kind of workload? so that the CPU uses what the application need from CPU power or it is there just like that?

[freeagent]

PL2 is where the good stuff is at. 250w+ is pretty heavy, but then again so is 300+ so.. most people do not have cooling systems that can withstand that kind of heat. And doing so would not be quiet.. If you subject an AIO to that kind of duty long term, you will be using your warranty if you cant top it up because it will permeate. The way they do it now gives users a taste of power, and then they take it away. If you can keep it cool they let you keep it, if you configure your board.. not up to snuff on current intel stuff sorry

[Islam Ghunym]

39 minutes ago, freeagent said:

PL2 is where the good stuff is at. 250w+ is pretty heavy, but then again so is 300+ so.. most people do not have cooling systems that can withstand that kind of heat. And doing so would not be quiet.. If you subject an AIO to that kind of duty long term, you will be using your warranty if you cant top it up because it will permeate. The way they do it now gives users a taste of power, and then they take it away. If you can keep it cool they let you keep it, if you configure your board.. not up to snuff on current intel stuff sorry

Yes, but following Intel's official guidence every Intel CPU push to PL2 for a short period of time then get back to PL1 even mobile variants push 35W for 28 seconds then go back to 15W. I don't think that boosting behaviour would be in favour of a laptop that is made to be power saving saving and how could that boost for 28 seconds be beneficial in anyway. What I wanted to say that there should be a reason that CPU have to go in PL2 before it settle back to PL1 otherwise Intel wouldn't do that

[TheBean]

many workloads if they are short will benefit with the extra performance PL2 since not everything that you do runs full tilt for more than 50 seconds. so something like botting windows or opening a new program or something will launch a bit faster and then it will slow itself down to save power. also, since it is a short burst, you wont over heat even if you are using extra power. 

 

Then it will go to PL1 for performance but which is not 100% full speed to save thermals, noise and electricity. 

 

[Islam Ghunym]

2 minutes ago, The_Vaccine said:

many workloads if they are short will benefit with the extra performance PL2 since not everything that you do runs full tilt for more than 50 seconds. so something like botting windows or opening a new program or something will launch a bit faster and then it will slow itself down to save power. also, since it is a short burst, you wont over heat even if you are using extra power. 

 

Then it will go to PL1 for performance but which is not 100% full speed to save thermals, noise and electricity. 

 

I think that's it