Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake-S processors will further increase the peak power draw over their preceding Rocket Lake-S counterparts by 10-15%. Although the former will be based on the newer 10nm ESF/Intel 7 process node (vs 14nm for the latter), this isn’t really a surprise as the core counts are increasing significantly over the existing generations. Where Rocket Lake-S topped out at just eight cores, Alder Lake-S will double that figure to sixteen, with eight (high-performance) Golden Cove cores and eight (efficiency) Gracemont cores.
The peak output power capability of the 10th and 11th Gen processors was capped at 34A or 408W for the 125W (PL1) K-series SKUs, with the 65W non-K parts being limited to 38.5A or 462W. 12th Gen Alder Lake-S processors increase those figures to 39A or 468W for the 125W (PL1) K-series parts and 38.5A or 462W for the 65W non-K chips. Similarly, the “low-power” 35W stack has had its peak power consumption increase to 20.5A or 246W from 198W. Meanwhile, the 165W Xeon Workstation parts with a base TDP of 165W have also gotten a hike in their peak power consumption, going from 40A or 480W to 45A or 540W.
It’s important to note that these peak power values don’t necessarily represent the PL2 power values for these chips, and are likely the maximum power consumption figures with especially demanding instructions such as AVX512. Anyway, that’s just a guess and it could go either way.
Source: @hxl
