According to a test conducted by AnandTech, Intel’s Core i7-10700 (non-K) appears to draw more power than the 11700K under load. This is despite the fact that the former had a TDP nearly half as much as the latter: 65W vs 125W. Then why is this happening?
As already explained in an earlier post, the TDP values specified by Intel only correspond to the power draw at the base clock or PL1, with the chip usually drawing 50-100% more power under full load at the boost clock, otherwise known as the PL2 value:
As you can see in the above graph, the Core i7-10700K draws slightly more power when less than six cores are engaged as it boosts to a higher clock than its non-K counterpart (5.1GHz vs 4.8GHz), but as all the cores kit in, the boost clock is more or less the same for both the chips. Due to the better binning quality of the K variant, it draws slightly less power despite performing a tad bit better and having a slightly higher all-core boost (4.6GHz vs 4.7GHz).
| 10th Gen Processor | PL1 Power (W) | PL2 Power (W) | Tau (Seconds) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core i9-10900K | 125 | 250 | 56 |
| Core i7-10700K | 125 | 229 | 56 |
| Core i5-10600K | 125 | 182 | 56 |
| Core i9-10900 | 65 | 224 | 28 |
| Core i7-10700 | 65 | 224 | 28 |
| Core i5-10600, Core i5-10500, Core i5-10400 | 65 | 134 | 28 |
| Core i3-10320, Core i3-10300, Core i3-10100 | 65 | 90 | 28 |
| Pentium Gold 6500, Pentium Gold 6400, Celeron G5920, Celeron G5900 | 58 | 58 | 28 |
| Core i9-10900T | 35 | 123 | 28 |
| Core i7-10000T | 35 | 123 | 28 |
| Core i5-10000T | 35 | 92 | 28 |
| Core i3-10000T | 35 | 55 | 28 |
| Pentium Gold G6500T, Pentium Gold G6400T, Celeron 5900T | 35 | 42 | 28 |
