[SOLVED] How does the 12400 power usage work?

[mcan226]

Hi, i've rad that the 12400 uses 65W on idle and between 117 and 150w on "turbo".

What exactly is that turbo about?

the 10400 on the other hand only uses 65w all the time afaik. Why does the 12400 eat so much more energy?

does the turbo means 100% usage? or is it some kind of overclock I have to enable?

If it's something that happens automactically, when does it begin? at 100% or is something that gradually builds up?

Thanks in advance.

 

[TerryLaze]

The 10400 has a turbo of 135W
Both numbers, 65 and 150, are just ceilings it's not a switch where the CPU is forced to use 65 or 150W it's a switch that doesn't allow more than that.
Usage mostly depends on the software you run games use much less power so they they will run at high clocks and still be at 65W or maybe a little bit above, while heavier things like benchmarks will need closer to 150W to run at high clocks.

Idle will be much lower than 65W for the CPU alone.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-pl1-pl2-tau-10th-gen-comet-lake-processors

 

[mcan226]

The 10400 has a turbo of 135W
Both numbers, 65 and 150, are just ceilings it's not a switch where the CPU is forced to use 65 or 150W it's a switch that doesn't allow more than that.
Usage mostly depends on the software you run games use much less power so they they will run at high clocks and still be at 65W or maybe a little bit above, while heavier things like benchmarks will need closer to 150W to run at high clocks.

Idle will be much lower than 65W for the CPU alone.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-pl1-pl2-tau-10th-gen-comet-lake-processors

Oh, I've actually read that one but didn't understand it too much. I'm still too much of a noob when it comes to computers, and intel's site for the 10400 only said 65, while the 12400's site said both 65/117 so I assumed it was a feature that only the 12400 had.

My computer will be used mostly for gaming, so that means that the cpu will consume about 65w or a bit more even at 100% usage? that would be a huge relief, since I'm paring it with a 12gb 2060 which draws 185w at full load and I have a 550w psu and I was afraid it was not gonna be enough.

 

[Math Geek]

think about it in terms of a car. if i said the car gets 100 mpg at idle and 30 mpg at highway speeds, what would that mean to you?

would you expect 100 mpg when driving it?? no that only means it sitting in the driveway at idle. kind of useless number really.

those numbers are pretty much the same idea. at idle it uses 65w, which means pretty much just windows running and nothing else. fire up a game or other tasking program and it quickly uses more power. you don't want to look at intel's numbers as they are misleading at best and outright lies at worst!!

instead look at professional reviews and see what they measured while testing it. for instance

https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/core-i5-12400-processor-review,5.html

they show about 150w at multithreaded load and about 88w at single core load. so i'd expect somewhere between them for the average gaming session. 100-110w or so depending on the game and how it uses cores. not massive but more than 65w for sure. of course this is only a guess and reading a few more reviews would give you a better idea what to expect.

marketing stuff from ANY company is usually pretty much useless, keep that in mind and look for professional reviews to know what is really going on

 

[mcan226]

think about it in terms of a car. if i said the car gets 100 mpg at idle and 30 mpg at highway speeds, what would that mean to you?

would you expect 100 mpg when driving it?? no that only means it sitting in the driveway at idle. kind of useless number really.

those numbers are pretty much the same idea. at idle it uses 65w, which means pretty much just windows running and nothing else. fire up a game or other tasking program and it quickly uses more power. you don't want to look at intel's numbers as they are misleading at best and outright lies at worst!!

instead look at professional reviews and see what they measured while testing it. for instance

https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/core-i5-12400-processor-review,5.html

they show about 150w at multithreaded load and about 88w at single core load. so i'd expect somewhere between them for the average gaming session. 100-110w or so depending on the game and how it uses cores. not massive but more than 65w for sure. of course this is only a guess and reading a few more reviews would give you a better idea what to expect.

marketing stuff from ANY company is usually pretty much useless, keep that in mind and look for professional reviews to know what is really going on

Thanks for the reply. Guru 3d says "Keep in mind that we measure the ENTIRE PC, not just the processor's power consumption. "

And I've just watched a hardware unboxed video of the 12400 and it reached 162, but they said it was system consuption.

Do they mean cpu + motherboard + everything else except gpu?

 

[Math Geek]

system usually means everything including the gpu. but there is no way that's for the system they described in the beginning.

i don't have 20 minutes to watch a video to hear it all though. i like to read it so i can quickly find what i want to see.....

does not look like he really worried about power draw numbers as much as what fps or benchmark score it got. that's fine if his audience only cares about that but i want all the numbers cause i am a math geek and i like numbers and charts and graphics and more numbers

looking at a couple seems like about 100w is what i'd expect from that cpu in gaming. more or less of course depending on the game itself and how it uses resources. not bad really for what it can do and compared to the higher end models

 

[mcan226]

system usually means everything including the gpu. but there is no way that's for the system they described in the beginning.

i don't have 20 minutes to watch a video to hear it all though. i like to read it so i can quickly find what i want to see.....

does not look like he really worried about power draw numbers as much as what fps or benchmark score it got. that's fine if his audience only cares about that but i want all the numbers cause i am a math geek and i like numbers and charts and graphics and more numbers

Sorry, I don't know how to embed videos. The power part is at 7:20.

But looking at it again, maybe he ment the entire system consumed 28% less, but the cpu draw by itsel 162w. Then again, guru3d does say they show the entire pc.

But anyhow, do you think gaming could get that high or would stay at 110?

I'm kinda worried because I'm gonna pair it with a 12gb 2060 and have a 550w psu. If I use 162 in the watt calculator I'd reach 450w of estimated consuption, assuming the gpu only reaches 185w at full load

 

[Why_Me]

Sorry, I don't know how to embed videos. The power part is at 7:20.

But looking at it again, maybe he ment the entire system consumed 28% less, but the cpu draw by itsel 162w. Then again, guru3d does say they show the entire pc.

But anyhow, do you think gaming could get that high or would stay at 110?

I'm kinda worried because I'm gonna pair it with a 12gb 2060 and have a 550w psu. If I use 162 in the watt calculator I'd reach 450w of estimated consuption, assuming the gpu only reaches 185w at full load

550w is fine for that setup.

 

[Math Geek]

yah less than 300w for the cpu and gpu leaves plenty of headroom for the rest of the system.

this does assume you have a quality psu and not some junk unit that only looks like a psu. so to be totally thorough, what psu do you have? just to be sure what you have is actually a 550w unit

 

[mcan226]

yah less than 300w for the cpu and gpu leaves plenty of headroom for the rest of the system.

this does assume you have a quality psu and not some junk unit that only looks like a psu. so to be totally thorough, what psu do you have? just to be sure what you have is actually a 550w unit

It's a corsair CX550 gray label. Bought it brand new last month. I looked at ltt's psu thread before buying it. According to it, It's suppose to be a good midrange tier psu

 

[mcan226]

550w is fine for that setup.

So nice to hear that. this is my first build and I was worried I didn't have enough power and would end up damaging everything

 

[Math Geek]

yah that's a decent mid range psu. you should be ok but don't try reaching for massive overclocks or anything like that.

 

[TerryLaze]

Gamers Nexus newest video shows the 12400 uses 75W for blender and 87W for CB, these are rendering and use 100% CPU so any game you play will use much less than that.
AS LONG AS YOU HAVE YOUR SYSTEM PROPERLY CONFIGURED.
Many mobos come with terrible settings, GN reconfigures all mobos to follow intel/amd guidelines.
watch?v=Kr5V1lgctYw

 

[mcan226]

yah that's a decent mid range psu. you should be ok but don't try reaching for massive overclocks or anything like that.

Great to hear.

No, I won't be doing any overclock myself, I don't like meddling with those kind of stuff yet. The only overclock I'll do is enabling the XMP for the rams and the factory oc that the GPU might come with if I buy an oc version

 

[mcan226]

Gamers Nexus newest video shows the 12400 uses 75W for blender and 87W for CB, these are rendering and use 100% CPU so any game you play will use much less than that.
AS LONG AS YOU HAVE YOUR SYSTEM PROPERLY CONFIGURED.
Many mobos come with terrible settings, GN reconfigures all mobos to follow intel/amd guidelines.
watch?v=Kr5V1lgctYw

Wow, nice.

This is the first time I've heard about changing the mobo's settings according to intel's guidelines.
Do you know where I can find that guide? I have a msi mortar b660 wifi version and hsven't touch anything on its uefi apart from enabling xmp for the rams.

 

[TerryLaze]

Wow, nice.

This is the first time I've heard about changing the mobo's settings according to intel's guidelines.
Do you know where I can find that guide? I have a msi mortar b660 wifi version and hsven't touch anything on its uefi apart from enabling xmp for the rams.

Look for pl1 pl2 or long term and short term boost
pl1=long term should be 65W
pl2=short term should be 169W, if you only play games you can reduce that
TAU or short term duration=128secs.

Or if you want to you can put both to 169W see how temps are and if needed reduce it by 5-10W at a time until you get quiet and cool performance.
As long as you know that mobos often come with these settings way too high and that you can change them whenever you want.

You can even use IXTU to do these changes from windows.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-core-i5-12400-review

• Core i5-12400 StockPL: Corsair H115i 280mm water cooler, PL1=65W, PL2=169W, 128-second boost (Tau), Stock DDR4-3200 in Gear 1

 

[mcan226]

Look for pl1 pl2 or long term and short term boost
pl1=long term should be 65W
pl2=short term should be 169W, if you only play games you can reduce that
TAU or short term duration=128secs.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-core-i5-12400-review

Well, that was certainly an adventure. Everytime I get into the uefi I feel like i'm somewhere I shouldn't be, lol.

It turned out my settings were all unlocked! Pretty weird. Msi's Cpu cooler tuning should have asked the type of cooler I had the first time according to them, but it didn't and it was selected the watercooling option and unlocked power limits.

Now I've selected the stock cooler option and it is currently as follow:

pl1 = 65w
pl2 = 169w
long duration mantained = 28s
cpu current limit = 175A

There was no short term duration value though, maybe that's a feature of the motherboard the reviewer used?

 

[TerryLaze]

pl1 = 65w
pl2 = 169w
long duration mantained = 28s
cpu current limit = 175A

There was no short term duration value though, maybe that's a feature of the motherboard the reviewer used?

long term duration should be short term, it's 128sec where it can boost to 169 while the rest of the time ,long term, it's confined to 65W.
They probably got that confused.

 

[mcan226]

long term duration should be short term, it's 128sec where it can boost to 169 while the rest of the time ,long term, it's confined to 65W.
They probably got that confused.

I'm sorry, I'm kinda lost. Do I have to change those settings or leave them as they are for now?

 

[TerryLaze]

I'm sorry, I'm kinda lost. Do I have to change those settings or leave them as they are for now?

If you don't have any temperature issues and are ok with the power draw as it is you can just leave it as is.

 

[mcan226]

If you don't have any temperature issues and are ok with the power draw as it is you can just leave it as is.

Yeah, everything seems normal atm. I still haven't bought my gpu so right now I'm just doing office work. I'll do more research once I'm near to buy it. Thank you so much for all your help