Question i9 and i7 questions? Also, how do you know when you need water cooling over air cooling?

[UKTone]

So to my surprise, i9 13900, i9 13900F, i7 13700, and i7 13700F all use the same wattages. Does that mean all are ok with air cooling?

Same story with the KF models and almost the same with KS (150 base, but same max Turbo). But these all would need water cooling?

Are there other types of cooling?

Does the core count matter for heat or just the wattages? Does having a lot of programs open increase the wattage usage and/or heat?

 

[logainofhades]

I would say you would be fine, with a good air cooler.

https://www.tomshardware.com/features/intel-core-13900k-cooling-tested


There are other types of cooling, but none that are practical for everyday use.
More cores will generate more heat, and use more wattage. A lot of programs open could increase wattage, if they are actually doing some kind of work. A program can be operational, but not take up much resources, as it isn't really doing anything. CPU usage is more important to wattage/heat, than what is open.

 

[hotaru.hino]

So to my surprise, i9 13900, i9 13900F, i7 13700, and i7 13700F all use the same wattages. Does that mean all are ok with air cooling?

Same story with the KF models and almost the same with KS (150 base, but same max Turbo). But these all would need water cooling?

Anything can be air cooled. I used to have a 500cc motorcycle that used an air cooled engine. The thing is the hotter the part, the more beefier the heat sink needs to be in order to keep the part's thermals in check. Water cooling helps, but you don't necessarily need it if use a large enough air cooler.

Are there other types of cooling?

There's thermelectric or Peltier cooling and phase change cooling. They're both impractical because they can cause the CPU to drop below ambient temperatures which present a condensation hazard. In phase change cooling's case, basically freeze the area around the CPU. They're also really expensive.

Does the core count matter for heat or just the wattages? Does having a lot of programs open increase the wattage usage and/or heat?

Only the heat output matters. Core count doesn't really matter because parts tuned for a different market can have more cores but consume less energy. For instance, my Ryzen 5600X consumes nearly double the power as my laptop's Ryzen 5900H, despite the 5900H having two more cores.

Having a lot of programs doesn't increase power consumption unless they're actually doing something. Unless you want to be pedantic and say the OS still has to perform some minor housekeeping/bookkeeping with it.

 

[Eximo]

The important thing to consider with contemporary CPUs is that they have boost functions.

The TDP that Intel uses is specified for the base clock with all cores running "100%", it will temporarily boost to much higher power as long as temperature allows.

Larger your cooler, the longer it can do this. But for most use cases you aren't using all the cores, so one or two are free to run up to the high frequencies and this can be sustained for a long time even with an air cooler.