Question does 14nm use more watts? what is the idle power of a barebones comet lake system?

[pman6]

I was looking forward to zen3 apu, but i might have to settle for a rocket lake budget cpu because intel xe will be the first to support av1 hardware decode.

if intel keeps the $180 price for the i5 11400, that could be a better bargain than the upcoming $150 ryzen 3 5000g with 50% more cores.

but while testing the ryzen 4300g quad core barebones pc, I measured 7w idle at the wall.

I'm wondering if 14nm intel chips can get as low watts with just the barebones cpu/mobo/ram/ssd.

can intel desktop systems idle at 10w or less?

 

[damian101]

I don't see why a 10nm Intel CPU would consume more power under very low load than a Ryzen 4000 CPU by AMD. Intel had much more time optimizing their CPUs for long battery life, while AMD's monolithic Zen 2 architecture is AMD's first serious attempt at making a Zen based architecture really efficient under low load.
Intel's 10nm node also seems to be quite efficient, its transistor density is even higher than that of TSMC's 7nm node.

 

[pman6]

i don't know much at all about cpu tech.

but rocket lake will still be 14nm, right? does that matter?

My main objective is to keep the lowest electricity bill with everyday pc usage conditions.

for everyday internet browsing and video watching, no more than 50% average load, do 14nm intel and 7nm amd use about the same amount of power?

 

[Hitman928]

i don't know much at all about cpu tech.

but rocket lake will still be 14nm, right? does that matter?

My main objective is to keep the lowest electricity bill with everyday pc usage conditions.

for everyday internet browsing and video watching, no more than 50% average load, do 14nm intel and 7nm amd use about the same amount of power?

Are you asking for desktop usage or laptop usage? Idle power tends to come down more to specific motherboards or platforms used. Once you start adding any kind of significant load, AMD's 7 nm CPUs will be much more efficient than any 14 nm Intel CPU. If all you are doing is internet browsing and video watching, then you won't be anywhere near 50% load, at least not for any kind of extended period of time. If that's all you need the computer for then the power use difference between any entry level modern CPU will be negligible in the grand scheme of things. Even if one system uses 15W more than the other when in use, that's just noise on an overall house electricity bill. Only time that much power makes a difference is when running on battery or in very small form factor systems.

 

[OlyAR15]

My main objective is to keep the lowest electricity bill with everyday pc usage conditions.

for everyday internet browsing and video watching, no more than 50% average load, do 14nm intel and 7nm amd use about the same amount of power?

Why not just buy a base Mac Mini M1? It has more than enough power for everyday use, and is quite power-efficient.

 

[Leeea]

Why not just buy a base Mac Mini M1? It has more than enough power for everyday use, and is quite power-efficient.

If a user is not hopelessly trapped in Apples prison it is very poor value for the money.

 

[coercitiv]

I'm wondering if 14nm intel chips can get as low watts with just the barebones cpu/mobo/ram/ssd.

can intel desktop systems idle at 10w or less?

As long as configured properly, Intel 14nm CPUs can consume 1-2W at idle.

Here's an example bellow, although do note this HWInfo data was recorded by running a Remote Desktop connection to this system:


This requires:

• video connection through iGPU, as having a dGPU active in the system will also increase CPU idle power by 3-4W
• proper sleep states enabled in BIOS, as the Auto setting for sleep states isn't necessarily enabling power saving features.

but while testing the ryzen 4300g quad core barebones pc, I measured 7w idle at the wall.

I'm wondering if 14nm intel chips can get as low watts with just the barebones cpu/mobo/ram/ssd.

can intel desktop systems idle at 10w or less?

I'm a bit puzzled by your measured 7W as in my experience DYI systems consume 10-15W even when configured for low power usage. Maybe this could be possible with a small PSU and a very basic motherboard and RAM configuration. The CPU isn't even the important part in this process, as it is usually in sleep state using ~1W, the rest of the system is the problem:

• PSU, as long as it's a standard ATX/SFX model, will use a couple of watts
• motherboard will use some power as well, power usage can vary a lot from one model to another
• RAM configuration will also matter

I would say it's definitely possible to get power consumption within 15W with a barebones system using DYI components (mITX board, 350-450W PSU), maybe even 10-12W if you're careful about your motherboard selection and shut down some motherboard features (for example onboard sound can shave 1-2W). Going bellow 10W would likely require a special build, either made by OEM or using some sort of mini-PSU and a frugal motherboard.

 

[software_engineer]

I was looking forward to zen3 apu, but i might have to settle for a rocket lake budget cpu because intel xe will be the first to support av1 hardware decode.

if intel keeps the $180 price for the i5 11400, that could be a better bargain than the upcoming $150 ryzen 3 5000g with 50% more cores.

but while testing the ryzen 4300g quad core barebones pc, I measured 7w idle at the wall.

I'm wondering if 14nm intel chips can get as low watts with just the barebones cpu/mobo/ram/ssd.

can intel desktop systems idle at 10w or less?

If your aim is to build a desktop system with low idle power consumption, an Intel NUC is a good choice. A 10th generation Intel NUC was measured consuming 8.5W at idle here. The 10th generation Intel NUCs use 14nm Comet Lake U series CPUs. The iGPU on Comet Lake U series CPUs does not support hardware accelerated decoding of AV1. However 11th generation Intel NUCs are expected to be released soon. 11th generation Intel NUCs will use Tiger Lake U series CPUs, including an Intel Xe iGPU that will support hardware accelerated decoding of AV1.

I run an 8th generation Intel NUC myself, which includes a Coffee Lake U series CPU. I like it a lot. However the fan can get noisy. I do serveral things to alleviate this problem, however I have not managed to eliminate it. I have a custom fan curve set in the BIOS that keeps the fan at 20% until the CPU reaches 75C, and then increases the fan speed by 4%/C. I also limit PL1 and PL2 to 15W using Intel XTU in Windows and RAPL in Linux. The default PL1 is 28W and the default PL2 is 50W. This works very well on Linux. The machine is virtually silent at idle. However on Windows, background tasks can cause the fan to ramp up, so the machine is not always quiet at idle. If you are sensitive to noise, I would not recommend the Intel NUC.

 

[pman6]

As long as configured properly, Intel 14nm CPUs can consume 1-2W at idle.

Here's an example bellow, although do note this HWInfo data was recorded by running a Remote Desktop connection to this system:
View attachment 36942

interesting.

here's a shot of the 4500u in energy star mode

Not much difference.





The 7w desktop pc was definitely a stripped OEM system.