Intel
PC fanatics who’ve been round the block a couple of instances would possibly keep in mind the stretch from the ’90s into the early 2000s when ever-increasing clock speeds have been Intel’s main metric for growing processor efficiency. AMD participated, too—it managed to beat Intel to 1 GHz in what was thought-about a main coup at the time—however Intel’s Pentium 4 processors particularly prioritized boosting clock speeds at the price of instructions-per-clock.
Today, the firm is ever so briefly revisiting these outdated days with the $689 Core i9-14900KS, its latest flagship desktop processor. The i9-14900KS can hit speeds of 6.2 GHz out of the field, a small push previous the last-generation i9-13900KS and the i9-14900K that topped out at 6.0 GHz. Like different current high-end Intel desktop chips, it additionally options Intel’s “Adaptive Boost Technology,” which can permit the chip to extend its energy consumption and efficiency till it hits 100° Celsius.
This form of clock pace boosting is each spectacular and impractical. On the one hand, Intel has managed to push clock speeds even larger with out altering its structure or manufacturing course of, a end result of years of iteration throughout the Twelfth-, Thirteenth-, and 14th-generation processor households. On the impractical facet, the i9-14900KS can use a ridiculous quantity of energy to realize marginally quicker efficiency, reminding us of the legal guidelines of physics that helped shut down the megahertz wars in the first place.
Intel’s specs listing a particular 320 W TDP degree for the i9-14900KS, considerably larger than the 253 W TDP for the Core i9-14900K (although producers typically ignore Intel’s specs right here, permitting CPUs to run with successfully limitless TDPs and counting on thermal throttling to maintain processors from frying themselves).
In phrases of real-world energy utilization, testing from Tom’s Hardware demonstrates some fairly enormous gaps between the quantity of energy used and the quantity of efficiency gained. In one Blender rendering benchmark, the i9-14900KS consumed 31 % extra energy than the i9-14900K for a lower than 1 % efficiency achieve. The hole is not all the time fairly that enormous, however the energy utilization improve is usually disproportionate to the efficiency improve.
These sorts of impractical bragging-rights-only processors in all probability will not go away, however this might be the finish of the line for Intel’s Core i9 branding, the 14th-gen Core processor lineup, the LGA 1700 processor socket, and the Raptor Lake processor structure. Never say by no means—Intel does like to rebrand and reuse outdated silicon to launch quote-unquote new merchandise—however present rumors means that the new LGA 1851 socket and next-gen “Arrow Lake” processors will grow to be Intel’s flagship desktop platform sooner or later in the subsequent yr or so.