Intel Core i7-10700 vs Core i7-10700K Review: Is 65W Comet Lake an Option?
by Dr. Ian Cutress on January 21, 2021 10:30 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Core i7
- Z490
- 10th Gen Core
- Comet Lake
- i7-10700K
- i7-10700
Gaming Tests: Strange Brigade
Strange Brigade is based in 1903’s Egypt, and follows a story which is very similar to that of the Mummy film franchise. This particular third-person shooter is developed by Rebellion Developments which is more widely known for games such as the Sniper Elite and Alien vs Predator series. The game follows the hunt for Seteki the Witch Queen, who has arose once again and the only ‘troop’ who can ultimately stop her. Gameplay is cooperative centric with a wide variety of different levels and many puzzles which need solving by the British colonial Secret Service agents sent to put an end to her reign of barbaric and brutality.
The game supports both the DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs and houses its own built-in benchmark as an on-rails experience through the game. For quality, the game offers various options up for customization including textures, anti-aliasing, reflections, draw distance and even allows users to enable or disable motion blur, ambient occlusion and tessellation among others. Strange Brigade supports Vulkan and DX12, and so we test on both.
- 720p Low, 1440p Low, 4K Low, 1080p Ultra
The automation for Strange Brigade is one of the easiest in our suite – the settings and quality can be changed by pre-prepared .ini files, and the benchmark is called via the command line. The output includes all the frame time data.
| AnandTech | Low Resolution Low Quality |
Medium Resolution Low Quality |
High Resolution Low Quality |
Medium Resolution Max Quality |
| Average FPS |  |
 |
 |
 |
| 95th Percentile |  |
 |
 |
 |
| AnandTech | Low Resolution Low Quality |
Medium Resolution Low Quality |
High Resolution Low Quality |
Medium Resolution Max Quality |
| Average FPS |  |
 |
 |
 |
| 95th Percentile |  |
 |
 |
 |
All of our benchmark results can also be found in our benchmark engine, Bench.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
210 Comments
View All Comments
Spunjji - Wednesday, January 27, 2021 - link
The review didn't say it is a bad CPU.HarkPtooie - Tuesday, February 2, 2021 - link
Gigabyte B460M DS3HPegged at 100% CPU utilization on 8 cores (HT disabled) the wall meter says 149-163 W, CoreTemp says I use about 70 W core and 8 W uncore. CPU multiplier bounces between 43-47x, though mainly resting at 46x. Temps are 65-66°C using a humble CoolerMaster TX3 Evo.
Just upped the PL1 to 250 W in BIOS. It made no discernible difference, so I suppose it doesn't work on B460 chipsets.
Everett F Sargent - Tuesday, February 2, 2021 - link
Enable HT. If not then why not? The battery of tests conducted here and everywhere else have HT enabled. So far, you are still at the apples != oranges stage. It is now time for you to step up or ... :/Please post results with HT enabled.
Everett F Sargent - Tuesday, February 2, 2021 - link
Oh and the benchmark application that you are using (e. g. Prime95 or whatever) if you do not mind. Please. TIAHarkPtooie - Wednesday, February 3, 2021 - link
So: I set all the PL limits to max (4090 W) and reran. 173 W. Up 10-15 W from default.Then I enabled HT and reran. 213 W. +40 W compared to non-HT.
So I turned off the PL tweaking and reran, with HT on. 204 W initially, then after a while it went down to ca 140 W and the multipliers reduced to about 37x.
Kind of surprised that HT made such a difference, I was under the impression that HT "cores", being a small backpack aside the "real" core, added a tiny percent of transistors overall. I usually disable HT because the software I run don't benefit from them and actually loses performance with it.
So: mystery solved and I stand corrected.
Intel is not lying when they call this a 65 W CPU. They are however obscuring the fact that it does so with REDUCED PERFORMANCE. Its default behavior is to only run at 100% for half a minute.
When allowed by BIOS tweaks, it will double the power draw but run at 100% all the time. This is overclocking in the sense that default settings are overridden - but it is not in the sense that the peak speed is not actually driven above its intended levels. Just maintained at higher power draw.
Aight. I'm back to non-HT and free power. 173W is not that much.
Just did a compare of performance during my simulations, and they were more or less identical to the default settings.
Qasar - Thursday, February 4, 2021 - link
it is possible that the Gigabyte B460M DS3H that you are using ( as per a previous post ) could be holding the cpu back as far as overclocking, power usage and such goes. as the B460m doesnt support overclocking by intel, but asus, asrock and msi seems to have found a way to enable overclocking:https://www.techpowerup.com/266489/asrock-enables-...
https://videocardz.com/newz/asus-asrock-and-msi-br...
at the same time, though, what asus, asrock and msi have done, isnt really overclocking, but more of allowing the cpu to use its turbo states longer, then what intel allows
both of those links, could explain, at least partly, HarkPtooie, why you are getting the results you have.
Everett F Sargent - Thursday, February 4, 2021 - link
Yes, I found those links also. Conspicuously absent from all those reports was Gigabyte. But ...https://www.gigabyte.com/us/Motherboard/Intel-H470...
There you will find ...
B460M DS3H (rev. 1.0)
B460M DS3H AC (rev. 1.x)
B460M DS3H V2 (rev. 1.0)
(ranked oldest to newest afaik)
From the manual for the B460M DS3H (rev. 1.0) (page 25) ...
https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Manual/mb_m...
https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Manual/mb_m...
https://download.gigabyte.com/FileList/Manual/mb_m...
"Turbo Power Limits
Allows you to set a power limit for CPU Turbo mode. When the CPU power consumption exceeds the specified power limit, the CPU will automatically reduce the core frequency in order to reduce the power. Auto sets the power limit according to the CPU specifications. (Default: Auto)
Package Power Limit TDP (Watts) / Package Power Limit Time
Allows you to set the power limit for CPU Turbo mode and how long it takes to operate at the specified power limit. If the specified value is exceeded, the CPU will automatically reduce the core frequency in order to reduce the power. Auto sets the power limit according to the CPU specifications. This item is configurable only when Turbo Power Limits is set to Enabled. (Default: Auto)
DRAM Power Limit (Watts) / DRAM Power Limit Time
Allows you to set the power limit for memory Turbo mode and how long it takes to operate at the specified power limit. Auto lets the BIOS automatically configure this setting. This item is configurable only when Turbo Power Limits is set to Enabled. (Default: Auto)"
That same language can be found for all three MB manuals. So. it would appear that pl1, pl2 and tau are adjustable as HarkPtooie has suggested (but to be sure the latest bios version should be installed imho).
The only question I have is, why did Gigabyte apparently update the B460M DS3H (rev. 1.0) to the B460M DS3H V2 (rev. 1.0) (maybe they are different in some hardware way that I have failed to notice).
The stress test should be the one that produces the highest temperatures together with the best cooling solution possible for these non-K parts. It sounds a bit circular but then these are non-K parts where we constrain the control knobs to just pl1, pl2 and tau.
Spunjji - Monday, January 25, 2021 - link
"If you are going to make wild speculations whose veracity anyone can check, you might want to go over your material a bit better."The irony of ending your FUD with this... it's glorious!
HarkPtooie - Tuesday, January 26, 2021 - link
It would be ironic if I were wrong, but I sort of trust my eyes here. And my point was that anyone possessing an i7-10700 and a $20 wattmeter can easily check this too.Spunjji - Wednesday, January 27, 2021 - link
Good for you, but I don't trust your eyes - not when every objective review available on the internet contradicts you.