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
CPU Tests: Simulation
Simulation and Science have a lot of overlap in the benchmarking world, however for this distinction we’re separating into two segments mostly based on the utility of the resulting data. The benchmarks that fall under Science have a distinct use for the data they output – in our Simulation section, these act more like synthetics but at some level are still trying to simulate a given environment.
DigiCortex v1.35: link
DigiCortex is a pet project for the visualization of neuron and synapse activity in the brain. The software comes with a variety of benchmark modes, and we take the small benchmark which runs a 32k neuron/1.8B synapse simulation, similar to a small slug.
The results on the output are given as a fraction of whether the system can simulate in real-time, so anything above a value of one is suitable for real-time work. The benchmark offers a 'no firing synapse' mode, which in essence detects DRAM and bus speed, however we take the firing mode which adds CPU work with every firing.
The software originally shipped with a benchmark that recorded the first few cycles and output a result. So while fast multi-threaded processors this made the benchmark last less than a few seconds, slow dual-core processors could be running for almost an hour. There is also the issue of DigiCortex starting with a base neuron/synapse map in ‘off mode’, giving a high result in the first few cycles as none of the nodes are currently active. We found that the performance settles down into a steady state after a while (when the model is actively in use), so we asked the author to allow for a ‘warm-up’ phase and for the benchmark to be the average over a second sample time.
For our test, we give the benchmark 20000 cycles to warm up and then take the data over the next 10000 cycles seconds for the test – on a modern processor this takes 30 seconds and 150 seconds respectively. This is then repeated a minimum of 10 times, with the first three results rejected. Results are shown as a multiple of real-time calculation.
For users wondering why the 5800X wins, it seems that Digicortex prefers single chiplet designs, and the more cores the better. On the Intel side, the 10700 pulls a slight lead.
Dwarf Fortress 0.44.12: Link
Another long standing request for our benchmark suite has been Dwarf Fortress, a popular management/roguelike indie video game, first launched in 2006 and still being regularly updated today, aiming for a Steam launch sometime in the future.
Emulating the ASCII interfaces of old, this title is a rather complex beast, which can generate environments subject to millennia of rule, famous faces, peasants, and key historical figures and events. The further you get into the game, depending on the size of the world, the slower it becomes as it has to simulate more famous people, more world events, and the natural way that humanoid creatures take over an environment. Like some kind of virus.
For our test we’re using DFMark. DFMark is a benchmark built by vorsgren on the Bay12Forums that gives two different modes built on DFHack: world generation and embark. These tests can be configured, but range anywhere from 3 minutes to several hours. After analyzing the test, we ended up going for three different world generation sizes:
- Small, a 65x65 world with 250 years, 10 civilizations and 4 megabeasts
- Medium, a 127x127 world with 550 years, 10 civilizations and 4 megabeasts
- Large, a 257x257 world with 550 years, 40 civilizations and 10 megabeasts
DFMark outputs the time to run any given test, so this is what we use for the output. We loop the small test for as many times possible in 10 minutes, the medium test for as many times in 30 minutes, and the large test for as many times in an hour.
Dolphin v5.0 Emulation: Link
Many emulators are often bound by single thread CPU performance, and general reports tended to suggest that Haswell provided a significant boost to emulator performance. This benchmark runs a Wii program that ray traces a complex 3D scene inside the Dolphin Wii emulator. Performance on this benchmark is a good proxy of the speed of Dolphin CPU emulation, which is an intensive single core task using most aspects of a CPU. Results are given in seconds, where the Wii itself scores 1051 seconds.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
210 Comments
View All Comments
blckgrffn - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
Thanks for the review, as it basically shows what other reviews already show, namely if you set aggressive PL1 and PL2 values across K & non K SKUs then you'll get similar performance.I am curious why you said the performance is much lower with a 65W power limit and then didn't include those results.
I feel like it is common knowledge, especially with 10th Gen Intel CPUs that you need to manually configure PL1 and PL2 in keeping with your cooling solution, but perhaps not.
blckgrffn - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
I mean, published PL1 for this CPU is 10700 is 65, PL2 is 224 for 28 seconds.Running outside of those value is essentially turbo overclocking (yeah, I know Intel has also redefined that term).
If your motherboard auto overclocks the CPU via a ridiculous PL1 value then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Tunnah - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
Intel has no incentive to change their policy and label their products with the actual power draw they'll be using because they'll show how much more they suck up compared to AMD. People are constantly looking for metrics to compare the 2 "teams", and Intel getting to keep the labels of 65w and 125w lets the fans say "see it has the same power usage as AMD!"yeeeeman - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
this looks just fine to me as long as it is clear for the user.magreen - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link
But it is not.porina - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
From my observations of Zen 2 at stock operation, 65W TDP models tended to sit continuously at the 88W PPT limit under most all-core load conditions. Has this changed with Zen 3? Do they not hit 88W so easily, or is another (current) limiter taking over? Or is the limit a different value now?Smell This - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link
Presumably, the Zen3 would operate under the same 'constraints' ----- The constraints are as follows:
♦ Package Power Tracking (PPT): The power threshold that is allowed to be delivered to the socket. This is 88W for 65W TDP processors, and 142W for 105W TDP processors.
♦ Thermal Design Current (TDC): The maximum amount of current delivered by the motherboard’s voltage regulators when under thermally constrained scenarios (high temperatures). This is 60A for 65W TDP processors, and 95A for 105W TDP processors.
♦ Electrical Design Current (EDC): This is the maximum amount of current at any instantaneous short period of time that can be delivered by the motherboard’s voltage regulators. This is 90A for 65W TDP processors, and 140A for 105W TDP processors.
"Looking at the total power consumption of the new 3700X, the chip is very much seemingly hitting and maintaining the 88W PPT limitations of the default settings, and we’re measuring 90W peak consumption across the package."
Olaf van der Spek - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
Why would one want to limit turbo budgets? Thermals? If there's no thermal headroom the CPU won't turbo (as far).Efficiency?
Calin - Friday, January 22, 2021 - link
The motherboard has power limits - both in instant maximum current from the voltage regulation phase (remember, the mainboard receives 3.3 Volts, 5V, 12V and maybe -5V and -12V from the PSU and has to convert that to processor voltage), and in cooling capacity for the VRM (Voltage Regulation Module).Regardless of the power limits, the processor will slow down if its internal temperature is too great.
So yes, the "my mainboard's power delivery module cannot deliver more than 80 amps" is a possible reason. Another would be "My case has bad cooling and I want to keep the processor colder". Another would be "As soon as the sustained power goes over 140 watts, the fans in the case start whirring and I hate the sound".
DominionSeraph - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
>This does come with a reasonably good default cooler.No. Just no. The Ryzen coolers are utter trash and you're doing a disservice to your readers who may not have ever had a quiet cooler to say otherwise. I build PCs and I've had several Ryzens go through and I have never seen one where I would call the acoustics livable. My first sale was a 1700 with the stock cooler since I didn't have any other AM4 compatible ones at the time and I still feel bad about selling it that way. It was just terrible. The 212 EVO seems to be within its thermal envelope for quiet cooling up to a stock 3700X, so I'd highly recommend one of those over the stock cooler. Going above the ~85W of a 3700X you should spring for a Fuma 2.