The Tech Report addresses two questions about Intel's i7-8700K in their latest review, how to keep it running cool and how the multi-core enhancement feature changes that answer. Multi-core enhancement is a BIOS level overclocking feature which allows all cores on Coffee Lake processors to hit the full boost clock instead of only a single core. In this example, a single core could hit 4.7 GHz while the other cores are being limited to 4.3GHz, however with multi-core enhancement enabled that limit is removed and all cores can hit 4.7GHz simultaneously. As with any type of overclock this produces significantly more heat and requires more cooling.
This enhancement means there are two answers to the question about cooling your Coffee. With the enhancement feature disabled you should be just fine with a CM Hyper 212 Evo or equivalent heatsink, however with MCE enabled even a Corsair H115i shows a 90° C package temperature with core temps between 84-90C. Keep this in mind when shopping for parts; it is nice to have all cores running at their full Boost Clock but you will need to be able to cool them or else see throttling as the chip sense Tjunction temps in excess of 100C.
"Intel's Core i7-8700K proved an exceptionally well-rounded chip in our testing, but the company's choice of thermal interface material has left many wondering whether the Coffee Lake flagship will prove a challenge to keep cool. We establish a handy baseline for what might make a chip "difficult" to cool and see whether the Core i7-8700K falls on the wrong side of the line."
Here are some more Processor articles from around the web:
- Intel Core i3-8100 & i3-8350K Review: RIP Ryzen 3? @ Techspot
- Intel Core i3 8100: 3.6GHz Quad-Core With UHD Graphics For Less Than $120 USD @ Phoronix
- Intel Core i3-8350K 4.0 GHz @ TechPowerUp
- Four Cores for Ultrabooks: Core i7-8550U @ TechSpot
- AMD Ryzen 3 1300X Quad-Core @ TechARP
Wow, an option to overclock
Wow, an option to overclock all cores? What a foolish idea brought about by greed for more of your money no doubt. We need to stop buying anything but AMD CPUs. Don’t even get groceries at the store. If you have any extra money, spend it on RYZEN processors, as many as you can buy. AMD is so great. I love them and you should too.
Well at least AMD is lowering
Well at least AMD is lowering is prices even more so all those Zeppelin dies coming of the fab/wafer lines at 80%+ yields can be used in the Epyc SKUs and then those very same Zeppelin dies can be binned down to make the various Summit Ridge dies that go into the various consumer Ryzen/Threadripper SKUs.
And those Zeppelin dies will be getting some Zen+ improvments/new stepping at 12nm for some better clocks speeds and such. So look for all of AMD’s Epyc down to Threadripper and Ryzen SKUs to be made off of that same Zeppelin modular base die at 12nm(with Tweaks) for Zen+ as the current Zeppelin dies based consumer to professional SKUs are currently made from at 14nm.
Intel sure is no longer making known any all core boost clock metrics so it’s going to be up to the reviewers to do more work there as reveiwers should be doing in the first place for both Intel and AMD. Intel is probebly doing this to improve their Binning operation for their Coffee Lake/newer SKUs that will no longer have much in the way of all core clock metric information provided and users sold Coffee Lake/newer CPU/SOC SKUs that have a bit more variance in their all core clock speeds, batch to batch off of the difussion lines and core to core also. This will allow Intel to get more yields by not having to bin its newest CPU SKUs around any advertised all core clock metrics and thus allow for more product in the retail channels.
Those large monolithic dies that Intel is producing are lower yielding and are going to be getting hotter and that heat will have to be dissipated by some more costly cooling solutions compared to AMD’s Zen SKUs that do not have all the power hungry AVX 512 units to deal with so AMD can probably make some nice improvmente to it’s Zen+ CPUs by sticking with the AVX 128 units and making its compute/AI Vega GPUs available for any Epyc customers that need any heavy FP workloads performed.
So AMD has some options with Zen+ to continue to improve its clocks in that GF/12nm process update and get out a first Zen+/Zeppelin die stepping(with tweaks) that is a few steps above any of the Zen/Zeppelin die at 14nm variants.
Intel is definitely trying to get more out of the last of its fab process node advantages by trying to get a 6 core Coffee lake variant to perform like an 8 core Ryzen variant in some CPU metrics but the third party fab industry has already gone below 14nm and Intel will have to compete on that level playing field with many others now.
I’m starting to even see Threadripper SKUs getting price reductions(retailer price reductions) now and that pricing latitude is all thanks to AMD’s Zen/Zeppelin modular dies that are used across AMD’s entire line of Eptc(Workstation/Server)/Threadripper(HEDT)/Ryzen(desktop) lines for a great economy of scale that Intel can not match currently. AMD’s Zen/Zeppelin die costs are so minimal now that production has been ongoing and all those initial fab/tape-out and costs are more fully amortized with each new Zeppelin die based unit/s sold. AMD’s Zen/Zeppelin die production costs are so minimal at this stage that AMD can more agressively lower its pricing what with AMD being such a low overhead business operation in the first place.
Intel has a lot of very expensive Fabs to maintain that bleed billions if they are not run at as close to full production as possible and Intel has a high overhead manangement heavy business to operate. And all the fat is just costing Intel billions to maintain so Intel has to always try and maintain its massive margins with some form of artifical product segementation schemes in order to keep from bleeding more billions that even Intel can not afford to do for much longer.
The remainder of this year is going to be interesting on into the first quarter of 2018 and beyond as Intel’s CPU market share shrinks even more and more drastic measures are taken because of the lower margin price/performance competition that AMD has brought to the CPU markets and Raven Ridge APU variants will be coming online mobile to desktop over the next 6 months.
Look for more cores wars and price wars incoming for consumers over the next year or more.
Too long; didn’t read.
Too long; didn’t read.
James is Too Retarded to
James is Too Retarded to Comprehend and Can’t Read.
Sir, that is slander against
Sir, that is slander against James. I read “wafer” and got hungry and stopped reading your AMD boot-licking drivel. Good job wasting your time. LOL
Very interesting write up.
Very interesting write up. Thank you.
We all need to support AMD,
We all need to support AMD, who care deeply for the well-being of all their customers personally. I know for a fact that Lisa Su has a framed photo of me in her home because of all the support I have given to their amazing company. Infinity fabric. Not glued together like some other lame jerks do, I won’t name any names but they use a lot of blue in their packaging. We’re the Red Team here all the way. There’s AMD technology in all the best game consoles. Intel is finished. I bet they won’t even be around by the time the next platform comes out and copies the revolutionary AMD naming scheme all over again. Ummmm, Z370, sounds a bit too close to X370, don’t you think? SMT. Global foundries. Hercules. I can’t help myself sometimes. I love them so much.
Is there a doctor in the
Is there a doctor in the house?
But only a doctor with A MD,
But only a doctor with A MD, right? 😉
Is there some Intel high
Is there some Intel high margin CPU pricing being fustigated by AMD’s Zen SKU price/performance competition. Look at old Blubberzilla’s been counters now looking for new ways to further segement Intel’s already segemented to the maximum product offerings. Look at Linus sitting on the curb in the Asian rain doing his famous Facepalm at Intel’s infamous product segementation schemes for Expensive RAID Keys($$$$) and PCIe lane reductions on Motherboard SKUs and whole new motherboards required even more often for new Intel CPU SKUs. It’s the Milkining2 Staring Intel as that Mad Product Segementation Fat-O-Sorous Rex Beast desperately having to lower its CPU SKU pricing all while trying to claw the lost margins back using some Motherboard product segementation schemes.
Hahaha…
Hahaha…
I’m not surprised this shit
I’m not surprised this shit gets hot, we are literally hitting the fucking limits of physics.
since when does shit get hot?
since when does shit get hot? it’s as warm as the body it came out of
Right because Intel’s use of
Right because Intel’s use of crappy thermal paste instead of soldering has NOTHING to do with it
Yes, nothing to do with it.
Yes, nothing to do with it.
i can see a lot of intel
i can see a lot of intel coffees burning up and melting.
MCE was the cause of high
MCE was the cause of high temps on my 4790K w/ an ASUS Z97-A/USB 3.1 board. Had to do some digging a while back to find out why my temps were so high and that was it