Intel 15th Gen Focuses On Power Efficiency & Thermals
Historically, Intel has been known for high performance processors at the cost of power consumption, but that’s all about to change.
Despite all the advances AMD has made in recent years with their Zen desktop and laptop CPUs, Intel has generally managed to maintain one critical edge against its decades old rival – gaming performance. For those looking to squeeze every possible frame out of the latest AAA games, the companies recent core i5/7/9 processors often outperformed their AMD counterparts. This has, however, come at the cost of power efficiency and thermals in the past. Intel’s best 13th and 14th generation processors are incredibly power hungry, which limited their appeal – especially in SFF (small form factor) machines where space is at a premium.
On Thursday, 10th of October 2024, Intel released details on their long-awaited 15th generation processors. Code-named Arrow Lake, Intel initially announced five new models arriving on 24th October. With these new processors, intel is promising a paradigm shift . With a goal of reducing power consumption by 40% and internal temperature peaks by 10 degrees.
On paper, Arrow lake is exactly what intel needs to claw its way back to sustainability. This is easily the most efficient desktop processor line-up the company has put out in a long time.
Another big improvement for this new line-up is the new outsourced 20A 3nm process (meaning the transistors in the processor are physically 3 nanometers in size). Intel plans to fully outsource the manufacture of Arrow Lake. At the time of writing, Intel has not specifically named TSMC (a silicon wafer manufacture), but the list of companies capable of manufacturing 3nm transistors at the scale needed is very limited. Intel reportedly hit a recent snag to get its next-generation 18A process, its clear the company still has a long road ahead for 16th generation.
The current top model, releasing on the 24th of October, is the Core Ultra 9 285K. The more affordable option is the Ultra 7 265K, packing 20 cores. The Ultra 5 245KF offers 14 cores and comes without integrated Intel Xe graphics. The 265K draws up to 188W less than the 14900K and runs 15 degrees cooler, a massive difference in power consumption.
While it remains to be seen how these processors will perform in the real world, and all the specs are yet to be released – you can certainly be excited for the latest release from Intel.
