Andrew Cunningham
Intel’s K-series desktop CPUs always get the most attention from enthusiasts because they represent the best performance that new Intel processors are capable of when money, heat and power aren’t an issue. But more people will end up using the cheaper, non-overclockable versions of these processors, be it an office desktop PC, an inexpensive gaming desktop, or a budget-conscious home video editing workstation.
Today we take a look at the Core i7-12700, a 12-core, 20-thread CPU that retails for around $340 (or $315 without integrated graphics). That’s somewhere between $75 and $100 cheaper than the overclockable Core i7-12700K, plus all the money you’ll save by buying a cheaper H670 or B660 motherboard instead of an expensive Z690 model.
We were impressed with the performance of the i7-12700, but were mixed about power efficiency, as was the case when we reviewed some K-series CPUs last year. The good news is that home PC builders can usually decide for themselves whether to maximize performance or prioritize energy efficiency and heat output. Using Intel’s recommended power settings, the i7-12700 can behave quite well. Keep in mind that the default power settings of most motherboard manufacturers prioritize performance, even if it makes your desktop hotter and more power-hungry.
Intel CPU power settings explained
Much of this review will discuss how Intel’s CPU power limits work, so let’s start by explaining the terminology. This is especially relevant for anyone who hasn’t built a computer in a few years.
Intel and AMD have both been fighting over the past half-decade to cram an ever-increasing number of cores into their mainstream desktop processors. If we take Intel as an example, the i7 processors went from four to six to eight cores between the seventh and ninth generations, and a new i9 layer with 10 cores was also introduced above that. These chips are all made using slightly modified iterations of the same Skylake CPU architecture and slightly modified iterations of the same 14nm manufacturing technology.
As a result, energy budgets have disappeared way and when chips are running at full throttle, the actual CPU power consumption is significantly above the 65W TDP that Intel has been listing on its desktop CPU product pages for years.
To its credit, with its 12th-generation chips, Intel has ditched “TDP” in favor of a Processor Base Power (PL1) number and a Maximum Turbo Power (PL2) number. PL1 is more or less what TDP used to be: the amount of power and cooling capacity a CPU is expected to require to run at its nominal specifications when loaded for more than a few minutes at a time. The PL2 number is the actual maximum power consumption, the number you see when performing tasks for short periods of time or for apps like web browsers and games that don’t require 100 percent of your CPU’s performance 100 percent of the time.
The wrinkle is that those PL1 and PL2 ratings are: suggestions rather than hard and fast requirements, allowing motherboard makers to set different limits if they really want to. For board enthusiasts, this usually means taking both numbers to the stratosphere or removing the limits completely in the name of better performance. The Gigabyte Z690 board I’ve used for some testing has default power limits of over 4,000 W. A CPU actually drawing that much power would of course melt a hole deep in the Earth’s mantle, but the point is, the processor can use as much power as it and the motherboard can physically handle unless it reaches its thermal limits.
The advantage of flexible, user-configurable PL1 and PL2 limits is that they effectively allow for some sort of “overclocking” for non-K series CPUs running on non-Z series motherboards. Our benchmark results show clear benefits for raising the standard power limits of the i7-12700K, moving performance from “competing AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X” to “stamping the 5800X”.
The problem is that more power generates more heat, requiring better cooling or running your CPU at higher temperatures, which can shorten its lifespan. In some cases you could actually losses a bit of performance because the extra heat leads to thermal throttling. And the performance benefits you get aren’t really commensurate with the extra power you use. In our tests, when thermal throttling isn’t an issue, the i7-12700 used about twice the power to deliver anywhere from 25 to 40 percent better performance.
This is a significant speed improvement, but comes at a cost.
