I was looking at the Intel i5-12600 and noticed that the T series idles at 2.10 GHz, Non-T idles at 3.30 GHz and the K idles at 3.70 GHz (Source)

but I didn't find any information on power consumption (Intel only lists TDP)

 

Does anyone know if there are any significant power savings on using a T series over a non-T or even a K series with E-Core?

 

Edited January 13, 20233 yr by cls
fix typo

The idle draw is often the same or close by across the different CPU versions.  The TDP limit kicks in when the CPUs are facing load. I recently build a 12500T system, which draws 30W and less when idling with approx. 15 Dockers which are running from NVMEs. 

Under load the system is hovering at 58-59W max, in average close to 40W with VMs running etc. With a Non-T / K you'll see same idle draw and >100W under load. 

Edited February 4, 20233 yr by doesntaffect

On 1/13/2023 at 7:41 PM, cls said:

I was looking at the Intel i5-12600 and noticed that the T series idles at 2.10 GHz, Non-T idles at 3.30 GHz and the K idles at 3.70 GHz (Source)

but I didn't find any information on power consumption (Intel only lists TDP)

 

Does anyone know if there are any significant power savings on using a T series over a non-T or even a K series with E-Core?

 

 

When they spec base of 2.1Ghz , this is a miminum guaranteed frequency at the specified TDP, if you have a higher CPU TDP, the base and boost frequency can be higher.

The CPU can then boost to use 'spare' thermal headroom if it is only using a small number of cores, or for short periods etc.

 

Most CPU's have a minimum idle frequncy around 0.8Ghz at reduced voltage so I expect all of these CPU's will have the exactly the same base idle consumption somewhere around 5W.

 

Often there is little power consumption difference between the TDP varients for occasional boost loads, as a higher TDP CPU boosts it's clock for a shorter period than the lower TDP to get the same task done, though there are some minor efficiency losses at full boost it's not worth considering in my opinion unless you have have a lot of regular loads.

 

The only reason I see to go with the lower TDP CPU is if you are thermally or power limitted. E.g. can only install a very small heatsink, want to make the unit as silent as possible by limiting power consumption, or are using a small low wattage PSU (PICO Power) etc.   

 

Personally I'd go for the standard CPU, I wouldn't want to overclock my data store, so the K is cash I don't need to spend and the T model is usually costs the same or even more due to rarity for less performance.