Thermal Design Power (TDP) in Intel® Processors
Click or the question for details:
What is the Thermal Design Power (TDP)?
TDP stands for Thermal Design Power, in watts, and refers to the power consumption under the maximum theoretical load. Power consumption is less than TDP under lower loads. The TDP is the maximum power that one should be designing the system for. This ensures operation to published specs under the maximum theoretical workload.
Is the Processor Base Power terminology the same as the TDP?
Yes, in the 12th Generation and above, the TDP terminology is replaced with Processor Base Power.
What is the purpose of TDP?
The purpose of defining TDP is to provide system designers/integrators with a power target in order to help with proper thermal solution selection.
How can I tell my processor’s power requirements?
By the published TDP value. That’s the steady state design target. Designing for anything less for power delivery or thermal solution capability is a decision the system designer must make.
Are there any third-party utilities that can report the power consumption of Intel® processors?
Yes, there are.
What is the maximum power consumption for my processor?
Under a steady workload at published frequency, it is TDP. However, during turbo or certain workload types such as Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel® AVX) it can exceed the maximum TDP but only for a limited time , or
- Until the processor hits a thermal throttle temperature, or
- Until the processor hits a power delivery limit.
Is power consumption measured separately for the processor and the integrated graphics controller?
TDP is calculated assuming core and graphics combined, but it's also reported separately for the core and the graphics.
How can I check the TDP of my Intel processor?
- Go to product specification site (ARK).
- Enter your processor number.
- Under Performance section:
- Check the value of the TDP field for processors older than the 12th Gen Intel® Core® Processors.
- Check the value of the Processor Base Power field for 12th Gen Intel® Core® Processors and above.