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Do we know what the base (non-turbo clocks) of 8 core Alder Lake CPUs will be?

g67575

g67575

g67575

Soldato
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This could be important for people to know as presumably, Alder Lake CPUs will run at safe / moderate temperatures at the base clock, even with a low end stock cooler, or equivalent (or in laptops).

If they can run them at a base clock of 4.0ghz, you'd expect them to still be about as fast as Rocket lake /Comet lake CPUs running at 5.0ghz, based on current CPU benchmarks like CPUz. It looks like much of the speed boost, will be from boosting the L3 cache up to 30MB.

With Rocket lake though, the 11700k base clock was just 3.6ghz, so lower than the base clock of the 10700K (3.8ghz).
 
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Lol, I don't get it, why is the base clock of the top product often lower? Is it because of the extra L3 cache?

If the base clock is lower than 3.8ghz for 8 core CPUs, thats kind of a regression.
 
The 12900K doesn't look too appealing to me. Maybe if you could fix all 16 cores at 4.0ghz, with a low power consumption, it would seem more worthwhile.

I wonder if there will be much performance difference between the larger and smaller cores, or is clock speed the only significant difference?

I know hyperthreading is disabled on the small cores.
 
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It's just occurred to me that the smaller cores could just be disabled in the BIOS, for 8 core Alder Lake CPUs. Or, Intel could release a version without small cores active - maybe they could set the base clock higher in this case.
 
Do you mean the 10900k? Released in Q2 2020 and based on Intel's 14nm fab process. It's not gonna be looking so great by next year.
 
Surely, Intel's stock coolers would be enough to run Alder Lake CPUs at base clocks though?

Intel are testing some new stock coolers with Alder Lake apparently:
https://www.techspot.com/news/91202-intel-experimenting-new-stock-cooler-designs-alder-lake.html

This matters to Intel, because AMD bundles sufficient cooling with CPUs like the 5600X.

Although, cooling 8 core CPUs at higher clocks still seems to be a challenge...

I don't think Alder Lake builds will cost thousands, more like £400-£500 pounds (excluding the 12900K) if you have DDR4 RAM already, although people might have to wait for a DDR4 compatible motherboard.
 
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Anyone ever tried a stock cooler + intel CPU at base clocks? And if so, how did it work out?

My super old hyper evo 212 can cope with a 10700KF at 4.6-4.7ghz still, although it runs quite hot. I don't suppose the stock coolers will be as good as that though.
 
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Seems pretty slack, they could at least throw in a good cooler for the premium priced 12900K.

I wonder if the budget board chipset will be called 'B660'?

Buying OEM is a good tip, if you can get hold of one.
 
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Yup, well if it wasn't running at base clocks, I'd expect that to happen. I guess I was hoping for higher base clocks on Alder Lake, but with each generation, the gap between base clocks and turbo has just kept growing.

I'm unsure if the non K locked Alder Lake CPUs will be available this year either, maybe they be released a few months later, alongside budget 'B' series boards.
 
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I'm mostly researching it for my dad, he has been waiting for Intel's 10nm desktop CPUs for a few years, and still uses a i7 920, released in 2008!
 
Yes, I'm thinking of recommending 5nm Zen 4, as the 'big' core count will be higher, and more importantly, should have higher IPC + cache than Alder Lake.

And a Zen 4 motherboard seems more likely to be upgradable. Might be able to get an OK stock cooler too, if only for 6 core CPUs.

I think Alder Lake will do quite a lot better than the 11th gen though.
 
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How about memory controller gears on Alder Lake?

My current B560 motherboard can run at 1:1 comfortably with DDR4 4000mhz RAM. Not really interested in a motherboard/CPU combo that slows down the memory controller to ensure RAM speed compatibility.

EDIT - It looks like DDR5 RAM will most likely default to Gear 2, with Gear 1 potentially an option on some DDR4 modules. Link here:
https://overclock3d.net/news/cpu_ma...is_to_know_about_alder_lake_s_z690_platform/1
 
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