Intel Core i9 9980XE Released As A Skylake-X Refresh

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel Core i9 9980XE Released As A Skylake-X Refresh

This morning Intel officially announced the Core i9 9980XE as the refreshed Skylake-X part succeeding the Core i9 7980XE...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Intel-Core-i9-9980XE-Released

[torsionbar28]

Those are decent specs... but I'd rather have 32 cores / 64 threads and 80 MB of cache for $200 less. But at least it's not another $1000 quad core.

[schmidtbag]

The 9980XE remains a 14nm processor, 165 Watt TDP

Just goes to show how useless these TDP ratings actually are. These are some pretty significant clock speed improvements for 18 cores with nothing else being improved/changed, and yet the TDP remains the same?
Perhaps the performance losses from all the Spectre/Meltdown/L1 mitigations helped save a few watts.

[starshipeleven]

Just goes to show how useless these TDP ratings actually are. These are some pretty significant clock speed improvements for 18 cores with nothing else being improved/changed, and yet the TDP remains the same?
Perhaps the performance losses from all the Spectre/Meltdown/L1 mitigations helped save a few watts.

TDP can be set as a "soft" target too (and this is common also in mobile parts), so the cores will throttle once their power consumption is reaching the set TDP.
Soft in the sense of set by BIOS or by blowing e-fuses, not actual TDP of the hardware.
This is commonly used in laptops so they can use smaller and thinner cooling systems, while the part could do much more if it was placed under a decent heatsink.

It's kind of cheaty though, as the part will obviously not perform as well as specs would indicate.

[schmidtbag]

TDP can be set as a "soft" target too (and this is common also in mobile parts), so the cores will throttle once their power consumption is reaching the set TDP.

Yes, but to my understanding, the TDP revolves around base clocks. The purpose of the base clocks is to be the level of performance that the CPU can guarantee, which is important for potential buyers to know. Of course, a CPU will still throttle below base clocks when it is suffering too much more heat, but that's usually when it gets to extreme temperatures like 85C+. So, if TDP is no longer revolved around base clocks then the number is practically meaningless.
Of course, AMD isn't a whole lot better about this.

It's kind of cheaty though, as the part will obviously not perform as well as specs would indicate.

Yep. I personally find the all-core turbo speeds very "cheaty".

[starshipeleven]

So, if TDP is no longer revolved around base clocks then the number is practically meaningless.

Yeah, that's what I said.

If TDP is set as an arbitrary soft target, the cores will throttle so that the package power consumption stays within the set TDP, not just because of high temperature (that also may still happen depending on how bad is the heatsink).

So yeah, the base clock can become meaningless, some form of "intermediate boost" level that may or may not be maintainable with all cores active.

For laptop parts this is a fact of life, for desktop/server this isn't as common (or as apparent maybe?).

I'm not claiming it is 100% surely the case here, I'm just pointing out that it is a possible explanation for the discrepancy you observed.

[davidbepo]

Just goes to show how useless these TDP ratings actually are. These are some pretty significant clock speed improvements for 18 cores with nothing else being improved/changed, and yet the TDP remains the same?
Perhaps the performance losses from all the Spectre/Meltdown/L1 mitigations helped save a few watts.

wrong, this is going from 14nm+ to 14nm++ it also has improved power management

[schmidtbag]

wrong, this is going from 14nm+ to 14nm++ it also has improved power management

Do you have a source on this? Because from what I've found, it's using 14nm+ (same as 7980XE):
https://wccftech.com/intel-9th-gen-c...ily-announced/
If they are in fact using 14nm++, then I could definitely see how the TDP would remain the same despite the clock increases.

[davidbepo]

Do you have a source on this? Because from what I've found, it's using 14nm+ (same as 7980XE):
https://wccftech.com/intel-9th-gen-c...ily-announced/
If they are in fact using 14nm++, then I could definitely see how the TDP would remain the same despite the clock increases.

that was a typo

there are a lot of sources but the anantech review https://www.anandtech.com/show/13539...-9980xe-review clearly states it:

All of the new processors will be manufactured on Intel’s 14++ node, which allows for the higher frequency, and will use a soldered thermal material between the processor and the heatspreader to help manage temperatures.

[ThoreauHD]

So the ++ means they soldered the IHS. Seems to be intel's go to now that their nm is capped. According to gamers nexus, there only seems to be one asus board that follows the intel tdp power specs, so I would personally take their proclamed tdp and expect to nearly double it- as that's what is seen on their previous flagship refresh cpu.