All processors are susceptible to overclocking in different ways: some are able to conquer higher frequencies, others – lower. In anticipation of the launch of Comet Lake-S processors, MSI decided to formalize their overclocking potential by checking samples received from Intel.
As a motherboard manufacturer, MSI probably received a lot of engineering and test samples of the new Comet Lake-S generation processors, so a large sample was involved in the overclocking experiment, and the resulting statistics should reflect close to the real state of things. A Taiwanese manufacturer tested three processor groups: six-core Core i5-10600K and 10600KF, eight-core Core i7-10700K and 10700KF and ten-core Core i9-10900K and 10900KF.
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The results were very unexpected. Among all the tested samples of the six-core Core i5-10600K (KF) processors, only 2% were able to operate at a frequency higher than Intel claims (Level A according to the MSI classification). More than half of the chips – 52%, were able to work only with the frequencies stated in the specifications (Level B). And 31% of the tested processors even showed lower frequencies during overclocking compared to the passport ones (Level C). Apparently, there is another category of samples, but MSI says nothing about it. The situation is similar with the eight-core Core i7-10700K (KF): 5% refers to the overclocked Level A group, 58% to the average Level B and 32% to the number of Level C processors that work worse in overclocking than in the nominal.
Here it is worth explaining what the inability of processors to work with the declared frequencies in MSI terminology means. It seems that the company classifies the chips in the Level C category as those chips that could not maintain stability under load during manual overclocking to the declared maximum turbo frequency for all cores. That is, with the removed restrictions on energy consumption.
But with the flagship deca-core, the situation is somewhat different. Here, overclocking immediately succumbed to 27% of the Core i9-10900K (KF) chips. The same number were unable to work with the declared characteristics, and another 35% exactly followed the nominal frequencies even during acceleration. This gives enthusiasts some hope for interesting records with these chips, which, however, will obviously have to be specially selected in a special way.
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At the same time, MSI cites data on the power consumption and operating voltage of the new generation Core processors listed above depending on overclocking (the X axis indicates the value of the multiplier) in the Cinebench R20 multithreaded test. It is expected that Core i5 (blue) consumes the least – about 130 to 210 watts. The highest appetite in most cases showed Core i9 (green): from 190 to 275 watts. And it lags slightly behind the flagship Core i7 (orange): the consumption of such processors is in the range from 175 to 280 watts. The flagship has the widest operating voltage range: from less than 1.0 to 1.35 V. The narrowest gap in the Core i5 is from 1.1 to almost 1.3 V.
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Finally, MSI presented data on how the power subsystem (VRM) of its motherboards is heated and, more importantly, how much the Core i9-10900K consumes when operating at standard frequencies and in overclocking. In normal conditions, the processor requires about 205 watts of electricity, and the VRM temperature on the Z490 Gaming Edge WiFi board reaches 73.5 ° C. When overclocking all the cores to 5.1 GHz, the power consumption reaches 255 W, and the VRM temperature is 86.5 ° C. By the way, to cool the processor in these experiments, a two-section Corsair H115i SJO was used.
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