[neogodless]

TDP is not a measure power consumption across the range, but only at "maximum theoretical load"[0].

If you missed the presentation, look for in-depth coverage[1]. These chips are more efficient than Zen 3, consuming less power for the same performance. The higher TDP allows for higher multi-core clocks and much higher performance, but that's not the same thing as power consumption (across all levels of performance).

Sure, if you can use the power at the high end, you can consume more power, but you'll get a lot more performance out of it.

[0] https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000...

> TDP stands for Thermal Design Power, in watts, and refers to the power consumption under the maximum theoretical load.

[1] https://www.anandtech.com/show/17552/amd-details-ryzen-7000-...

[pizza234]

> If you missed the presentation, look for in-depth coverage[1]. These chips are more efficient than Zen 3, consuming less power for the same performance. The higher TDP allows for higher multi-core clocks and much higher performance, but that's not the same thing as power consumption (across all levels of performance).

That's coverage from the slides, a.k.a. marketing. I don't doubt that this will be a significant performance/efficiency improvement, given the soft cap, but desktop is another thing. TDP has been correlated with average consumption, on Intel CPUs, and all the GPUs. It'd be surprising that this didn't apply to this specific CPU family.

[neogodless]

I get what you're saying - if a CPU is given cart blanche, it might tend to just run at higher clock speeds and power draw because of the higher TDP ceiling. So it may come down to motherboard settings and OEM configurations.

I know from personal experience, my CPU rated for 105W TDP tends to consume 30W or less during my normal usage, though certainly more during heavy computation including gaming. Higher base clocks on the Ryzen 7590x (4.5Ghz) compared to Ryzen 5950x (3.4Ghz) could lead to overall higher power usage, if the increased efficiency at those clocks isn't enough to cover the difference.