Intel i9-10900K 'High' Power Consumption Explained: TVB, Turbo 3.0, & Tau

We're revisiting the Intel's Turbo Boost & Power discussion for the 10900K, 10600K, et al., plus talk on if boards impact performance, Thermal Velocity Boost & Turbo 3.0 definitions, & more.

This specific internet comment presented a common misconception that prompted this idea: User online - "So probably only expensive high-end motherboard will have the sustained performance showed on those reviews..."

That's not fully true, and we're here to explain why.

In this video, we're defining Intel Turbo Boost 2.0, Turbo Boost 3.0, and answering the question of what Intel Thermal Velocity Boost is. This includes further definition and explanations of PL1 (Power Limit 1), PL2 (Power Limit 2), and Tau (Turbo time duration limit), alongside discussion of TDP on AMD vs. Intel. The piece is most heavily focused on addressing the misconception that "only high-end motherboards" can reach the performance seen in reviews, which is absolutely not true. As long as the motherboards are controlled and tested under expected Intel default settings, then all the results should be more or less comparable. The numbers you saw in reviews, assuming they're accompanied by stock PL1, PL2, multipliers, and Tau, will also match what's seen on low-end motherboards.

RELATED CONTENT BY GN

Article version of above Intel TDP Investigation: /3389-intel-tdp-investigation-9900k-violating-turbo-duration-z390

RELATED PRODUCTS

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Common Misconceptions in Comments
02:35 - Accidental Pre-Overclocking vs. Spec
04:21 - Actual Power Numbers at EPS12V Cables
06:00 - Intel's Poor Job of Education on Behavior
06:50 - Motherboard Doesn't Matter if Tested Properly & Controlled
07:51 - GN's Testing Philosophy
09:10 - Examples of Reviewer Guides & How to Benchmark
10:10 - AMD & Intel "Up To" Speeds Are OK
11:50 - How Motherboard Makers Cheat the Results
14:42 - Intel PL1, PL2, & Tau Definition for 10900K, 10700K, 10600K
18:23 - Intel Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB) Defined
21:52 - Intel Turbo Boost 3.0 Defined
22:36 - Concluding Thoughts


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[GamersNexus]

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Common Misconceptions in Comments
02:35 - Accidental Pre-Overclocking vs. Spec
04:21 - Actual Power Numbers at EPS12V Cables
06:00 - Intel's Poor Job of Education on Behavior
06:50 - Motherboard Doesn't Matter if Tested Properly & Controlled
07:51 - GN's Testing Philosophy
09:10 - Examples of Reviewer Guides & How to Benchmark
10:10 - AMD & Intel "Up To" Speeds Are OK
11:50 - How Motherboard Makers Cheat the Results
14:42 - Intel PL1, PL2, & Tau Definition for 10900K, 10700K, 10600K
18:23 - Intel Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB) Defined
21:52 - Intel Turbo Boost 3.0 Defined
22:36 - Concluding Thoughts

[TheEternalDreamers]

I always learn something new when I watch these videos. Sometimes it’s things I don’t know I wanted to know

[gondok]

I just love that he isn't afraid to get technical and explain stuff in depth unlike most channels. I learn and enjoy this way more Thank you Steve and GN for existing.

[menace]

GN is easily the gold standard for hardware news/discussion.

[MrJohnLongbow]

I really don’t like the Tau, I prefer Space Marines...

Ah wait!

[BCfosheezy]

"We don't really do it that way."
Aka, your brand is based on the scientific method and cutting through the garbage to give the facts.
You control variables and come up with testing methodologies that put equipment on as level of a playing field as you can, show the results and then explain the results to the best of your ability. Hopefully other viewers realize like I do, why you do things the way you do.

[iamdarkyoshi]

MCE was super annoying for me before I understood it

We had a customer come in with a brand new PC for repair because it was unstable at stock. Tried BIOS updates and memntest. I tried his CPU and RAM in my PC and it worked fine, but back in his, it didn't run stable. We RMA'd the board and asus gave us some BS, saying that the socket had bent pins and they fixed them. They did nothing lol

Once we got it back, it still had issues. Turns out it was MCE causing his 9900K to run unstable. Flip it off in the BIOS and all the problems went away.

[GewelReal]

"Not more than 4 hours anyway"
God dammit Steve!

[Urni_]

"When you desire only the result, you start taking shortcuts...and when you start taking shortcuts, you might lose sight of the truth."

[startedtech]

22:34 "We care about it out of the box" out of the box thermals are where it's at :)

[ventilate]

Reminds me of those "experiments" in school where you'd whisper something in someone's ear and see how it spreads throughtout the classroom guess no one learned anything from that

[gracersclass]

Hey guys please can u stop putting all this static gamers nexus logos, it will cause burn in on my screen xD

[DiamantisGR]

"We believed we had inventory for 6 months and it lasted 2 days", sort of like Intel's boost frequency.

[bryandepaepe]

In science and technology or physics in general there is always a "depends" when it comes to specifications mainly due to the principle of the conservation of energy, basically every advantage has a disadvantage.

[lakiza]

17:22 reminded me of AMD FX series. Those poor 70mm fans were just screaming non-stop at 2-5k RPM with mobos setting 1.45V on 125W skus to boost to AMDs specs.

[glenwaldrop]

12:40
It's funny, I remember when Asus was the worst about that.
Pentium III days, the bus speed was 99.8ish for most boards. The OEM would run 98.x to keep their power numbers down, presumably, and Asus would run the base clock at 102.x for an additional boost over everyone else.
You can pull up old reviews on Anandtech or other older reviewers and see this in the charts. Asus motherboards were almost *always* faster because of their higher out of the box bus clocks.
It was a small difference but it meant that Asus boards were always at the top of the benchmarks because the PIII 1GHz was running 1020MHz vs 998MHz on a competitor's board.

[jacobis]

I don't ever buy pc parts without watching your guys' deep dives on products. You guys are so thorough! Seriously, thank you for always adhering to this style!

[noahwalsh]

Alright not we got this out of the way where's the LN2

[dizzard]

This discussion about motherboard hacks to increase performance might explain why my 6700k runs like a fucking hotplate on "stock" settings. Reducing vcore helps massively.

[pixels_per_inch]

I feel like Power Limit should be left to the motherboard similar to RAM.
Intel specs the RAM speed of 10600k as 2666 MHz but are you going to run your ram as stock speed?