AMD Corrects Socket AM5 Power Specifications: 170W TDP and 230W PPT
by Gavin Bonshor on May 26, 2022 5:00 PM EST
At Computex 2022, the CEO of AMD, Dr. Lisa Sui, unveiled its Ryzen 7000 series of processors, as well as the associated AM5 platform. But while discussing specific details about its new platform for Zen 4 and beyond, AMD inadvertently ended up creating a conflux of confusion around the AM5 platform by quoting different power figures to different groups. Ultimately, at different points AMD was quoting 170 Watts as both the highest nominal TDP supported by the platform, as well as the Power Package Tracking (PPT) rating, which is the absolute highest amount of power a chip can draw under load. It goes without saying that these two claims shouldn't both be right, and a correction was needed.
As first reported by the Tom's Hardware crew, AMD has published a statement addressing the confusion, and proving the correct values. In short, the 170 Watt TDP was correct. Meanwhile the PPT value is actually 230 Watts – which at 1.35x the TDP rating, is typical for AMD's Ryzen processors.
AMD's full statement is below:
AMD would like to issue a correction to the socket power and TDP limits of the upcoming AMD Socket AM5. AMD Socket AM5 supports up to a 170W TDP with a PPT of up to 230W. TDP*1.35 is the standard calculation for TDP v. PPT for AMD sockets in the “Zen” era, and the new 170W TDP group is no exception (170*1.35=229.5).
This new TDP group will enable considerably more compute performance for high core count CPUs in heavy compute workloads, which will sit alongside the 65W and 105W TDP groups that Ryzen is known for today. AMD takes great pride in providing the enthusiast community with transparent and forthright product capabilities, and we want to take this opportunity to apologize for our error and any subsequent confusion we may have caused on this topic.
The overall increase in power specification figures for the AM5 platform was not unexpected – part of the benefit of the move to LGA sockets is additional pins for power delivery – but this finally settles the matter of just how much power AMD's new socket and platform are designed to deliver. Motherboard vendors will no doubt go (well) past this on their high-end boards, of course, but 170W/230W will be the baseline for any motherboard that wants to officially support high-end AM5 chips.
CPU power consumption has been on the rise for the past several years, as we're now well into the Dark Silicon era. While an individual CPU core still only draws a modest amount of power – on the order of 20W to 30W for a high-performance core – the total power requirement quickly balloons for high-end processors, which pack upwards of 16 cores. As a result, power delivery limits are typically the constraining factor for heavily multi-threaded workloads, as CPUs have to back down on clockspeeds in order to stay within their power envelopes. Increasing platform power limits, in turn, offers more headroom for keeping more cores clocked higher more often.
Though it should be noted that AMD's clarifications today are for the AM5 socket, not the initial Ryzen 7000 series chips that will use it. AMD doesn't necessarily have to tap into the full TDP of the socket right away – though for the aforementioned MT performance reasons, there's good reason to. So officially, we still don't know what the TDPs of the high-end Ryzen 7000 processors will be; but unofficially, it wouldn't be surprising to see the top chips approach 170 Watts.
Finally, it would seem that we should expect to see the Ryzen 7000 family hit that full TDP out of the gate. According to a comment from an AMD spokesperson on Reddit, the top TDP of the Ryzen 7000 series will indeed be 170 Watts, with PPTs reaching 230 Watts.
Source: AMD (via Tom's Hardware)
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nandnandnand - Thursday, May 26, 2022 - link
You should note that the 5.52 GHz demo chip was not running at the 170W TDP, but somewhere below it.---
Update: We asked AMD about the TDP and PPT values that the company used for its Computex 2022 demo against the Core i9-12900K. AMD tells us:
"The Computex demo utilized a 16-core pre-production sample not yet fused to specific power values, but was operating below our final 170W TDP spec."
Naturally, that doesn't tell us if the demo processor consumed 50W below the 170W spec, or just one single watt below the spec. However, that's the information the company has to share on the matter. We'll update if we learn more.
jeremyshaw - Friday, May 27, 2022 - link
Specific wording from the Reddit source in the article, "170W TDP spec." Rather, in the direct quote, "[...]it was operating in a range below the new 170W TDP group we've developed." This is referring to the 170W TDP, 230W PPT group from AMD_Robert's previous message.So it could very well be drawing more than 170W. It could be drawing less. The wording, like all corporate PR speak, is there to give them wiggle room.
Inline with the direct AMD source, I agree: my "65W TDP" 3700X draws ~80W+ at stock (without PBO, PBO2, etc, etc, etc).
coburn_c - Friday, May 27, 2022 - link
If the chip consumes 230w, why isn't the TOTAL DISPLACED POWER 230w? Marketing lies, they should be suedsgeocla - Friday, May 27, 2022 - link
Nobody uses actual TDP anymore. Intel 12900ks is 150W PBP (processor base power) but it has 241W Maximum Turbo Power which it actually uses for anything other than idle. The actual specs explain exactly what power the CPUs use and TDP is nowhere to be found.whatthe123 - Friday, May 27, 2022 - link
which is ironically more accurate than AMD now, since the caveat is base frequency. so even though they're weaseling around it, its technically the true power draw as is the max turbo power give or take a few watts. AMD's number is just "screw you, here's what the cores might draw, maybe," which doesn't even reflect cooling requirements anymore since heat density has increased every release.sgeocla - Friday, May 27, 2022 - link
AMD stated that 230W is maximum socket power draw. Don't worry, each Zen4 CPU will have the specs clearly visible just as Intel does with the 12900k.Until 12900k Intel mentioned exact TDP like the 11900k which has 125W TDP but we all know that Intel was playing a cruel joke on consumers and the 11900k was drawing 296W at peak draw and 230W average under full load (AnandTech's own numbers).
Otritus - Friday, May 27, 2022 - link
TDP doesn’t stand for total displaced power, but THERMAL DESIGN POWER. TDP means that for the chip to properly function, you must be capable of cooling the chip at the rated TDP. The chip properly functions at base frequencies, with turbo frequencies being extra performance covered by warranty.IBM760XL - Friday, May 27, 2022 - link
I hope they have some reasonable power level options out of the gate as well. I have no desire to have a space heater under my desk in the summer. The 5700X/5800 is my target thermal/clockspeed/core profile at 65W. I'd hoped to buy whatever its AM5 successor wound up being, and switch to AMD at the start of a new socket lifecycle. But if they're just going to go full Intel on power consumption, maybe I'll go AM4 after all.nandnandnand - Friday, May 27, 2022 - link
The 6-8 cores will use a lot less. But you always have the option of underclocking or adjusting the TDP down yourself. You can adjust a 125W chip down to 35W if you want.Samus - Friday, May 27, 2022 - link
More reasonable power level options? AMD has had 65w TDP CPU’s for years that trump Intel’s 65w CPU’s in efficiency. While the Intel chips regularly blow passed 100w+ with all the turbo and boost shenanigans, AMD generally remain well below that on their 65w chips with their version of boost clock, achieving identical or better performance per watt.Obviously Intel finally changed this up with the 12th gen but at the high end they are still using power consumption as a crutch.