Hello, I’m planning on getting a new mid-high end PC in the near future. It’s been like 8 years since my last PC, and I’m planning on getting the 14600k, but I’m still unsure. So I need some advice.

I use my computer every single day at the very least 12 hours a day. My daily usage would be browsing, watching videos (Youtube & downloaded movies), daytrade, data entry (MS office), writing, Photoshop, and other various low workload activities.

I usually only play video games on the weekend, so I need to get a rig that’s mostly use for basic daily activities, but powerful enough for smooth gaming when I need it to.

The thing is, there’s a bit of z6xx boards scarcity, so the price is a bit skewed, and b/z7xx is really expensive on where I live. And I really need a mid-high end boards because I requires the ports and the storage slots, so I can’t really skimp out on this one. I was considering in getting a 7800x3d since apparently the cost difference of the 7800x3d + board is just slightly a bit more expensive than 14600k + motherboard, so I’m just thinking about the long run now since apparently amd has idle/low consumption issues.

What I wanted to know is that, what is the average power consumption for basic daily activities? The power bill on my country is quite high, so I want to try minimalize the monthly cost as possible. I heard that Intel is incredibly efficient during idles, but what about using it for workload like above? Does that still apply? Can anyone that uses this chip share their experience?

Also I’m aware that I’m posting this on Intel because I’ve always been using the blue chips, but I hope you people can keep the bias to minimum because I really could use the unbiased advice.

  • Pdiddy1185@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I have 14900k with an Asus 360mm aio right now and at idle it gets about 36 to 39°C and under a decently hard load it gets high 70s low 80s but usually in the high 50s and 60s during a decent gaming mode. May I suggest if you’re choosing between CPUs definitely go with the 14 700 K because they upgraded the best since the 13 GEN out of all the other chips they went from a 16 core to a 20 core chip. And it gets 200mhz higher frequency for p cores and 100 MHz higher for e cores… you can unlock the full potential of these chips with the new z790 refreshed boards which added new dimm flex technology to make ram temps more stable and aemp 2 which also helps u iverclock ram if you use 4 sticks of ddr5

  • StoopidRoobutt@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Not what you asked, but for context and whatnot: my 7800X3D sits around ~18 Watts at idle, ~20 Watts with YouTube, Steam and whatnot. In gaming it’s anywhere from 25 to 55 Watts.

  • Good_Season_1723@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    With any intel cpu from 12th gen and afterwards, idle power draw should be around 3 to 5 watts and browsing the web or doing simple spreadsheet work etc should be between 8 and 15. That’s if you have set up C states properly and balanced power plan.

    My 12900k with 2 videos streaming (YouTube and twitch) browsing the web while on a discord call is below 10 watts.

  • AvidCyclist250@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    13600k.

    Idle: 2 to 3 watts. Am running an undervolt of 0.085 and I turned off g4m0r b00st fe4tur3s in bios

    135 watts is the maximum, and also sustained, all-core load I’ve seen. Normal consumption for “low workload” is around 12-50 watts. Usually around 15-20 watts for stuff like typing this comment

    • kdotdash@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      I’m not sure about idle wattage, but my 13600k pull 175 watts under load.

      I’m running it at 5.5ghz, though.

  • blendOmemes@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Right now for me on reddit I’m using about 20w with my 13600KF, if you’re worried about power consumption you can always under volt and add a power limit

  • StarbeamII@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Not a 13600K exactly, but my system with a 13700K idles around 65W (measured from the wall with a Kill-A-Watt).

    System specs:

    • 13700K, power limited (PL1/PL2) to 165W
    • MSI Z690-A PRO DDR5 Wi-Fi, C-states and other power saving features turned on
    • Balanced power plan in Windows
    • RTX 2070 Super
    • 2 monitors - 1 27" 1440p 120Hz monitor plugged into the RTX 2070 Super, and the other a 27" 1440p 60Hz monitor plugged into the motherboard (I’ve heard this setup reduces idle consumption compared to plugging both into the RTX 2070, but I haven’t done a comparison)
    • Corsair RM650x power supply
    • 5 Arctic P12 A-RGB fans set to a dim green
  • krashersmasher@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I have a 13700k (which is pretty much the 14600) and my CPU sits around 25-30w as I type this. I played a bunch of games last night then it’s done nothing overnight but left on. It’s average power draw is still at 37w. Peaked at 131w when gaming. It can draw 300w when benchmarking.

    This is surprisingly higher than other people who are claiming whole system at 10w. I find that a little hard to believe with the heat this dissapaits. It does feel more like an old school 30W light bulb amount of heat. Very technical I know.

    Not sure how accurate HWINFO is either though.

  • J-Zitze@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Whole System: 13600K, b760m, rtx4080, 1 m2 ssd, 1 sata ssd, 1 cpu fan, 2 ram sticks, 850w gold power supply draws 55-60W when idle. Measured with a electricity cost meter.

    I also recommend the following video. They compared real life power consumption, not like most youtubers, who only look at maximum power draw or gaming.

    https://youtu.be/fCxMAKJvScs

  • Buffer-Overrun@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    The idle power consumption for my 12900ks is about 18 watts with a similar workload. (This is avg over 72 hours without games. About 350 watts in cinebench, 140 in a game). My 7950x would use about 75-80 watts and my 7950x3d uses about 50-60 idle.

  • M_A_D_R@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    13600k & 14600k owners, what is your idle and/or low workload power consumption?

    i undervolted my 13600k,. without performance loss,.
    idle power - 2.5watts ;
    few chrome (currently using) - 4-10watts ;
    max powerdraw in cbr23 - 125-128watts (from ~180watts);
    low workload (10 chrome tab+ background download+ watching movie+ recording+ spotify -20 min avg https://imgur.com/a/GFVmZ9i 22watts) - 22watts

    some gaming- mostly below 50watts,.
    https://imgur.com/a/KGMtTjO ; https://imgur.com/a/RytZQSQ ; https://imgur.com/a/uZIv3RS

  • TByT0689@alien.top
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    1 year ago

    Undervolting, is more of a temperature thing than something that truly makes a financial difference on the power bill, we are talking pocket change differences or less per month, or even per year. You have to decide on what your main priority is, if power consumption is priority 1, then get yourself a notebook, that’s exactly what they are tailor made for, if smooth gaming is your highest priority, then power consumption will have to be higher to attain that and think about how many hours out of those 12 per day you will be gaming on average. The reality is, any modern desktop CPU, and its accompanying hardware has terrific abilities to be ultra low power, you just have to know how to configure it, so learn as much as you can about your UEFI settings and how a modern Windows 11 installation handles power, read about how notebooks do it and emulate that, it’s all really the same shit anyways.

  • PlasticPaul32@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Undervolted 14700k here. Idle in single digits. most acoustic intensive games I see peaks of 120, with 80 to 90 in average

  • Proper-Ad8181@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    What resolution are you gaming at and what gpu do you plan to use with it. A gpu can flip the tide in power consumption when gpu acceleration tasks are used , such as accelerated web browsing, word etc. If you go with intel you have the benefit of using its strong igpu for outing display for many basic programs, while gpu only wakes up during heavy utilisation. Amd’s igpu isn’t integrated properly, also it doesn’t have any strong decoders or encoders.

    13600k or 14600k , both are great if you have set the default settings in bios without any extra tuning from mob side. Set power limit to unlimited and run a undervolt for best results.

    Set power settings to prefer performance and set power plan mode to balanced in windows 11( it has 2 power settings). This will net you with under 5watts idle power draw and under 10-15 using light tasks. When you game make the fps capped to your monitor resolution so that you dont waste extra power from gpu or cpu to run fps which is wasted outside monitor refresh rate.

    If you go Amd then, the powerdraw window is really small to begin with. The 7700x is around 100-130watts but the 7800x3d is under 80watts on load. But with this you won’t be able to use acceleration for certain workloads and idle to basic power will be higher vs intel’s. Mid to load is where Amd wins. For persons with cpu bound work or pure gaming Amd is the best right now.