5G5 7400 not achieving 65W thermal design power
5G5 7400 not achieving 65W thermal design power
Recently assembled a makeshift build using inexpensive eBay components. Mobo is a Z270. Paired with an i5 7400 that isn't a K-series. Benchmarking with Cinebench R23 shows only 28W, far below the advertised 65W. Performance is also mediocre, with a max of 1800MHz. Compared to others who reach the 3000s, it seems the i5 7400 isn't getting boosted to the higher end. You have good cooling and temps are low in the 40s. Throttling didn<|pad|>'s help but didn't improve power delivery.
Confirmed performance at 3.3ghz works well. Cinebench shows full utilization across all cores, which suggests it should reach 65w. The 28w figure hints there might be a bottleneck elsewhere.
The 7700K definitely has more power, but it's still fine. They handle older titles well—such as GTA V—and most recent games work okay. However, they're nearing the end of their life span.
The 65w TDP is a guideline for the cooler, not a strict power limit. Intel sets these values based on certain die quality expectations. Some CPUs might use less power than 35w, while others could exceed it. For the 7400 series, they likely aimed for a balance, and some dies were chosen to meet performance goals or to restrict overclocking. Occasionally, demand pushes manufacturers to use better dies, which can lower power consumption.