Power Usage and Temperatures
With the new Zen 3 architecture, I was also curious about both power usage and temperatures. Both are important in smaller builds which I tend to prefer but even in big builds, we have reached the point where cooling performance plays a big role in overall performance. Over the last few generations, I’ve even had to move to doing all CPU testing with an AIO cooler because of the difference in performance it makes. Which I hate having to do because I feel like the standard in cooling should be a larger air cooler with an AIO being an optional upgrade.
The 5600X has a listed TDP of 65 watts. So to check out performance I did a few of our normal tests but I also did some other testing as well. I first took a look at overall power usage. For this, I tested the total system draw of our test bench at idle, while under load in wPrime, and again using the AIDA64 FPU stress test. The idle performance I saw was around 86 watts which isn’t great but is similar to what I saw with last generation's Ryzen CPUs. The wPrime test brought the total system up to 147 watts which isn’t bad actually but was a little higher than the 3600X. This is still 14 watts lower than the Intel 10600K and interestingly enough right with the 3700X which has performed right with the 5600X in non-IPC dependent tests. Using AIDA64’s FPU Stress Test the wattage was at 149 which is close to the wPrime result and here the 5600X did much better than the 3700X and even came in below the 3600X.
For thermal testing, I again ran the AIDA64 Stress Test on the FPU setting. I did this testing twice, once with the Noctua NH-U12S that I normally test with and again with the Corsair H100i. In the past, I only tested with the Noctua but given that I’ve gotten to the point that for performance you need the AIO did need to do both. The 5600X ran a lot cooler than I thought it would, running at only 70c with the air cooler, though with that same cooler I also saw lower performance across the board as well. The AIO gives a better idea with all of the CPUs being tested being able to boost clock freely. Here the 5600X reached 67c which remember with the air cooler it was at 70c, which further shows that it was boosting less with the air cooler. 67c was less than the i5-10600K and WELL below the 10900K which ran extremely hot.
