As the title states pending Rocket Lake-S Processors are likely to see the same PL2 states as the current generations. Comet Lake processors are allowed to run load clock frequency values considerably higher and longer than previous-gen 9th gen Coffee Lake.
What is a PL2 state? The TDP that is specified/listed is say 125 Watts for the more core partss, with 65 Watts for the more energy-friendly models. However, these values are based on what is called the P1 state. For a 9900K that value sits at 95W, with the Comet Lake S it's 125W, of course, it is two more cores so nobody will wonder about that. However, there is also a PL2 state where there's a higher power limit that can be applied for a relatively short time. If you allow me to take that 9900K again as an example, it had a PL2 allowance of 1.25 times PL1, = 119W, for a duration of 28 seconds.
Here's what's so different and where Intel yields most of its performance for Comet Lake. If I take the 10900K as an example, PL2 now is 2 times PL1, so 250W. That PL2 state is now also longer, 56 seconds. And therein it reaps the benefit of additional performance, substantially, but at the cost of energy and heat.
Cinebench benchmarks revealed that in R15 this processor achieved a single-core performance of 217 points, and a multi-core performance of 1912 points. This puts the i9-11900 on the same level as the i9-9900K , which also features 8 cores and 16 threads, but runs at a base and turbo frequency of 3.60 and 5.00 GHz, respectively.
Example of the current PL States:
| CPU | P1 State | PL2 State | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core i9 10900K | 125 Watts | 250 Watts | 56 seconds |
| Core i7 10700K | 125 Watts | 229 Watts | 56 seconds |
| Core i5 10500K | 125 Watts | 182 Watts | 56 seconds |
| Core i9 9900K | 95 Watts | 118 Watts | 28 seconds |
| Core i9-9900KS | 127 Watts | 159 Watts | 28 seconds |
Now back to Rocket lake. Recently a Core i9-11900 engineering sample benchmark leak got by Chinese media (Bilibili). The i9-11900 has a rated TDP of 65 W (its PL1), but the PL2 value is reportedly 224 W, and that is identical to the i9-10900.
Intel will showcase its 500-series motherboards at CES 2021. The company is also expected to announce its 11th Gen Core Rocket Lake-S processors, however, availability could be months later. In the screenshots below you can see a number of screenshots that have been posted, the tests had been performed on a B560 motherboard.
Rocket Lake-S Processors Likely Have Similar PL2 States as 10th Gen - Core i9-11900 CineBench Leaks
