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Intel Tells Motherboard Partners to Set “Intel Baseline” Power Limits as the Default

5/07/2024
Let’s dive into the details of Intel’s recent move regarding power limits for their CPUs. 🧐

Title: Intel Asks Board Partners to Set “Intel Baseline” Power Limits as the Default by 31st May

Intel has taken a significant step by requesting its board partners to provide customers with the “Intel Baseline” power limits. These BIOS settings, labeled as “Intel Default Settings,” impose specific power limits on Intel CPUs.

Here’s what you need to know:

  1. The Power Profiles: Baseline, Performance, and Extreme

    • Intel defines three different power profiles in official documentation: “Baseline,” “Performance,” and “Extreme.”
    • These profiles impact the boost power limits and other parameters for Intel processors.
    • Let’s break down the key differences:
      • Baseline Profile:
        • PL2 (boost power limit): 188W
        • PL1 (sustained power limit): 125W
        • PL4 (absolute max power limit): 293W
      • Performance Profile:
        • PL2: 253W
        • PL1: 125W
        • PL4: 380W
      • Extreme Profile:
        • PL2: 253W
        • PL1: 253W
        • PL4: 380W

  2. Why the Change?

    • Most mainstream workloads, including gaming and light content creation, don’t significantly suffer from the “Baseline” specs.
    • Despite potential performance decreases, Intel decided to move forward with these limits.
    • The move aims to address the instability issues seen in 13th and 14th Gen K-series CPUs.

  3. Board Partner Variability

    • Intel hasn’t explicitly clarified which power profile board partners should adhere to.
    • As a result, different manufacturers are implementing varying profiles:
      • Gigabyte’s latest firmware update uses the “Baseline” profile.
      • ASUS enforces the “Extreme” and “Performance” power limits.

  4. Arrow Lake-S and the Intel Baseline Profile

    • Intel’s Arrow Lake-S desktop processors perform well with the “Intel Default” profile.
    • The 15th Gen/Core Ultra series 2 CPUs will have reduced PL2 and PL4 limits.
    • Overall, Arrow Lake should deliver satisfying performance with the “Intel Default” settings.

In summary, Intel’s push for “Intel Baseline” power limits aims to stabilize their CPUs, but it remains to be seen how board partners will uniformly implement these changes.

Stay tuned for further developments! 💡🔍