CPU RENDERING BENCHMARKS
Cinebench is one of the most popular benchmarking tools for testing CPU hardware capabilities. Cinebench Release 20 was used to benchmark the same CPU with different cooling methods; such test loads at 100% capacity all of the CPU cores through a rendering task, therefore resulting in maximum power consumption at the specified core voltage. The monitoring software Core Temp was used to display the CPU core temperatures, load and power as the rendering task was performed, observing a significantly higher performance (both computational and thermal) by the EMCOOL system.
HARDWARE SPECIFICATIONS (SHARED)
- CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K
- GSKILL Trident Z 16 GB DDR4 RAM at 3600 MHz
- ASUS Z370-E ROG Motherboard
- 1 TB SAMSUNG 970 Pro NVMe m.2
- EVGA Supernova Platinum 1000 W Power Supply
COMMERCIAL CPU COOLING SYSTEM
- Best-in-class AIO 360 mm liquid cooler
EMCOOL CPU COOLING SYSTEM
- CPU microfluidic cooling loop with a 360 mm radiator and single d5 pump.
Both cooling systems were tested on the same hardware (specifically the same CPU), and the ambient temperature was maintained at 25 °C for all tests. Cinebench R20 was the only application running during the tests, as it can be observed at the beginning of all videos where the system is idling at less than 5% CPU load. As soon as the "RUN' button is pressed, all of the CPU cores promptly reach a 100% load condition and power consumption reaches its peak for the specified voltage and stable frequency. The videos below show the comparison between the different tested settings, please make sure to play on full screen and select the 4K resolution on the lower right corner for a clear visualization of numbers.
COMMERCIAL SYSTEM BENCHMARK @4.5 GHz - 1.27 VCORE -138 W MAX POWER.
The video above corresponds to the benchmark using the commercial liquid cooling system at a frequency of 4.5 GHz, obtained at a core voltage of 1.27 V and resulting in a 138 W maximum CPU power consumption (which corresponds to the heat transfer rate that needs to be removed from the silicon die). For these conditions, the average core temperature at 100% load was 88 °C, obtaining a score of 3,538 points and a total rendering time of 90 seconds. As it can observed in the video, the temperatures on the lower left corner change to yellow color; such coloring signals that the CPU is running close to the thermal throttling threshold, which may compromise both performance and component lifespan. The increased temperature at 100% load also leads to the so-called leakage current, which means an increased power consumption without performance gains and is one of the main limitations in microlectronics operation. In general, the lower the load temperature, the lower the leakage current.
EMCOOL SYSTEM BENCHMARK @5.1 GHz - 1.34 VCORE - 156 W MAX POWER (OPTIMUM).
The CPU cooling hardware was then replaced by the specified EMCOOL microfluidic cooling system, maintaining the laboratory-controlled ambient temperature at 25 °C. As expected, significantly higher cooling performance was obtained and the system was calibrated in order to find an optimum voltage for maximum overclock conditions. It is important to point out that due to the lower temperatures achieved by this cooling system, the leakage current was also reduced and therefore helped to gain significant frequency boosts at a slightly higher voltage for stability conditions that would not have been possible to achieve with the other cooling system, due to thermal throttling on this specific chip sample. Results from this iterative calibration resulted in a "sweet spot" of CPU core voltage at 1.34 V, obtaining a stable frequency of 5.1 GHz and maximum CPU power consumption of 156 W. Remarkably, the average core temperature at 100% load for these conditions was 58 °C, which is an outstanding decrease of 30 °C when compared to the commercial liquid cooler also considering that the power consumption is higher at 156 W due to the overclocking settings to reach 5.1 GHz. These CPU acceleration settings resulted in a rendering score of 3,963 points and a total rendering time of 77 seconds; thus proving how the EMCOOL cooling system can increase both computational and thermal performance, staying far from the thermal throttling threshold.
EMCOOL SYSTEM BENCHMARK @5.2 GHz - 1.45 VCORE - 202 W MAX POWER (EXTREME OVERVOLTAGE).
As aforementioned, after the optimum overclock conditions were found on this specific silicon chip. Further testing was done as there was still plenty of cooling capacity before reaching thermal throttling conditions above 85 °C. An extreme over-voltage was sustainably achieved at all-core voltage conditions of 1.45 V, which resulted in a significantly high power consumption of 202 W originating from a small 1.5 cm^2 silicon chip. Impressive results were obtained in terms of thermal performance, as the EMCOOL cooling system was capable to remove this high amount of power at an average core temperature of just 66°C, which is still nearly 20 °C below throttling limits. It is important to note that this extreme testing was only for the sake of thermal performance, as the 5.2 GHz frequency at such high voltage (even it is fully stable) wouldn't be recommended from a cost-effective point of view. The main objective of this final extreme-voltage test is to show the outstanding cooling performance of the EMCOOL microfluidic cooling system, from which many applications and virtually any type of microprocessor requiring acceleration and scaling can benefit.
SUMMARY OF RESULTS
As aforementioned, the EMCOOL system resulted in significantly lower temperatures than the commercial system, while also handling higher system frequencies and therefore higher power dissipation. The EMCOOL system allowed a sustained and reliable overclocking with the demanding benchmark, and the most relevant results are summarized below:
System
Commercial
EMCOOL
EMCOOL
Score
3,538
3,963
4,035
Rendering Time
90 s
77 s
76 s
CPU Clock
4.5 GHz
5.1 GHz
5.2 GHz
Average Core
Temperature
88°C
58°C
66°C
Core Voltage
1.27 V
CPU Power
138 W
Remarks
Maximum before throttling
1.34 V
156 W
Optimum combination, far from throttling
1.45 V
202 W
Extreme over-voltage, far from throttling
In summary, these numbers prove how the EMCOOL microfluidic cooling system is capable to handle higher CPU power consumption at higher system frequencies, and at the same time provide significantly lower temperatures far from throttling conditions. Higher computational and thermal performance than any other commercial cooling solution in the market can be achieved with EMCOOL-powered systems.
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