That’s exactly. Intel quickly promotes faster models and news sites also like to report extremely depleted CPUs. It seems to me that this creates a somewhat distorted picture in some people, because it’s the same comments every time, which seem to hint that the upcoming comments are all going to be terrible power-hungry wizards. And I think this is only partially true.

I am in favor of economics, even with faster models (if I understand a little better that it consumes a little more, that’s how the market works, part of the market at any cost wants 5% faster). However, from my point of view, given all the reports that have been reported recently, the image has been slightly distorted. My point is that most users don’t actually run bulk jobs all the time on their CPU that often. A 12900k, for example, underperforms in terms of consumption and efficiency. However, if you seem to be using the idle and gaming consumption of the fastest Intel 12th Gen models (which I expect is typical for most users), it’s not that bad (certainly around 12600k). At least according to a Tweakers review Ratings: Intel 12th Gen ‘Alder Lake’ – Core i9 12900K, i7 12700K, i5 12600K

If you also adjust the voltage and maximum speed, you will undoubtedly be able to work a little more economically.

Of course there are use cases where this processor consumes (too much). That would be worse in the case of the 13th generation of Intel. But it is likely that efficiency will continue to rise a bit with this new generation. I’m willing to assume that Intel is aiming for this as well, because the CPU maker that can do it best will likely be the long-term winner.

But they are not far away. And 6 GHz headlines work well, as do reviews in which people are only 2% faster than competitors, although it costs an extra 100 watts. That’s how it is. If you are not, I will follow the weak advice.

Undoubtedly, there will come a time when the old x86 bakers (Intel and AMD) will take bigger strides, like Apple with the M1. Maybe it means something to how much you build a computer yourself (is memory etc also built into mobo?). Maybe anyone with more logical hardware and specific x86 architecture can comment on this.

But don’t lose all hope if you also want a more efficient PC, far from it.