Intel for the past 5 or so years has cranked up the power (and thus heat) to squeeze out as much performance out of their CPUs as possible. It's not uncommon to see something like the i9-14900K to use more than 300 Watts and require a ton of cooling.

I like both Intel and AMD, so I don't have an axe to grind towards Intel. But I agree with others that AMD is really the better choice right now for good performance while using less electricity and putting out a bit less heat.

Which AMD depends on your needs, wants, budget, etc. 7950X is good price, but like others said, 9950X will be released in July or so. I also like the Eco mode on those chips, so you can potentially lower the TDP from 170 Watts to 105 Watts or so. Maybe 65 Watts as well.

(Of course, TDP is a measurement of heat, not really power consumption, but it's still a good rough ballpark idea to go by.)

I like how the AMD Ryzen CPUs also use AVX-512 extensions. Intel has neutered their consumer desktop CPUs and reserved AVX-512 for their higher end Xeon CPUs. I know that Mapping Cancer Markers can take advantage of... AVX2? I still think it's a good idea to go with AMD for now.

Noctua announced their Generation 2 of their top of the line NH-D15 air cooler. Might be 3 degrees cooler or so. Deepcool is a newer company that competes very well with Noctua for air coolers, so I'm looking into them as well.

Not that I am against acronyms, but sometimes it is relevant to post what the acronym means. For us semi-informed individuals, it helps to enhance the meaning the poster intends.

TDP :Thermal Design Power: While TDP indicates the cooling requirements and indirectly relates to power consumption, it is not the same as actual power consumption. DP represents the maximum amount of heat that needs to be dissipated, but the actual power consumed by a component can vary depending on the workload and other factors.

PPT: Package Power Tracking. The PPT threshold is the allowed socket power consumption permitted across the voltage rails supplying the socket. Applications with high thread counts, and/or “heavy” threads, can encounter PPT limits that can be alleviated with a raised PPT limit.

PL1 and PL2: On modern Intel processors, PL1 defines the lower limit of power consumption (watts), which applies when the CPU is under low load. PL2 is the higher limit, which applies when the CPU is under heavy load and is temporarily boosted (overclocked).

Cheers

There is some very useful data about CPU power consumption and power efficiency on the GamersNexus YouTube channel and accompanying website. For example, here.
Cheers,
Mark

Bookmarked!

All of my 7950X(s) run at 95C regardless of ambient room temp. If the temp of the CPU drops below 95C the CPU increases the clock speed. If the temp increases above 95C the CPU decreases the clock to bring the temp down. As such, you power consumption and run times will vary a little over time. I'm waiting for the new 9950X to become available.