You often see TDP measurements on specification sheets, and it’s important info for people with desktop PCs. But TDP definitions are like opinions—everybody’s got one. Let’s cut through the confusion and talk about what a TDP number means for you.
What Does TDP Mean?
TDP is an acronym people use to refer to all of the following: Thermal Design Power, Thermal Design Point, and Thermal Design Parameter. Luckily, these all mean the same thing. The most common is Thermal Design Power, so that’s what we’ll use here.
Thermal Design Power is a measurement of the maximum amount of heat a CPU or GPU generates under an intense workload.
Components generate heat as a computer works, and the harder it works, the hotter it gets. It’s the same with your phone. Play a game like Brawl Stars for about 30 minutes, and you’ll notice the back of your phone gets hotter as the components use more electricity.
Some PC enthusiasts also refer to TDP as the maximum amount of power a component can use. And some companies, like NVIDIA, say it’s both:
“TDP is the maximum power that a subsystem is allowed to draw for a ‘real world’ application, and also the maximum amount of heat generated by the component that the cooling system can dissipate under real-world conditions.”
Most of the time, however, TDP means the amount of heat a component generates and a cooling system must remove. It’s expressed in watts, which is usually a measure of power (like electricity) but can also refer to heat.
TDP is often used as a stand-in for power draw because the two often end up being equivalent or close. That’s not always the case, however, which is why you shouldn’t use TDP to decide the size of your PC’s power supply.
TDPs for Processors
AMD vs. Intel
If TDP is based on the amount of heat generated during a heavy workload, who decides what that workload is, or at what clock speed the chip should be running? Since there’s no standardized method to rate TDP, chip manufacturers come up with their own methods. That means PC enthusiasts have vastly different opinions about TDPs for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) versus Intel CPUs.
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Source : What Is TDP for CPUs and GPUs?
