Intel neglected to share that its 28-core 5GHz CPU was overclocked

The presentation of Intel's upcoming 28-core processor kinda backfired as the chip giant presented things as much rosier than they actually were. Tom's Hardware wrote a post that blasts Intel for "accidental" omission of the fact that the demonstration featured an overclocked processor. Other than this, the site learned the test system featured a 1300W PSU, and that it used the industrial one-horsepower Hailea HC-1000B chiller, which can pull up to 1000W alone.

Total system power draw for the 5GHz demonstration could hit up to 2300W, which is one of the reasons why Intel couldn't replicate the performance demo privately. The area they were in didn't have enough dedicated circuits for the task.

Additionally, it also looks like Intel won't position this chip for the HEDT market. Even though the demonstration pitted it as an extreme gaming chip, it seems Intel plans to target the professional workstation market instead.

Here's Tom's Hardware's take on the matter:

Companies always try to game demonstrations to some extent. Overall, Intel's demo setup isn't too far out of bounds for what we expect from tech demonstrations. There's always some detail or information left out, or some type of system gaming to squeeze out the best performance under unrealistic scenarios. That applies to many companies the world over, and not "just" Intel.

According to Intel, the accidental omission of a single word skewed the entire demo. For now, the popular sentiment is that Intel is pushing the boundaries of the demo game a bit too far as it competes fiercely with the resurgent AMD. In this case, we think Intel's demo disaster was a bit of both.

Meanwhile, AMD showed off a 32-core Threadripper with nothing more than a beefy HSF.